The Last Guerrilla (1974) User Reviews

During WWII Yugoslav partisans led by Rod Taylor are fighting German troops and battling for freedom

[ma-cortes · 4/10 · 27 June 2018]

In 1941 Yugoslavia . Partisans and Nazi army fight in the hardest , most tragic and greatest battles of Yugoslavia , WWII.At the beginning of the film Partisans attack a German riverboat with a lot of Jews held by the cruel Nazis , there a German officer , Adam West , escapes thanks to a beautiful Jew , Xenia Gratsos . Adam getaways to carry out a merciless vengeance . Later on , Partisans attack other regiments without warning that lead to tragic losses the Germans , which infuriates the German commandant Peter Carsten , as he executes massacres , and punitive expeditions against innocent population . Partisans led by Rod Taylor counterattack which will lead to the utter failure of his partisan followers . After that , the partisans are ambushed during their retreat to Bosnia . At the end the Yugoslav partisans and Nazis battle it out a place called Hell River , taking place the major offensives .

Average WWII movie with decent but really miscast actors , rudimentary effects and it involves tanks, arms , ammunition , and fighter planes . It displays breathtaking battles with big explosions , chaos , hell , suffering , mayhem , fates , heroic deaths and a cast of thousands . An enough budget war movie lost continuity with US cut and bad edition . Confused and bewildered movie with poor action , though it has some spectacular as well as noisy fights , regularly made battle scenes , unrealistic developing , poverty-row equipment and a lot of of the German armored vehicles are really American , as the planes shown are not actually German planes but U P47S. Yugoslavia army provided soldier-extras , costumes , weapons , fighter planes , tanks , trucks and other vehicles they had access to . It includes a silly ski-troopers attack in which the German soldiers are ridiculously killed and a large line of tanks rolling through a ruined and debris-strewn village . It stars some known actors , such as Rod Taylor as an aging partisan against two nasty German officers : Adam West and Peter Carsten .

It packs an atmospheric cinematography and a passable soundtrack, though it often doesn't fit the action .The motion picture released on TV as Hell River and also titled Battle of Belgrado was middlingly directed by Stole Jankovic. The film belongs to a motley group of Yugoslav movies made in the 70s about WWI and WWII with big budget , international stars and produced during Josip Broz Tito dictatorship , such as "Battle of Neretva river" by Veljko Bulajic with Yul Brynner, Franco Nero , Orson Welles , Sylva Koscina ; " Veliki transport" or "Mission Heroes" by Bulajic with James Franciscus , Steve Railsback , Edward Albert, Helmut Berger; " The day that shook the world" or "Sarajevo" with Maximilian Schell , Christopher Plummer , Florinda BolKan ; and "Sutjeska" by Stipe Delic with Richard Burton plating dictator Tito , Irene Papas , this film was made for the 30th anniversary of this battle and considered to be the most expansive movie in the history of the Yugoslav cinema.

Low rent Yugoslavian WW2 madness

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 12 April 2016]

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.

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.

Not the best, not the worst

[suescatlady · 5/10 · 27 May 2021]

Expected better with a cast including Rod Taylor and Adam West. The film seemed to lack a script or direction. Slow paced. It was watchable, just not very good.

Pathetic war movie

[Aylmer · 2/10 · 15 August 2007]

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.

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.

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.

Right down there with "BOMB AT 10:10" and "BATTLE OF THE EAGLES".

Fairly well done Yugoslav WWII drama

[SgtSlaughter · 7/10 · 5 November 2002]

As with the Italians, the Yugoslav film industry made quite a few WWII movies, always detailing the struggles of the "Partisans". Like THE BATTLE OF NERETVA, this tells of a major German offensive to erradicate the enemy and their struggles against the invaders.

It's 1941, and the Partisans are on their own. Marko (Rod Taylor), fresh from an education in America, returns to his homeland and discovers how brutal the Nazis really are. Instead of returning to the States, he stays in Yugoslavia and organizes a resistance movement. On the other side, we have Captain Kohler (Adam West, of all people) who discovers that his childhood sweetheart, Anna (Brioni Farrell aka Xenia Gratsos) is among the Jews he's transporting to the POW camp. Marko's men attack the boat, and Anna helps Kohler escape. She's taken by the partisans, though, and soon finds herself in love with Marko. The rest of the movie involves partisan encounters with Kohler's troops, culminating at a huge river battle a few months later.

