This is not a remake of Enzo Castellari’s like-titled 1983 cult favorite, but is a bit of a rip-off, just as Castellari ripped off Mad Max. In fact, half the recent remakes and reboots bear less similarity to their alleged source material than this Wasteland does to Castellari’s, but be that as it may. This story will be told by a mysterious bard with Invisible Man bandages, who must sing for his water. Except we never hear him sing, just that initial strum of his lute, signaling more flashbacks.
John was once part of the Grain People until the City destroyed his independent agrarian clan. Their next target appears to be the “Soaked,” who dress like masked horror movie slashers, but ironically don’t seem to be that bad. In fact, “Outlander” wants to frame them for the recent assassination of the recently deceased Lord, even though it was John’s sister Maria, whom the nasty Captain of the City’s security forces long carried a torch for. Outlander also aspires to usurp the City Lordship from the entitled heir.
Clear enough so far? If so, that makes one of us. Even though Warriors of the Wasteland runs a little over two hours in its North American cut, its various clan rivalries remain largely baffling. Obviously, John is supposed to be a bit of a Sanjuro-like Ronin, but he is also allegedly virtuous enough for his clan’s Excalibur-esque sword to “chose” him.
The framing scenes with the Bard are arguably the most successful, even though any idiot could guess who is under the bandages. Supposedly, Strahinja Madzarevic’s screenplay incorporates Western Balkan folklore, but if so, it shares a lot of common denominator similarities with Samurai chanbara tropes and other universally recurring archetypes. Indeed, perhaps most frustratingly, Ceranic strives for an epic vibe rather than embrace the film’s inherently exploitative DNA. You can practically hear the wisecracking riffs waiting to be super-imposed over the ponderous score.
Warriors of the Wasteland might have been ambitious by the standards of the Serbian film industry, but genre fans will still find it overly familiar. Even amongst post-apocalyptic exploitation movies, there are better options available. Not sufficiently successful to recommend, Warriors of the Wasteland releases tomorrow (7/7) on VOD.
