White Fire

White Fire (Vivre Pour Survivre) (1984)

Runtime: 102 minutes

Directed by: Jean-Marie Pallardy

Starring: Robert Ginty, Belinda Mayne, Fred Williamson, Gordon Mitchell, Mirella Banti

From: Several European companies

Perhaps the leading male character shouldn't fall in love with someone that looks quite a bit like his sister in a twisted (and obvious) riff on Vertigo!

Ooh boy, what a movie I have to discuss here; the high rating should only be compared to something along the lines of Andy Sidaris at this best or an accidental gem like Raw Force. Somewhere, I heard about this in passing a few yeas ago; that's back when it was relatively obscure, before Arrow did a restoration and released this tire fire. After that, I heard comparisons with the like of Miami Connection & Samurai Cop... this captured my attention. Finally, this was given a shot last night and it does deserve its WTF reputation, although part of this is for an incredibly sleazy reason found nowhere near Miami Connection or Samurai Cop. Perhaps not a surprise from a French softcore director who once did something known in some circles as EROTIC DIARY OF A LUMBERJACK... none of that was fiction created by me for laffs.

The titular White Fire (pro tip: never do a drinking game based off of usage of this phrase... you'd be deceased) is a giant radioactive diamond which is discovered in Turkey, near “Istambul” (as a title card stated; that was an old name for Istanbul which I don't think has been used for hundreds of years!). A brother and sister duo wish to pilfer this diamond although the whole heist aspect is incredibly bungled-which leads to quite the wet fart ending-and much of this is rather inept. The action scenes are not staged well, even if there are a few bits that become quite graphic out of nowhere and one scene involves a chainsaw. Some of the “acting” smells like last week's garbage. The plot: a total mess. To think that it features some European genre actors I recognized-such as Dolph Lundgren doppelganger Gordon Mitchell-but the biggest names are Robert Ginty and “not showing up for almost an hour” Fred Williamson.

One of the more baffling aspects is the year this is set in. An opening shows the brother and sister duo that is our leads as children, and is “20 years ago.” Judging by how the diamond mine is totally futuristic (at least in a 1960's version of the future), I can only assume the rest of the film is set in 2004. That is despite everything else screaming 1984, from the fashion and vehicles to the soundtrack/score, which was filled with synth and has two songs from some random group known as Limelight (they are named because both tunes are on YouTube) which is the title song and much to my delight, an 80's power ballad. The band's sound: think an unholy blend of Queen, ELO and the Scorpions. Both tunes tickled me pink. It wasn't until reading another review that I realized the Jon Lord credited for the score was the same dude who was the longtime keyboardist for Deep Purple and was in Whitesnake when Purple folded as an act for 8 years. For the old Brits out there, the power ballad also featured singing from Vicky Brown, the daughter of entertainer Joe Brown.

Less amusing and more horrifying than anything else: the most infamous aspect of the movie... incest! I am not talking about just incestuous overtones here. It takes about a half hour before you realize that our lead male seemingly has a creepy obsession w/ little sister. I mean, after that you see his sibling fully nude-in front of big brother-and he remarks, “A pity you're my sister”... yes, he was turned on by her! It gets FAR worse from there and it involves another woman who looks quite a bit like Ginty's sister; What results from there is totally bonkers and is more than just him falling in love with her. It was beyond the pale even compared to some of the ickier European genre pictures I've viewed before.

White Fire deserves its reputation that has risen ever since Arrow restored the print to a high standard. Whether those of the vintage that dig the cheesy no-budget 80's B-action movies will love this will naturally depend on how they feel about the whole “brother has the hots for his sister” angle. Me: more perplexed and it was gross, but offended... no.