This movie boasts a pretty decent international cast. Rod Taylor is pretty good -- but way too old -- as the vengeful Marko. Adam West makes a pretty good adversary, although his German accent fluctuates and is just as bad as Brando's in THE YOUNG LIONS. Peter Carsten (BATTLE OF THE EAGLES) has a large role as a tough, ruthless German Panzer officer. Branko Plesa, also of BATTLE OF THE EAGLES, appears a few times as a German General. Bata Zivojinovic plays Marko's old friend, who leads the partisans but really has little meat to his character. Brioni Farrell is great and beautiful, too.

The combat scenes are all very well done. They involve tanks (more modern, though, but any tank is a good tank), era-accurate fighter planes, extras and a lot of big explosions. The cinematography is wonderful and gives the movie a very bleak look. The musical score often doesn't fit the movie, but I liked it anyway.

Overall, not too high above average, but one of the best Partisan films I've seen so far. Worth renting, even buying, for an entertaining 100 minutes. The video from White Knight looks incredibly good, just as good as any MGM release of an older movie, especially considering that it was released in the early 1980s. 6/10 overall.

Not the worst, but hardly the best

[fredcdobbs5 · 3/10 · 18 September 2017]

I saw this under one of its many titles, "Hell River", and was pretty unimpressed. It has a few things going for it--for one thing the photography is quite crisp, unlike many 1970s Euro-made WW 2 "epics", which tended to be either washed-out or muddy--and the music is at least appropriate and doesn't drown out or overwhelm what's on screen--but there are a lot more cons than pro's. The performances aren't particularly good, especially Adam West, wildly miscast as a Nazi officer; he is stiff as a board, has no chemistry or connection with anyone in the cast and slips in and out of an embarrassingly bad German accent. Rod Taylor is stalwart as usual, but he's simply too old to play an action hero. Xenia Gratsos, here billed as "Brioni Farrell", matches West's wooden acting and is rather plain-looking to boot. The plethora of action scenes are done in a very by-the-numbers fashion and tend to be unrealistic, i.e., when the partisans attack a German armored column the Germans are mowed down by the dozens but only a very few partisans fall, despite the Germans opening up with everything they had.

All in all it's not as bad as a lot of the cheap WW 2 crapfests the Italians ground out like sausages in the 1960s and 1970a--my God, what a tsunami of stinkers they were--but it's nothing to write home about. Watchable, to a degree, but not memorable.

the resistance

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 4 November 2023]

In murrica, it's hell hill. In yugoslavia, it's partizani. The partisans! A period piece, during world war two. Yugoslavs have formed a resistance, to fight back against the nazis. Rod taylor (time machine, the birds) is marko, head of the resistance group. Adam west (batman!) is kohler, the german soldier who keeps facing marko in battle. Anna had been close to kohler before he was pressed into service, but now finds herself fighting with the yugoslav locals. Wins and losses on both sides. Then, it's a showdown at the river. Directed by stole jankovic. Now showing on the tubi channel. Not sure why it's rated so low on imdb, but it's not so bad!

Two movies are fighting in a war... And neither side is winning.

[stamenkovickosta · 5/10 · 5 August 2023]

This movie is a rather unique case when compared to fellow partisan movies from that era. For once, it actually tried to have an emotional story besides usual action shenanigans. Sure, other movies also had some emotional stakes in them, but never at this level. So, on one hand, this is a good attempt to do something more.

Unfortunately, it fails. The reason for that is that, because this is a partisan movie at it's core, which means that we need to have an action sequence every ten or so minutes. Because of this, main love story is never allowed to breathe, as every attempt at emotional scene is quickly undercut by shot of German army accompanied with loud, intense music. Side characters, despite having interesting storylines themselves (such as underdeveloped love story between commander and a nurse, turncoat soldier from rival faction looking for redemption or sickly young man who wants to fight in a war even though he really shouldn't be there) also end up suffering, since their stories kept being pushed aside and end up being given an unsatisfying resolutions.

At least action is good, right? Well, no. There is only one decent action sequence in the movie (the one in which partisans are attacking German tanks at the road), while others range from mediocre (attack on factory) to straight up amateurish and comical (attack on skis). It is clear that director had no experiences with action scenes, and because of it you just can't wait for them to be over, so that movie could just move on.

