I had read about ‘Terminal Island’ many years ago in one of those random ‘guide to cult cinema’ books, back when they were popular. At the time, I remember being kind of intreagued on the premise, and then I went and looked online and found that the DVD was going for an astronimical price and was out of print, and that VHS copies were somewhat scarce…
So…I waited. And like the fairy godmother in knee high boots i’d always wanted, Vinegar Syndrome randomly decided to spit this one out, not just on Bluray, but 4k as well! Naturally I nabbed it, and having watched it for the first time tonight, Im actually a little dissapointed I waited this long!
The plot is remeniscent of a kind of ‘proto’ “Battle Royale” it’s the not too distance future (for some reason I want to say 1978, with the film being released in 1977) and after several legal challenges the supreme court rule that the death penalty is actually against the constitution (oh how times have changed!) That does rather leave a problem though of what to do with the inmates that were lined up to be executed…And the government come through with a solid enough plan. Anyone convicted of Murder and sentenced to death will instead be transferred to ‘Terminal Island’, a small abandoned Island off the California coast where theres only one safe way in or out, and thats a very narrow corridor in the sea via sturdy boat.
The idea was simple, but devisive. Take these murderers, dump them on the island with no chance of rescue, drop food and water supplies off at random locations across the coast once a week and let the murderers sort themselves out. The idea was that ‘Terminal Island’ was in some ways worse than a death sentence, because the BEST you could hope for survival wise was to live off the land and avoid being murdered until death by natural causes.
But something interesting happened on that Island once it all got underway. An initial drop of 75 inmates whittled themselves down to the 60s on landing, but then the residents split off into various factions. These factions fought against each other and attempted to carve up the landscape in various turf wars. And by the time we join the film theres really only two rival factions left. a group of around 40 men led by the frankly abhorrent Bobby and AJ, who believe that showing strength, muscle and force is the way to lead and keep the men in line. And a ragtag group of around 10 men who are essentially Nomads made up of various faction splits, who saw what Bobby was founding and decided they wanted no part of it.
There are initially 3 women on the island Joy, Bunny and Lee. Bobbys gang have rounded them up however and essentially keep them penned in, using them for forced domestic work, help in toiling on the land and at night, as the gangs own personal brothel.
Things get shaken up however, when a 4th woman joins the island by the name of Carmen, she takes NO nonsense and tries to put Bobby in his place, only to find that he’s got the island wrapped up pretty tight. In fact, its only when the girls are sent to the river to wash the gangs clothes that they find themselves captured by the rival gang…And the tales Bobby has spun about how the other faction are made up of losers, outcasts, and folks worse than Bobbys lot turn out to be INCREDIBLY downplayed, instead this faction are much more considered in their approach. They have no overall leader, but move based on the best ideas and they live off the land to help keep them going…unfortunately however, the land is running out.
Once captured, Carmen and the girls think they’re done for, but it turns out quite quickly that, as long as they’re willing to contribute to the rival gang in a way more or less equal to the men, they can move freely within the movement. Which sets Carmen and the girls on a plan to dethrone Bobby, dismantle his movement and give the Nomads a land of their own to finally settle and begin to change ‘Terminal Island’ for the better.
And, Colour me genuinely surprised by this one. I was expecting a somewhat schlocky B-movie with boobs, guns and exploitation. But what this actually is is a more than decently paced action thriller that feels a bit like ‘First Blood’, ‘The Warriors’ and ‘Battle Royale’ were all mixed together in a blender.
The script is simplistic, but effective. It maybe spends just a tiny bit too long establishing the rules of ‘Terminal Island’ in the opening of the film, but once thats out of the way, the film moves at a real clip, barely stopping for breath, theres never more than 3 minutes where things quieten down before we’re back in the action, back on the move and back in the throngs of the story.
We have a kind of multi thread narrative here, which is nice. Not only dealing with the core plot of Bobby and his bad guy team ruling over the island and the good guys attempt to overthrow him. But the girls all have distinct and well developed complex characters, which nicely develop across the runtime, as they grow to become independent, learn to use their minds to their fullest ability and eventually even begin to find love within the Nomads.
This all plays out really nicely with subtle character shifts and transitions across the runtime that make the characters feel like they’ve earned the development they’ve worked for. Helped by some rock solid dialogue that really feels inkeeping with the tone of this film and delivers some rock solid one liners.
