BRUTE CORPS (1971)
Label: Dark Force Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 87 Minutes 41 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: HDR10 2160p 4K Ultra HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Jerry Jameson
Cast: Paul Carr, Joseph Kaufman, Alex Rocco, Jennifer Billinglsy
Brute Corpse (1971) is directed by Jerry Jameson (The Bat People), a low budget exploitation cheapie wherein a hitchhiking draft dodger named Kevin (Joseph Kaufmann, (Private Duty Nurses) is thumbing his way through Mexico when he teams up with free-spirited hippie hitcher named Terry (Jennifer Billingsley (Lady In A Cage). They have the bad luck of crossing paths with a hardened group of America mercenaries travelling through Mexico on their way to a job in Central America. The soldiers-for-hire calls themselves Burckhardt's Bastards, and are lead by Colonel Burckhardt (Charles Macaulay, Three O'clock High, Blacula), who lets his cadre of savage and sadistic trained killers do whatever they want, to whomever they want. At the start of the film they encounter a gang of rowdy motorcyclists tuffs at a roadside gas station, when the gang pester the soldier Quin (Roy Jenson, Chinatown) he responds by cold-bloodedly blowing them away with a shotgun. They next stop off in a small Mexican village where the most demented among them, Wicks (Alex Rocco, Motorpsycho) attempts to purchase the daughter of the local barkeeper, the scoundrel getting rather indignant when the protective father refuses, his refusal nearly costing him his life. The other mercs include the bearded MacFarlane (Michael Pataki, Graduation Day), black soldier Hill (Felton Perry, RoboCop Trilogy), Ballard (Parker West, Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural), and the second in command, Ross (Paul Carr, Ben), who is the only one who is turned off by the group's violence and lawlessness, his growing conscience slowly eroding his loyalties to Col. Burckhardt and putting him at odd with his fellow mercs.
When the mercs encounter the hitchhiking duo they invite them into their makeshift encampment inside a rock quarry and initially play nice, offering them food and conversation, before a bit of rough housing and vulgar flirtation evolves into the men attacking and tying up Kevin, with the idea of raping Terri. As the men get increasingly horny and argue over who gets first dibs on the girl. As temperatures rise and the Col. decides that the men will have to fight it out amongst to see who gets to rape her first, leading to some brutal in-fighting. While the savage mercs are distracted Kevin manages to slip away and sneak into the nearby town where the Sheriff Alvarez (Joseph Bernard, The Baby) and the old men who populate the town turn out to be cowards who don't want to get involved. With few options left the draft-dodger takes matters into his own hands, facing off against the elite killing squad, with the help of a sympathetic Ross, who can no longer quietly stand by and do nothing.
The cast of this cheap vetsploitation flick is well above the film's weight class, the barebones set-up of of it are pretty interesting but it does sort of fritter away the more exploitative and sharper edged exploitation elements. Alex Rocco as the super-sleazy mercenary is still a good time though, the hitchhiking hippie duo have some good chemistry, and I love the turn of events at the end. Sure, its not gonna top anyone's list of best exploitation films ever made, but a good time is a good time, and with a cast like this, you know it's gonna get the job done, and it does, so I still give this early 70's slice of drive-in sleaze a recommend.
Audio/Video: Brute Corps was previously issued by Code red back in 2016 sourced from the interpositive, and while I never saw that release I was fairly impressed with it in 4K, sourced from what is advertised as a new 4K restoration from original 35m interpositive, presented in 2160p UHD, framed in 1.85:1 widescreen, with HDR WGC color-grading. The source looks terrific, grain is well-managed if a bit course, it's not as refined as if it would have been sourced from the OCN, but looking terrific, nonetheless. The image is stable and offers plenty of sweaty detail in the close-ups of faces and clothing, the HDR color grade us used tastefully, nothing egregiously hot or hyper-vivid, but the greenery of forests, the merc's uniforms and earthy dirt and grime look natural and nicely suffuse, clothing worn by our hitchhikers, the dude's red button-up and her yellow fringe, cropped halter top also look quite good, making the Michael D. Margulies (The Baby, Crazy Mary Dirty Larry) raw cinematography look pretty good. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles, the track is in solid shape, clean and largely free of hiss, dialogue is prioritized nicely. The score by Jack Walker is pretty decent, if ill-suited for this, it didn;t feel like an exploitation score, it was a little too cool for what this is supposed to be.
No new extras for this release, but Dark Force Entertainment do carry over most of the extras that were present on the previous Code red DVD and Blu-ray releases. We start off with Audio Commentary with Writer/Producer Michael Kars who gives a solid account of the making of the film, how it started out as a knock-off of the biker film The Rebel Rousers (1970), location scouting, casting, production issues and plenty more. We also get a 33-min Archival On-Camera Interview with Co-Stars Felton Perry and Parker West, interviewed separately. Felton perry recalls memories of being cast and the shoot, remembering co-star Paul Karr as passionate actor, and how Michael Pataki was upbeat and fun, Charles Macaulay had a way of speaking that was commanding. He also relates a funny story of the older Roy Jenson was quite fit and put him to shame during a friendly jog, which inspired him to get back into shape. He says that Paker West was very cool, they a good relationship on-set, joking around, and getting into their fight sequences. He also remembers Jennifer Billingsley and director Jerry Jameson, before offering a bit of career retrospective, including his memories of shooting Trouble Man (1970), Magnum Force (1973) as Eastwood's doomed partner, doing nudity in Night Call Nurses (1972), Walking Tall (1977) with Jo Don Baker, Sudden Death (1977), and his recurring role in the Robocop flicks. Parker West gets into how he landed the role, originally going for the lead role but at that time he did not want to do nudity, the origin of the director's nickname of "Two-shot" Jameson nickname, and memories of Paul Carr. He also talks about how Charles Macaulay was authoritative, becoming buddies with Perry on set, and memories of Jenson, Rocco, Kaufman, Billingsley, while noting that he thought of Michael Pataki as a "poor man's Richard Burton", and how in a strange turn of events Pataki was dating the sister of a girl he had previously dated. He also speaks of his way of creating his own character, playing him as Southern, the backstory he came up with for the character, as well as almost dying on the set during the filming of one of the troop carrier scenes when a camera came flying at them. He also brings up memories of shooting Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural, his TV and theater work, as well as his improv comedy and stand-up career, and noting the last movie he went out for was Benjamin Buttons, auditioning for the role of Brad Pitt's older body double. Not carried over from previous release are a Trailer, TV Spot, and the 'Katarina's Bucketlist Mode' introduction featuring hostess Katarina Leigh Waters that accompanied the Code Red Blu-ray.
The single-disc release arrives in a black keepcase with a single sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original illustrated movie poster, which is also replicated in the disc itself. The back of the wrap features a separate illustrated movie poster artwork.
Special Features:
- Brand new 4K restoration anamorphic widescreen 16x9 master from original 35m IP
- Archival Audio Commentary with Writer/Producer Michael Kars
- Archival On-Camera Interview with Co-Stars Felton Perry and Parker West (31:33)
Buy it!
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