The Last Match

As a small homage to the late Ernest Borgnine, here's a film that he's frankly not best remembered by, but one in which he still manages to give a good performance.
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An action film about American Football players as elite commandos taking on Henry Silva as the slimey warden of a hellish jail sounds like it has all the makings of a winner, but such a set-up may have been best left to someone more capable of making gold out of garbage; Fabrizio de Angelis' off-handed seriousness in delivering the story causes the film to miss its mark and instead turn it into a dawdling drama that uses words not actions to drill home a mind-numbing message of how great America is.

Oliver Tobias stars as Cliff Gaylor, an American Football player whose team has seen success thanks to the efforts of their coach Keith (Ernest Borgnine), his daughter Susan (Melissa Palmisano) and her boyfriend George (Robert Floyd) are holidaying in an unnamed Latino country when they decide to go home early, at the airport a shady individual sneaks a bag of cocaine into Susan's luggage, getting her strip-searched and arrested. Cliff kicks up a storm and attempts to get her out but everyone he turns to in the fictional country all tell him how bail is impossible and that their court system works extremely differently to America's (with lots of moments of how great America is in comparison being peppered in, the effect is weak when you consider this is an Italian film pandering to the US market; "it's important to know that in this country they play a very different kind of ball game").

Unexcitement follows with drama as invigorating as a talk with your banker, car "chases" and Henry Silva as warden Yashin being sadistic but not nearly as much as he could be; why aren't we getting a full-blown women-in-prison torture film in the middle of Strike Commando? Also, Sicilian and Spanish-born Silva doesn't nearly come off quite as convincingly as he could in his character's unspecified Latino nationality, especially when speaking clean cut English. Out of options, Cliff phones up his coach and teammates to help him break into the prison and rescue Susan, because when every lawyer in the country can't do anything for you it's time to do it unloading lead. The highlight finally arrives when the film delivers ass-kicking yankee rugby soldiers blasting through Silva's prison, enjoy the sight of guys in bright yellow armour successfully staging an entire attack as this is the only time this ever happens. The film misses every opportunity for some absurd moment of violence and action and there is only a small margin for error; simply have the action start from the get-go, however de Angelis must have seen a good opportunity for drama and political intrigue, but failed to incorporate any of that too.

This is unfortunately one you watch for the accident it is, the lack of energy in the film resonates throughout as its capable cast (other actors who do a good job on a meager script include Charles Napier and Martin Balsam) do little to bring life to their roles, with the exception of Borgnine, who manages to play with enthusiasm and makes his scenes at least somewhat worth watching. Even the music is dire, and as you may have surmised there is no conspiracy behind the character kicking off the events by putting the drugs in Susan's bag, though this could be regarded as a realistic detail, it still only sets the film up for a lot of hackneyed America worship. The Last Match is a solid indicator of when Italy's output of films of this caliber was greatly beginning to slide down with little being on offer even for purists.

Or maybe it all is just an allegrory for how America barges its way in everywhere, guns yeehawing and TV dinner sports being shoved in your face. Hahahahahahahaha.

- James

Review source: Japanese VHS
Title information

• Production company: Fulvia Film
• Year of release: 1990

Alternate titles

• Kunnian koitos <Show of Honour> (Finland)
• L'ultima partita <The Last Game> (Italy)
• 怒りのタッチダウン／人質奪回作戦 "Ikari no tatchidaun, hitojichi dakkai sakusen" <Touchdown of Anger: Hostage Rescue Operation>
• Son Maç <Last Match> (Turkey)