Because of this, it feels like there are two movies fighting for dominance. One movie that tries to be a tragic, human story and one that tries to be an epic war "blockbuster", like some other partisan movies from previous years. Result is that in this "battle", neither side is given the time that it really needs as the movie constantly keeps going from one to another (mediocre editing is certainly not helping) that it becomes hard to invest in either part.

As for performances, they are for the most part fine, which is to be expected in most of partisan movies. Rod Taylor is surprisingly decent and manages to make his character likeable enough for audience to not want to see him dead. Adam West, who plays German officer, seems to be trying way too hard in few scenes which is why he can come off as corny sometimes. As for Farrell... Well, let's just say thank God she looks absolutely beautiful in this movie. Most of the Yugoslav actors do a good job, although an actor that plays German general hams it up a little too much.

The biggest issue with this movie is the soundtrack which is just obnoxious. Main theme of the movie feels completely out of place and gets more and more irritating as the movie goes on, especially when, out of nowhere, off-screen voice starts singing. It's unbelievably corny and takes you out of the movie completely. Then there is also a supposedly menacing theme that always plays when German army appears on screen, but it really is just a bunch of annoying "dun-dun-dun" noises (but at least it's funny).

Overall, is this the worst partisan movie? No, not even close. For all it's flaws, it's at least good enough to keep you interested for two hours and there are enough unintentional "so bad it's good" moments to, if nothing else, make you laugh.

5/10.

Guerillas in the hills of Serbia defend their homeland from the German army

[Wuchakk · 6/10 · 25 June 2023]

A Yugoslav raised in America (Rod Taylor) fights the invading Germans as a leader in the National Liberation Army, aka Yugoslav Partisans. Adam West plays a German captain who's sympathetic toward the Serbians because he's actually Austrian and in love with a Jewess (Brioni Farrell).

"Hell River" (1974), also known as "Guerilla Raid" and "The Partisan" (amongst other titles), is a Serbo-Croatian WW2 film that originally ran 3 hours on Yugoslavian television. This shorter version was released for other markets.

Loosely based on the true events, it comes in the tradition of "The Guns of Navarone" (1961), "The Heroes of Telemark" (1965) and "Hornets' Nest" (1970) and is similar to the future "Force 10 from Navarone" (1978) and "The Eagle Has Landed" (1976). Sure, it's not on the level of the better ones, but it's quite well done and not far off. The longer version is no doubt more compelling.

Interestingly, a few seconds of "Hell River" are featured in Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" (2019) as the fictional movie "The 14 Fists of McCluskey," an Italian flick Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) starred in because he couldn't get significant roles in America.

The film runs 1 hour, 42 minutes, and was shot in Serbia (Sabac, Lazarevac, Mountain Zlatibor and River Drina by the border of Bosnia).

GRADE: B-/B.

A solid Yugo

[pertti.jarla · 8/10 · 14 November 2005]

I consider my taste in movies to be quite traditional (i like stuff like Lord of the Rings), yet i have completely enjoyed the two biggest Yugoslavian war films, The Battle of Neretva and this. Partizani is a big scale war adventure about Serbian partisans and Nazis exchanging blows in 1941.

A triangle drama between the rebel leader (Rod Taylor), a reluctant nazi (Adam West) and an upper class chick (Brioni Farrell) is woven into the story, but it never gets in the way of the action. And there is plenty of it, involving planes and tanks. The equipment is unfortunately wrong, but the tanks manage to look a bit Wehrmacht.

I really liked Rod Taylor in this movie, he is aged but not tired. He carries the simple warrior role with his charisma. Adam West is more wooden but adequate, and Brioni Farrell is competent and never annoying. The musical score, involving a bit of Mikis Theodorakis, is good and sentimental in an Ennio Morricone way.

This is a high class, big budget film that shouldn't disappoint any friend of war adventure. Better than mediocre Hollywood, and one of the best to ever come out of continental Europe.

A Quentin Tarantino-Revived 'Hollywood' Curio

[TheFearmakers · 8/10 · 26 August 2019]

In Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, Leonardo DiCaprio plays an actor named Rick Dalton who, in 1969, is already a washed-up, has-been former Western television series star with a number of forgotten Western and War Movies under his belt...

