The New Barbarians

Plot

In the year 2019, after a nuclear war, humanity is reduced to a few starving groups. A ruthless gang called "The Templars" constantly raid settlers in an attempt to exterminate everyone in order to purge the Earth. A former Templar, Scorpion, along with his allies, prevents a small band of religious colonists from being massacred by the Templars.

Cast

Production

The New Barbarians was shot outside of Rome in late 1982. When discussing 1990: The Bronx Warriors, The New Barbarians and Escape from the Bronx, Castellari stated the three films were written prepared and filmed in six months.

For the stunts in the film, Castellari stated that he filmed each scene at three different speeds: 24fps, 55 and 96. Castellari stated that this allowed him to "edit the whole sequence in a more interesting way. It gives much more impact to the entire stunt and it actually looks much more impressive and powerful than it actually is."

Release

The New Barbarians was released in Italy on 7 April 1983. It was released in the United States in 1984 under the title of Warriors of the Wasteland. It was distributed by New Line Cinema.

Reception

Castellari had positive recollections of making the film, stating that it "was an extremely cheap movie. The budget was incredibly small but I'm quite proud that I succeeded in making a movie shot on the outskirts of Rome." Variety found the film derivative of Mad Max 2 as well as having elements of Hal Needham's Megaforce and other films. Variety felt that Casterllari made a mistake in using slow motion opposed to George Miller's exciting high-sped action scenes, finding that the films car chases "look to be occurring at 25 mph". In his book Phil Hardy's book Science Fiction (1984), a review found the film to be too derivative of Mad Max 2. The Monthly Film Bulletin described the film as a "shamelessly watered-down, warmed-over" version of Mad Max 2.

In a retrospective review, AllMovie awarded the film two stars out of five, found that the film captures "the true spirit of the low budget rip-off flicks from early 80's, The New Barbarians is neither smart nor original, but a riot for anyone who gets off on Mad Max and all of its the junky followers."