{"id":3915,"date":"2011-12-12T02:00:57","date_gmt":"2011-12-12T07:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=3915"},"modified":"2015-12-30T19:52:47","modified_gmt":"2015-12-31T00:52:47","slug":"dvd-erotic-escape-fuga-fuga-scabrosamente-pericolosa-1985","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=3915","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Erotic Escape \/ Fuga \/ Fuga scabrosamente pericolosa (1985)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Film: Very Good<\/p>\n

DVD Transfer: Weak<\/p>\n

DVD Extras: \u00a0n\/a<\/p>\n

Label: One 7 Movies<\/p>\n

Region: 0 (NTSC)<\/p>\n

Released: August 23, 2011<\/p>\n

Genre: Erotic \/ Action \/ Drama \/ Eurosleaze \/ Rape Revenge<\/p>\n

Synopsis: An escaped political prisoner uses and abuses his voluptuous hostage, while her wealthy father sends a military dragnet into the barren mountains of Columbia to route them out.<\/p>\n

Special Features: (none)<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

One 7 Movies have really picked up a nudie-roughie oddity that apparently never had any English language distribution during its theatrical run, and (most likely) home video editions.<\/p>\n

Although made in 1985, the frank tone and graphic nudity are more typical of seventies Italian sleaze shockers with wholly inappropriate male behaviour violating the woman-in-peril, drafted into a desperate situation by bad circumstances, timing, and spurts of feminine non-compliance. Set in 1951, the story is ostensibly about a brooding political prisoner recruited for an escape plan by a pensive inmate. Manuel (Rodrigo Obregon) isn\u2019t a talker, but he\u2019s smart enough to know that adding an extra pair of slow-moving escapees to the elite group will insulate him from the inevitable gunfire, and he seems aware his recruiter has equally slim odds of escaping.<\/p>\n

Armed with the full escape plan of crossing a river, grabbing a car, riding across baked mountainous terrain by horse, and reaching the end of the Colombian border, Manuel goes for broke when his fellow escapees are slaughtered by guards on horseback, and he eventually manages to reach the car and make it to a remote villa, where the elite of Colombia\u2019s wealthy and morally indolent have assembled for the wedding of Amparo (Eleonora Vallone, daughter of classic Italian actor Raf Vallone) and some rich milquetoast.<\/p>\n

Perhaps because his car is completely kaput, Manuel is intent on stealing a new auto, and he decides to grab Amparo for extra insurance in case of lethal gunfire. The two eventually reach a farmer who\u2019s supposed to supply Manuel with horses and food for the second and most dangerous stage of his escape, but Amparo\u2019s father has sent a military dragnet, which now surrounds the shack.<\/p>\n

Manuel pretty much repeats the same tactics by using Amparo as a hostage, and the two eventually trek to some remote mountain pockets, hiding out from Amparo\u2019s father, fianc\u00e9, and an airplane which repeatedly radios back their exact location. It\u2019s during the course of their horseback and foot travels that Amparo\u2019s defensive actions change Manuel from an indifferent convict to a serial rapist, and director Nello Rossati doesn\u2019t shy away from any ugly details, albeit framing every shot as elegantly as the rest of the film\u2019s richly photographed sequences.<\/p>\n

Erotic Escape<\/strong> (the DVD\u2019s title) is a clear-cut, morally repugnant film, but it is strangely fascinating to see how the director and writer Franco Reggiani defend their indulgent episodes of graphic assault and blatant nudity. From their stance, had Amparo\u2019s father let Manuel ride off alone from the farmer\u2019s shed as planned, his daughter would\u2019ve been recovered intact. Had Amparo not attempted to escape or smack Manuel in the head with a rock, he may well have just dragged her along as a human shield until he reached the second river crossing.<\/p>\n

From Rossati and Reggiani\u2019s view, whatever happens to Amparo is deserved because angering any escaped convict is the<\/em> Number One Bad Move, but the film goes further than merely depicting nasty behaviour with blatant pickles, beaver, and boobery. The drama follows the classic structure of a rich bitch ravaged by a lower class brute, and becomes conflicted in her allegiance as the old Stockholm Syndrome kicks in. When the pair reach the border river, Amparo literally begs Manual to take her along: with her honor in shreds, she claims she\u2019s unable to return to her family nor fianc\u00e9e, and prefers his company, his dominance, or being sold to someone<\/em> else simply because her worth is less than a whore.<\/p>\n

When Amparo does cross the river on her own, it\u2019s after Manuel\u2019s been arrested and awaits confirmation by border patrol that he\u2019s neither a political agitator nor convict. After Amparo enters the border station, a handcuffed Manuel discretely orders her to use her skills and convince the guards to free him, or he\u2019ll talk about Amparo\u2019s \u2018willingness\u2019 during her captivity with him.<\/p>\n

Circumstances of captivity, prisoner, and servitude are central to the film, and the drama remains steadily balanced even though there are odd points when the film veers into slightly distant genres, flipping from prison drama to erotic sleazefest, then jumping to rape-revenge drama. Rossati also uses an epic pull-back from a helicopter to punctuate Manuel\u2019s reaching of the second river, which cheats audiences into thinking the film has arrived at its natural conclusion. It\u2019s an odd visual choice, given the revenge chapter in the border station is set to begin, but the film\u2019s true ending is morally revolting.<\/p>\n

