Partisans attacked the ship, with lots of people and the Jews held by the Germans. After the release and attack, there is yet another partisan attack on the convoy of Germans. Partisans few more times attacked Germans without warning, which will infuriate the Germans, and lead to tragic losses the partisans and the innocent population, to the punitive expeditions and major offensives on the partisans, which will lead to the total failure of the this partisan unit. This is exactly the sort of war movie most buffs envision when they hear "Yugoslavian War Movie". Sure, for every good bigger-budget war movie like "Neretva" or "Sutjeska" that the Yugoslavs turned out, they made about 10 awful, cheap ones. This goes in the latter category, with poor acting, badly directed action scenes, unrealistic and un-scary villain, and poverty-row equipment and effects.<br/><br/>The first indication is the poor quality opening scene when partisans attack a German riverboat. The confused and bewildered Germans put up little fight and Adam West (totally unbelievable as a German officer) escapes to reap his vengeance. His later idiotic ski-troop attack is one of the worst, most one-sided action scenes in war movie history. I don't think the Germans even attempted to sneak up on the Partisans, much less actually wound or kill any of them.<br/><br/>The final action scene has a lot of the expected sledgehammer Yugo propaganda with a motley crew of barely armed freedom fighters beating back wave after wave of German tanks and soldiers. Sure, they had high morale and eventually won out due to overwhelming numbers (and Soviet intervention) but this movie makes it look like 30 Germans died for every 1 Partisan. Yeah right.<br/><br/>Right down there with "BOMB AT 10:10" and "BATTLE OF THE EAGLES". Another low rent WW2 epic made in Yugoslavia with a largely local cast and crew, propped up by a couple of big Hollywood names. HELL RIVER is the condensed version of a four part TV movie entitled PARTIZANI, and it simply isn't very good. The direction is weak, the action sequences feel like stock footage although they're not, and Hollywood offers much slicker, more professionally made war films than this one.<br/><br/>Saying that, HELL RIVER isn't the worst of its type. Some of the imagery is pretty good, like the line of tanks rolling through a debris-strewn township, and the producers certainly get their money's worth from the WW2-era weapons, costumes, and vehicles they have access to. I've always enjoyed Rod Taylor's acting performances and he doesn't disappoint here either, although he does seem to have aged very rapidly in the space of just a decade. Adam West is as wooden as ever and struggles in one of his most miscast roles as a Nazi officer. There's action a-plenty, but it all feels rather repetitive and, like the whole film, a bit of a waste of time.
Nashtad replied
354 weeks ago