Combat Shock (1986)
Review by the Fiend of Grue
Combat Shock begins with showing Frankie (Rick Giovinazzo) having a nightmarish flashback to the days of the Vietnam war as he runs through endless swamps and fields, trying to avoid capture of the pursuing Vietnamese soldiers. Through the mud, muck and the strewn about carnage of severed body parts, the enemy eventually catches up to Frankie and beat him to a pulp with sticks and take him hostage.
Once Frankie finally wakes up from the flashback, you quickly realize that his current situation isn’t a whole lot better as his screaming, mutant baby wails away, competing for an audience over its complaining mother who verbally bashes Frankie over and over for the current situation they are in. Frankie has no job and can’t find one, they have no food and their apartment is a ramshackle dump, nestled amongst train tracks and crumbling buildings in New York during the Reagan era of America. Not knowing what to do, Frankie leaves after reading an eviction notice from the landlord and hits the streets looking for anything to try and help his family, all the while having no aim or purpose and only finds company with his even worse off homeless, junkie friends.
Things go from bad to worse as Frankie is told by an employment agency that they can’t find a job for him because he doesn’t have any skills and then, a group of thugs that Frankie owes money to beats him down and warns him that if he can’t come up with the money that he owes them by the next day, his wife and kid will be the ones that pay!
Paranoia and anger sets in and Frankie’s mental state quickly deteriorates into spiraling madness as his past and present clash together into one of the most shocking and disturbing climaxes ever put to film.
To say that Combat Shock packs a punch would be a sore understatement by any standards. I had heard about this movie for awhile now but had never been able to track it down until Troma so graciously sent the new 2 disc “Tromasterpiece” DVD to the Fatally-yours.com office and I must say, it was well worth the wait because I would shamelessly and effortlessly put this movie on the same shelf as Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Taxi Driver and other greats in that realm. It could be seen almost as a knockoff of Taxi Driver to some but to say that and believe it would be wrong because as Jim Van Bebber (director of Deadbeat By Dawn and The Manson Family) states in the second disc’s supplemental material, “the character of Travis Bickle had it all, really: he had a nice apartment (compared to Frankie), he had a job, food, … he even dated”. Frankie on the other hand REALLY had a reason to be pissed! He gave his life for a country that has betrayed his loyalty and has left him to be at no higher of a position in society than a sewer rat!
The version of the film that I watched was American Nightmare (the original cut, Combat Shock is also included on this DVD), which was the original title of the film and was taken from the original 16MM print that up until this point has only been shown at a very select amount of European film festivals upon its initial release. Not only that, but this version was eight minutes longer than the theatrical cut and all of the original shots, special effects and music were left intact.
Director Buddy Giovinazzo unrelentingly captures a side of America that I’m sure the government wishes you would rather not see. The grit, grim and harrowing realism of this movie seems to seep from your television as you get deeper into it and Rick Giovinazzo – who is Buddy’s brother and had no previous or prior acting experience – does a superb job at playing the tragic role of a man who gave his life to a war that ruined everything for him. Rick’s acting in the closing moments of this film are gripping and will chill you to the bone and the final scene in this movie is as shocking, disturbing and just plain wrong as anything I have seen before and it ranks up there with some the best (or worse depending on how you look at it) endings ever put to film!
Some say that the Reagan era was a pentacle moment in our country’s history but the underbelly of an unemployed, impoverished, starving, drug addicted, homeless America and the very authentic stories of Vietnam vets who were ignored and/or killed their entire families and then themselves that Combat Shock showcases, paints a much bleaker, and sadly real, picture. This is a picture of society that cannot be ignored and is just as relevant in today’s Great Recession times as it was when it was originally released. Perhaps these are the very reasons that Lloyd Kaufman and Troma pictures decided to re-release this film on DVD now, either way, this is one DVD that is well worth your hard earned dough in these cash-strapped times!
Combat Shock will be released on July 28th, 2009!
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