2019: After the Fall of New York (1983)

Title: 2019: After the Fall of New York (1983)

Director: Sergio Martino

Cast: Michael Sopkiw, Valentine Monnier

Review:

Italian post apocalyptic rip-offs should have their own sub genre, there’s so many of them out there. One thing these movies have is that they will always, almost certainly make you laugh. I still haven’t seen an Italian rip off that hasn’t started me off on a fit of laughter, 2019: After the Fall of New York is one of these movies. The thing about these rip offs is that they steal their ideas from films that have no comedy in them whatsoever. So why is it that when Italians try and make their own version of The Road Warrior it comes off as a comedy? Did the filmmakers have any idea how funny their films were gonna end up being when they made them? I doubt it, but I think the funny is in the dubbing, the lack of budget and the cheesy nature of the films themselves. I’ll elaborate.

Fallen New York! 

In 2019: After the Fall of New York we meet our hero, a loner by the name of ‘Parsifal’ as he is about to begin participating in a car race. The object of the game is to get to the finishing line as both cars try to blow each other out of existence by any means possible. If your co-driver has a bazooka with which to shoot the other car, then he has every right to use it!   Since Parsifal is the hero of the film, of course he wins the race and gets the big prize: a woman/sex slave who is willing to obey his every desire. She calls him ‘Master’. Since Parsifal is a good guy, of course, he gives the lady her freedom. Five seconds later, a ship hovers above Parcifal’s head requesting his acquaintance for something, they don’t tell him what it is, but they say it’s urgent. He tells them to fuck off because he won’t give the time of day to anyone unwilling to identify themselves. So they the natural thing to do: stun him with lazer beams and take him to the offices of the Pan American Confederacy; a group of people trying to rebuild the human race. They offer Parsifal a seat in a space ship towards ‘Alfa Centauri’ a planet in which supposedly life can thrive once again! But first, he needs to find the last remaining fertile woman on earth! And she’s lost somewhere within the bowels of deadly Manhattan Island. Will Parsifal find her amidst all the whackos?

So, Parsifal goes to the wasteland filled with infected people and mutants. You see this world was ravaged by nuclear weapons, and so we get to see entire cities burned to a crisp, of course they look like cheap miniatures, but hey, there's the charm of a b-movie for ya! You'll also see people with their skins falling off and mutants that look like half men, half monkeys! There are all sorts of crazies in this post apocalyptic world concocted by these crazy Italian filmmakers. And yeah, these guys were crazy. I mean, they’d have to be to make a movie like this one! But to tell you the truth, the film was actually entertaining.  I’ll give ‘em this: the film wasn’t boring. It starts off with a bang with the derby scenes, it’s basically a sequence with two cars crashing on each other as much as they can and the drivers and passengers shooting each other with assorted weapons. These moments of the film reminded me of Roger Corman’s Death Race 2000 (1975). To make things more twisted, this whole derby sequence is being watched by a post apocalyptic circus troupe of clowns and their ringmaster! Like I tell ya, it’s crazy idea after crazy idea in this movie.

Some things simply defy logic. Take for example the main character, Parsifal. He probably hasn’t been with a lady for years and years (this is the apocalypse after all) and when he wins one, he simply cuts her loose. I don’t want to sound like a pig or anything, but this lady was actually willing to be with him, she was like “let’s make love Master!” Yet, apparently this is a dude who can keep his libido in control even under strenuous circumstances such as these and so he is waiting for the right post apocalyptic lady to be with; so he sets his lady slave free. Ha! Another thing that makes no sense: the main character appears to have an endless arsenal of vehicles. He opens up the movie with a cool ass looking car, which he quickly bangs up, but no problemo, then he appears with this huge ass chopper! Minutes later, he has another motorcycle! And the cycle goes on and on through out the whole film! Inconsistencies don’t stop there; we actually see characters travel from Alaska to New York on motorcycle! In the blink of an eye! From New York to Alaska in a matter of seconds, one second were in Manhattan then blam! Cut to Alaska and we’re there. How did that happen? Who knows what happened to these characters on their journey, it must not have been that important. The filmmakers simply cut from location to location without the faintest notion of time passing by. So be ready for a film with lot’s of nonsensical moments; which of course is a given in Italian Cinema of this era.

The hero uses this gun once, then it dissapears for the rest of the film!

Finally, it was apparent to me that 2019: After the Fall of New York was simply trying to create an amalgam of every other post apocalyptic film that came before it. We get glimpses of Escape from New York (1981) because practically the whole film takes place in New York. Parsifal is a mix between Max Rockatansky and Snake Plissken. It’s got a lot of the Mad Max films in it, especially when it comes to those car chase sequences and the crazy looking characters; in fact, Mad Max (1979) and Mad Max 2 (1981) are the main reasons why these films exist. Post Apocalyptic films where a real hit during the eighties for this fad in films was not only rampant in Italy, United States had its own rash of post apocalyptic films. I guess it had a lot to do with living under the shadow of the mushroom cloud. That cold war had people paranoid. So many post apocalyptic films surfaced because of this collective paranoia. And finally, 2019: After the Fall of New York even has a bit of Planet of the Apes in it because one of the gangs that exist within Manhattan is a gang of ape men that resemble the monkeys from the Planet of the Apes movies. So basically, it’s an amalgam of all of these films, but with a sci-fi twist because it’s all about Parsifal trying to achieve his mission just so he can go to another planet to live a better life. I also think that director Albert Pyun must have been a huge fan of this film because Pyun’s own Cyborg (1989) shares a lot of similarities with it: the idea of having to protect a female through a waste land in order to get her to a safe location, so that she can save the human race.

In conclusion, this one was fun. In accordance to Italian Rip Off Rule # 5016; this flick is cheap as hell, but its nonsensical nature will keep you entertained through out its running time. To be honest, this is what I like about these films, how crazy they get with their situations. 2019: After the Fall of New York falls perfectly in the same category as films like Endgame (1983), 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982), The New Barbarians (1983) and Warrior of the Lost World (1983), you know, cheap, fast paced, nonsensical fun. I mean in no other type of film but an Italian rip off will you hear dialog such as: “That thing back there was a cyborg! Half Man! Half Robot! Funny thing is, I didn’t know what it was until I made love to him!” Only in an Italian Rip off ladies and gentlemen, only in an Italian Rip Off!

Rating: 2 ½ out of 5