The act structuring is pretty solid, barring an ever so slightly sluggish open, we’re thrust into the action with all three acts occupying (roughly) 30 minutes a piece, I think the second and third act are slightly shorter than the first. But they all feel about right in terms of length and the transitions between those acts are nice and smooth. With only one brief hiccup that I picked up on in the second act, where the gang all agree that taking out Bobbys team is what they have to do…and then they all mess about for a bit before AGAIN coming to the conclusion that Bobbys team needs to be taken out. I assume the studio needed the film to be about 5-10 minutes longer, so they just inserted a bunch of footage to pad that bit out…Not that its THAT noticable even. I just found it a bit odd that they kept delaying the inevitable ‘Battle to the death’ 3rd act finale, without much reason to.
Tonally this things wonderful, its got a wonderful bleakness about it, but like ‘The Warriors’ its a bleakness that comes with a bit of a dirty smirk as it knows what its trying to do, and feels comfortable enough in its skin that it can have a bit of fun with things.
The direction feels sturdy, Stephanie Rothman here captures a gorgeous island location and its clear she knows exactly how she wants to realise this vision. with the crew working in lock step. I feel theres something quite decent here. I dont think i’d go as far as to say ‘breathtaking’ But I watched the 4k version of this tonight and was genuinely swept away by just how much attention to detail went into this production to try and bring to life the harsh realities of Island living.
Stephanie was keen to avoid making an exploitation film allegedly. Going so far as to remove large chunks of the more graphic, sexual and exploitational moments from the film to really try to shape it away from just being the kind of fodder that’d get dumped in drive in’s in the early 70s…And I think she does succeed in really raising this piece above the drech into something altogether much more classier.
Direction of the cast too is superb, with some above average fight choreography, the cast were seemingly well treated, given a decent walkthrough of how the scenes should play out, but were also seemingly given enough free reign to work with the locations and any props to, largely positive, results. The action scenes are tight, gripping and feel a lot bigger budgeted than they probably were while the more tender moments arnt afraid to slow the film down a bit and let the characters slow cook for a bit, helping to further still invest the audience in whats going on. (Stephanies mentor was Roger Corman…So I can totally see how this turned out the way it did)
The cine and editing are superb, the rich and colourful woodlands and island shores are constantly and gorgeously realised throughout, the compositions are consistent and solid, with decent use of depth of field throughout, intigrating the Blues of the ocean and the inmates uniforms with the greens, browns and sunset oranges of island life. All of this is tied together excellently by a sturdy edit that rarely if ever misses a beat on cuts, utilises a decent amount of B-roll and helps keep an already tight script in decent pace.
Performance wise? For my money the big hitters for me in this are likely Don Marshall and Sean Kenny as ‘AJ’ and ‘Bobby’ they both play wonderfully demented lead villains who genuinely create a sense of hopelessness and power here that I found wonderfully engrossing, they’re the perfect kind of baddy for this movie and both of them play their roles at contrast with each other, which I thought made things even better still!
Ena Hartman as Carmen is fine enough, But I do feel that, while her performance is really solid, she does find herself a bit out manouvered by the 2nd act…Given she’s our main character, the one the audience is supposed to hook onto for the ride. By the third act its Phyllis Davis, Marta Kristen, Barbara Leigh and Tom Sellick as ‘Joy’, ‘Lee’, ‘Bunny’ and ‘Milford’ who end up capturing the production, giving us varied and wonderful performances with complexity and richness that leave Hartman struggling to position herself as a figure we’re really invested in by the end. Which is a real shame.
And as for the soundtrack? GOLD. pure GOLD. its largely orchestral, occasionally with some singing added in. Its the perfect tone and vibe for a film like this, its used somewhat sparingly, allowing the island diageticisms to really help bring the audience more into the world of isolation ‘Terminal Island’ creates. and when those music pieces DO land, its welcome and amps up whatever actions on scene. It really helps tie all these elements together into one tasty little package.
‘Terminal Island’ isnt a film without faults, there are some dated moments here which add to the ‘exploitation’ edge of it, but dont work in the films interest. However, mercifully these moments are few and far between and beyond that, we have a VERY impressive movie given the budgetary limitations with deep and interesting characters, a (for the time) fairly unique plot, rock solid cine, direction and editing. Lively and invested performances and an amazing score. If you like your action thrillers, I HIGHLY recommend you make a date with this one as soon as you can, I had a blast with it, and im sure you will too!
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/terminal-island/
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