DUNE WARRIORS (1991)

 






PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*


DUNE WARRIORS was Cirio Santiago's next trip to the post-apoc well after 1988's THE SISTERHOOD, and even with the participation of headliner David Carradine, it's just the same dull mishmash of guns-and-bombs setups. The most interesting point of comparison is that, whereas SISTERHOOD had just one central hero given an unimpressive name, that of "Vera," DUNE saddles both heroes and villains with utterly underwhelming cognomens like "Michael" (Carradine), "William" (main villain Luke Askew), and "Jason" (the villain's main lieutenant). Really, how seriously can a viewer take a line like, "We must guard against the forces of William?"

So you've seen it all before. Isolated post-apoc community has one thing going for it, an ample supply of well-water. Commander William and his cadre of armed goons decide to make the village their base of operations-- a very slight change-up of the usual threat in the usual MAGNIFICENT SEVEN rip-off. A courageous young woman (Jillian McWhirter) goes looking for hired guns, but she can only find five this time out. Most of them agree to defend the village because they'll be paid in the commodity of water, but Michael and Miranda (Maria Isabela Lopez, the movie's concession to girl power) join because of old grudges against William's depredations.

The fight-choreography here is as boring as the attack-scenes with armed vehicles and their rocket-launchers. Carradine is no better than anyone else in the listless hand-to-hand fights, but I did feel he tried to bring a little conviction to the elderly but wistful Michael-- more than he usually does when paying the bills with post-nuclear nonsense. If one just wants to see every post-apoc shocker out there, as I seem to be doing, then DUNE is at least not the worst, but it's largely for David Carradine completists.


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