Including and especially "The 14 Fists of McCluskey" that shows quick footage from this film, HELL RIVER, which is technically impossible since the low-budget Yugoslavian WWII exploitation came out five years after Dalton's time in the Tarantino universe: Then again this obscure Rod Taylor curio, originally and more fitfully titled Partizani aka Partisans (there are only two rivers shown, and neither are hellish), doesn't really exist in HOLLYWOOD since it's become a fictional movie for its fictional star...

On the other hand, an early-seventies Rod Taylor, also a has-been... who gained fame a decade earlier in THE TIME MACHINE and THE BIRDS... was anything but fake. The epitome of a real man and/or man's man, he sure looked it. And by 1974 his screen presence was far less handsome and more rough, rugged and overall world-weary...

His bulbous nose had expanded along with about twenty pounds added onto an already stocky-muscular build, so he resembled more of a character actor than leading man, which fits here since he's far more a character-type piloting the story than the kind of movie star female-audiences were supposed to fall for - which doesn't stop Greek beauty Brioni Farrell from much too quickly doing so...

Back to Tarantino's HOLLYWOOD where Al Pacino plays a Jewish agent talking pop culture shop to his hopeful client in DiCaprio's Dalton: He mentions the series BATMAN, which, as we all know, starred Adam West...

What you may not have known is while Rod Taylor and Brioni Farrell are shown as archive footage in the Rick Dalton "14 Fists of McCluskey" picture during Pacino's expository diatribe, Adam West himself is one of the main stars in HELL RIVER as Austrian Nazi officer Kurt Kohler, who knew and adored Farrell's Anna Kleitz since childhood... That is, the still-handsome leading man/former caped crusader is almost the love interest here...

His part is interesting enough (albeit ultimately neglected as a love triangle), as are scenes where he's repeatedly given orders to kill the enemy partisans, which makes him the most torn character on board, not wanting his true love to die with all the others, including a group of Jews freed during the prologue (along a river) after trying to only save the girl...

And then her saving him quickly following a surprise attack, led by Rod Taylor, whose tough mercenary named Marko seems to only let this woman who saved a Nazi live because... well, she's downright gorgeous...

As most of the picture has the duo traipsing alongside the fleeing Jewish herd while protecting them during bouts of gun-blasting and tank-roaring, explosion-riddled sequences that, despite the anemic budget, does actually look legitimate...

The kind of studio war flick that Tarantino's "14 Fists of McClusky" was supposed to be (it would make no sense if it were a cheap foreign-made throwaway, as shown on fake movie posters possibly created and/or approved by Sony Pictures, since Dalton's game-changing career choice has him eventually and quite reluctantly starring in Italian Spaghetti Westerns and action flicks, which he was obviously and even notably a completely stranger to), and far from the shoddy Yugo-production HELL RIVER actually was...

Even some of composer Vojislav Borisavljevic's original soundtrack plays during a scene where DiCaprio's Dalton takes a flame-thrower to a group of Nazis, all created for the fictional movie within the fictional movie taken from this actual one...

Which, while no classic, isn't a waste of time to catch a grainy yet watchable copy of streaming on Amazon Prime: the best moments include Taylor's Marko separated and alone, surviving behind-enemy-lines in various war-torn, Nazi occupied, blown-out towns...

One where he grew up, giving the legitimate dramatic actor a chance to prove he could balance pathos with bravado. So don't blink or you'll miss one of many important connected elements in Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. Only HELL RIVER is far more than just a passing billboard or theater marquee. Oh and the end of the end-credits includes even more Adam West!

Reminded of childhood

[vmajhensek · 10/10 · 4 February 2020]

I am definitely very biased. I grew up eating Plazma, drinking Fruktal juices and playing "Partisans vs Germans" in the fields on the outskirts of my hometown. Obviously, nobody volunteered to be a "German", as they always die. I have been indoctrinated by this kind of movies and it was quite nostalgic watching Bata Zivojinovic, Peter Karsten, Drago Cumic, Jovan Janicijevic and other great, really great actors in action once again. The movie is well made. There have been better partisan movies made, but I enjoyed the story of this one. I also liked that it was American-Yugoslavian coproduction. Even though America was so frightened of comunism, for some reason they provided resources for filming this movie that celebrates and glorifies communism and partisans.