River of Death
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | River of Death |
| Original title | River of Death |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1989 |
| length | 107 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Steve Carver |
| script |
Andrew Deutsch , Edward Simpson |
| production |
Avi Lerner , Harry Alan Towers |
| music | Sasha Matson |
| camera | Avraham Karpick |
| cut | Ken Bornstein |
| occupation | |
| |
River of Death (Original title: River of Death ) is an American film directed by Steve Carver from 1989 . It is based on the novel of the same name by Alistair MacLean .
action
The concentration camp doctor Dr. During the Second World War, Wolfgang Manteuffel carried out unauthorized human experiments to create a new “master race” with the help of an artificial virus. He is covered by his superior Heinrich Spaatz. When Captain Schuster learns of Manteuffel's unauthorized experiments, he threatens to indict him in court-martial with regard to the impending defeat of Germany, whereupon Manteuffel shoots the captain, whose daughter is also hiding illegally in the room. When the German defeat is finally sealed, Manteuffel shoots Spaatz in the leg and takes a plane to South America .
Twenty years later, the adventurer John Hamilton is hired by a doctor and his daughter Anna to lead them to a tribe of locals in the jungle where an epidemic is said to have broken out. Under the leadership of Hamilton, it is possible to find the camp of the Indians that the doctor suspects to be the origin of the epidemic. However, the inhabitants of the village are hostile to the intruders; the doctor is murdered and Anna kidnapped, only Hamilton can save himself back to civilization.
Hamilton asks police chief Colonel Ricardo Diaz for help, but he advises against a return trip to the native village, dismisses his story as a fairy tale and tells him that the police will not help him. Hamilton then recruited helpers for a rescue mission. Among them are two Israeli Nazi hunters as well as Heinrich Spaatz, who operates under the false name Smith , who wants to take revenge on Manteuffel and suspects him to be in this very village. He is also accompanied by Spaatz's lover Maria and the ethnographer Serrano recommended by Colonel Diaz .
After Hamilton and his helpers have arrived in the jungle, they learn that Serrano is working as a spy for Colonel Diaz and, with the help of a tracking device , constantly informs the Colonel who is following the group about the current position of the squad. Although the group succeeds in destroying the tracking device, Diaz continues to follow Hamilton's trail until he can finally locate it shortly before their destination. It turns out that the Colonel is in close contact with the mysterious city, whereupon Nazis emerge from the surrounding bushes and take the group, which has meanwhile been greatly decimated, as prisoners into the village, where they take Dr. Manteuffel are to be demonstrated.
Hamilton and his two remaining companions Spaatz and Maria discover that the village is largely inhabited by Nazis. The prisoners are taken to an old temple that turns out to be Manteuffel's secret laboratory. On the order of the doctor, John Hamilton is locked in an area separated from the village, in which there are many terminally ill Indians, including Anna, who is also suffering from the symptoms of the virus created by Manteuffel in an advanced stage.
Hamilton succeeds in freeing himself from quarantine with the help of the Indian nurse , but this is noticed by the guards and culminates in a large shootout, in which the Indians also take part, to break the Nazi regime and thus also the human experiments in their village To put an end to it. Meanwhile, Manteuffel, Spaatz and Maria are still in the secret laboratory and the still covert Spaatz now reveals his true identity to Manteuffel and then shoots him in the right leg. Hamilton is able to get back into Manteuffel's laboratory through a secret passage and tries to intervene in the ongoing battle between Manteuffel and Spaatz and to come under the control of Manteuffel's pistol, whereupon Maria also reveals her identity and turns out to be the daughter of Captain Schuster, Manteuffel and Have shot Spaatz. The moment Maria fires a shot at the two old Nazis from her flare pistol, Manteuffel also shoots Maria from the pistol that has since been recovered. Hamilton has to watch as all three fall to the ground, hit.
In the end, Hamilton, the only survivor of the expedition, is brought out of the village by the Indians on a pirogue .
criticism
The lexicon of international films ruled that "the story, which could well have sprung from a comic book [...] laughably misuses contemporary history for cheap action" .
Furthermore, the big gaps in logic, such as the in many cases unexplained whereabouts of characters and incoherent dialogues, as well as the poor direction and the low-tension, lengthy story are criticized.
Web links
- River of Death - River of horror in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- Jump up ↑ River of Death. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Was everything better before? ( Memento of the original from May 4, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
