As the DVD market expands, enterprising boutique labels have to keep up with and even anticipate demand. In particular, the number of small cult-centered DVD companies continues to increase; thus, the variety and obscurity of available titles has exploded. It's a good time to be a fan of the offbeat - there are things being brought out on DVD these days that astonish in the mere fact that they're seeing the light of day.
Subversive Cinema's recent box set Savage Sinema From Down Under falls under this rubric. The set collects three feature films from low-budget Australian filmmaker Mark Savage plus assorted goodies. Savage is an unknown in the USA (I'd never heard of him prior to this set, and I like to consider myself relatively informed), and having combed through the set I think I understand why. Putting aside the question of how well regional B-cinema travels outside its home base (how well-known is Jim Van Bebber in Scotland?), the truth of it is that Savage's films aren't very good. Each of the three included films has its problems; taken as a whole, they paint a picture of Savage as a guy who's trying hard but, despite a certain trashy vitality, can't quite make his muse dance.
His debut film Marauders, released in 1986, exemplifies both the good and the bad in Savage's ethos. Marauders is a fairly vicious piece of goods, a sick 'n' seedy story about Emilio and Zed (Colin Savage and Zero Montana), two amoral punks who go nutters after a macho meathead named David (Paul Harrington) runs down Zed with his car. From the outset, it's clear that Savage has talent. His visual sense at this point is rudimentary but promising, with his use of low-angle photography especially impressive for a neophyte, and he does manage a number of clever, interesting shots, my favorite being the tossed-off joke involved in David's car rental.
Too, the shocking aspects of the film and the overarching nihilsm works for a while. The opening sequence depicting the depths of depravity plumbed by both Emilio and Zed on an everyday basis girded me to slug down a bracing shot of anti-everything insanity, and it works as long as Savage keeps the hyperbole alive. There comes a point, though (the extended rape scene), where the attempts at revulsion, at topping the previous bit of ugliness, become too calculated and transparent; since the film's horrors aren't anchored to anything like a worldview, Marauders quickly falls apart. It's shock for shock's sake, bereft of any reason to be other than a young filmmaker's desire to see how far over the top he can go. It sounds like fun in theory, but in practice all it amounts to is an increasingly tedious series of scenes where unpleasant people do unpleasant things while saying 'fuck' and 'cunt' as much as possible. Marauders is ultimately a piece of juvenilia that gets your attention, but does little else.
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