I remember this having a killer tie-in paperback novel that had outstanding artwork. I got rid of the Martin Cruz Smith (Gorky Park) tome before reading it. I have since reacquired it (an old beaten, second hand paperback), with different and not nearly as cool art. But the graphics are actually commensurate with its original mass market release as opposed to the film tie-in cover which matched the movie's poster.
Anyhoo, Nightwing aired on Spectrum a plethora of times, has Lots of Native Americans in it, but unfortunately, they didn’t bother to cast actual Native Americans in the two key Native American lead roles. They were given to Nick Mancuso and Steven Macht. Nothing against those guys, they're terrific actors, but they are not Indians.
British legend David Warner is an absolute blast here playing it straight as a scientific Van Helsing, even though this is a bunch of malarkey.
Other faces abound that showed up in late 70s and early 80s films, including Kathryn Harrold. It is actually a really good story marred by poor special effects. As far as the Indian mysticism and mythology goes, I don’t know how much of it is realistic in any way, but the film is definitely worth a watch.
Nightwing was a product of its time; it could’ve been worse considering it was made in 1979. It holds up much better than I expected it to upon a recent rediscovery.
There is an exceedingly chilling scene where the Mancuso character finds that all the priests from his tribe have died in a hut set underground. It’s very creepy.
Back in the Spectrum days, I often confused it with another flick running on the pay-tv channel called Maniac. No, no, no. Not the infamous film directed by William Lustig with the gruesome Tom Savini effects. I've still not gotten around to that one yet. I might have some residual trauma from the big box VHS art threatening me from the shelves of Kenosha's 4-star video, that is responsible for that.
This Maniac (also known as The Ransom and Assault in Paradise) involved a psycho dressed in traditional Native American garb, running around a resort town killing folks, asking for funds in order to be stopped. Oliver Reed (great choice, there) is brought in to stop them. It also starred Deborah Raffin, Stuart Whitman, and James Mitchum. It seems to be quite lost to time, at this point. Although it can be found on Tubi.
Both films bring in levels of intrigue and the politics of wretched unfairness to the indigenous peoples to the scripts. Though The Ransom leans more heavily into extremist violence, while Nightwing goes with mysticism and ancient rites.
An interesting aside, the scores are compelling. In Nightwing, Henry Mancini (The Pink Panther) blends suspense with compelling Native American themes. Don Ellis does bring some similarities, but also feeds Starsky & Hutch styled action faire with waka-jawaka 70's guitar. Sorry Mr. Ellis, Mancini wins the day. Your film only came about 2 years before Mancini's, so era is no excuse.
Thanks to Spectrum, these films still exist firmly in my memory banks.
No comments:
Post a Comment