Review: White Fire
Blu-ray: White Fire (1984)
Allow me to begin by listing a few movies:
- Samurai Cop
- Shotgun
- Hard Ticket to Hawaii
- Gymkata
- The Man From Hong Kong
- Miami Connection
- Strike of the Panther
- Day of the Panther
If you are a fan of any of those cinematic masterpieces (yes, you read that correctly…masterpieces), then read no further and buy this IMMEDIATELY. You can thank me later.
For the poor people whose lives haven’t included any of the above movies yet, allow me to continue.
While young children, brother and sister Bo and Ingrid Donnelly (Robert Ginty and Belinda Mayne) witness the brutal murder of their mother. This coming moments after their father has also been murdered by being burned alive, in what appears to be an onscreen fire stunt that went horribly wrong…not the last time the health and safety precautions are brought into question while filming this!
Skip forward 20 years and the siblings are in Turkey and embroiled in a plan to steal diamonds from a mine Ingrid is working at.
When the plan goes wrong, they find themselves mixed up in a race to steal the infamous “White Fire”: a huge glowing diamond…that can burn you…and has the ability to explode.
White Fire is an 80’s cheesefest at its best, where the less you know about the plot before watching, the more your jaw will hit the floor as its crazy action jumps from one scene to the next.
So, as not to give too much away, I shall end this as I started with a few bullet points. Read no further if you’re already committed to buying from what I’ve said so far.
However, if you need a little extra push before getting out your credit card and purchasing it (preferably through the Amazon UK links here on our website), here are a few things that are waiting for you:
- An epic theme song that will stick in your head for a very long time.
- Explosions…lots of them…most of them looking very unsafe.
- Fire stunts. As above, not very safe…with 2 particular ones looking like the poor stuntman lost more than his eyebrows.
- A chainsaw fight…move over Leatherface, there’s a new guy in town.
- Over the top fight scenes and blood. Chopsocky action where it looks like the martial arts “masters” learned their moves that very morning.
- Lots of female nudity…usually (ok, ALWAYS) for no reason at all.
- Incest. Well, implied incest…but when Bo whips away a towel from Ingrid to reveal her stark naked body, then looks longingly at her and says “you know its a shame you’re my sister“, you kind of get the message that he wants to shag her.
- More incest. A girl who looks similar to Ingrid is made to have plastic surgery to look exactly like her (for reasons I shall not reveal, you’ll have to find that out). There is then a scene of Bo and (fake) Ingrid having passionate sex…after he’s played with her boobs for a while.
- Fred Williamson. Do I need to say anything else about “The Hammer”? Except maybe listen to our interview show with him.
I’m amazed that White Fire has passed me by until now, but thanks to this fantastic Blu-ray release from Arrow Films (complete with their usual selection of entertaining special features), I can now add it to that wonderful list of movies that always entertain me.
This is one movie that I’d have loved to have done a commentary track for!
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
- Original Mono audio – Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Feature length audio commentary by critic Kat Ellinger
- Surviving The Fire: a brand new interview with writer-director Jean-Marie Pallardy
- Enter The Hammer: a brand new interview with actor Fred Williamson
- Diamond Cutter: a brand new interview with editor Bruno Zincone
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by film historian and author Julian Grainger.
Review by Dave from a disc kindly supplied by Arrow Films via Fetch Publicity.
White Fire is released on 25th May 2020.
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