The final scene makes it clear Amparo isn\u2019t necessarily scarred by her experience: lying in a separate bed while her husband sleeps nearby, Amparo seemingly recalls her sexual baptism through Manuel, haunted and intrigued by his brutality, and perhaps yearning for a re-enactment – either as a dream, or with another man. The punctuation to Rossati\u2019s drama is the likelihood Amparo will leave her bland husband in the near future when another Manuel wanders into her sights.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very easy to write off Rossati\u2019s film as sleaze \u2013 which it is \u2013 but the fact seemingly sincere efforts went into developing the script\u2019s dramatic twists and themes makes Erotic Escape<\/strong> transcendent among conventional genre entries. Rossati\u2019s direction is also crisply professional: the prison scenes and breakout are superbly filmed and edited, and he employs several slow camera moves which a lesser director would\u2019ve ignored due to budgetary constraints. Rossati and cinematographer Sandro Mancori (whose C.V. is filled with spaghetti westerns) exploit Colombia\u2019s natural terrain in elegant portraiture, goosed with dramatic gusts of wind and mist which often blow weeds or shrubs for poetic effect.<\/p>\n

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The DVD<\/strong><\/p>\n

One 7 Movies\u2019 DVD uses a really beat-up print as its source. There are also periodic film breaks which affect the pacing and continuity of two specific scenes: Amparo\u2019s first escape effort jumps from a run through grass to her already exhausted on the ground, leaving out an action done by Manuel that\u2019s now missing; and after she smacks him with a rock, Manuel is about to force fellatio upon Amparo, but the coarse jump-cut to the next scene suggests offending footage was hacked out of the print. (This isn\u2019t an unlikely hypothesis, because Rossati doesn\u2019t shy away from full frontal imagery in one scene, nor the anal rape Manuel inflicts as the search plane buzzes above, unaware of the extended sexual violence.)<\/p>\n

Hard matte lines in the supplied print sometimes drifts into the DVD transfer\u2019s matted image from above and below, suggesting the film may have been shot in 2.35:1; there are also some edge details which get clipped \u2013 sloppiness neither director nor cinematographer would\u2019ve accepted, given the obvious care in every shot\u2019s composition.<\/p>\n

The mono sound mix is relatively unblemished but a tad low in volume, and Luis Antonio Escobar\u2019s score comes through cleanly, although musically it\u2019s a strange match with the film: Escobar\u2019s style is more typical of a late fifties \/ early sixties drama, with its classical arrangements and virtual lack of any electronic elements.<\/p>\n

The English subtitles need to be turned on during the film\u2019s play, and the translations are often fragmentary and filled with typos (as though a written transcript had been scanned using OCR software, but never proofed before married to the DVD master).<\/p>\n

There are no extras, and the provocative cover art is another classic campaign lie: there is no such moment where a naked Vallone contemplates her situation on a beach, reasoning the image stems from a classic publicity tease shoot.<\/p>\n

Whether a decent print even exists anymore let alone a negative preserving the film\u2019s correct framing is a mystery; it\u2019s likely the film disappeared into obscurity when it finished its grindhouse run, which is a pity, since one can imagine how well the film would look if transferred in HD from a decent source.<\/p>\n

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Postcript<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rossati\u2019s small canon seems to include genre hybrids and convention busters; his strangest is a zombie comedy called Io zombo, tu zombi, lei zomba<\/strong> (1983), which he made with the same cinematographer, screenwriter, and actor Obregon. Erotic Escape<\/strong> (originally titled Fuga<\/strong>) is part of a multi-picture slate Rossati made in Bogota Colombia, and includes his best-known work, Django Strikes Again<\/strong> (1987), plus Top Line <\/strong>(1988) and Tides of War<\/strong> (1990).<\/p>\n

Eleonora Vallone only appeared in a handful of films within a ten-year period: Gardenia<\/strong> (1979), Carnada<\/strong> (1980), Afurika monogatari<\/strong> (1980), Si ringrazia la regione Puglia per averci fornito i milanesi <\/strong>(1982), Il motorino<\/strong> (1984), Erotic Escape<\/strong> (1985), and Italian Gigolo<\/strong> (1989) before a lengthy pause was broken in 2008 via a small role in Pupi Avati\u2019s Giovanna\u2019s Father<\/strong> \/ Il pap\u00e0 di Giovanna<\/strong> (2008).<\/p>\n

Escobar, a noted musicologist, scored just a handful of films: El milagro de sal<\/strong> (1958), Mientras arde el fuego<\/strong> (1982), Erotic Escaoe<\/strong> (1985), and Ca\u00edn<\/strong> (1984).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2011 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film: Very Good DVD Transfer: Weak DVD Extras: \u00a0n\/a Label: One 7 Movies Region: 0 (NTSC) Released: August 23, 2011 Genre: Erotic \/ Action \/ Drama \/ Eurosleaze \/ Rape Revenge Synopsis: An escaped political prisoner uses and abuses his voluptuous hostage, while her wealthy father sends a military dragnet into the barren mountains of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[930,929,928,931],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-119","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3915"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3915"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12873,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3915\/revisions\/12873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}