''Cut and Run'' () is a 1985 Italian exploitation

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by

Ruggero Deodato Ruggero Deodato (; 7 May 1939 – 29 December 2022) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. His career spanned a wide-range of genres including Sword-and-sandal, peplum, Comedy film, comedy, Drama (film and television), drama, P ...

, co-written by

Dardano Sacchetti Dardano Sacchetti (born 1944) is an Italian screenwriter who often worked with Italian directors Lamberto Bava and Lucio Fulci. Screenwriting Sacchetti was born in 1944, in Italy. His first screen credit was for Dario Argento's film ''The Cat o' N ...

, and starring

Lisa Blount Lisa Suzanne Blount (July 1, 1957 – October 25, 2010) was an American actress and film producer. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year for her performance in ''An Officer and a Gentleman'' (1982), and later ...

, Leonard Mann,

Willie Aames Albert William Upton (born July 15, 1960), known professionally as Willie Aames, is an American actor, film and television director, television producer, and screenwriter. He is widely known for playing Tommy Bradford, one of the children of Tom ...

Richard Lynch Richard Lynch (February 12, 1940 – June 19, 2012) was an American actor best known for portraying villains in films and television. His film credits included '' Scarecrow'', '' The Seven-Ups'' (both 1973), '' God Told Me To'' (1976), '' ...

, Michael Berryman, and

Eriq La Salle Erik Ki La Salle (born July 23, 1962), professionally known as Eriq La Salle, is an American actor, director, writer and producer. La Salle is known for his performance as Dr. Peter Benton in the NBC medical drama '' ER'' (1994–2002; 2008 ...

in his film debut. The film is the third part of Deodato's "Cannibal Trilogy" - preceded by ''

Ultimo mondo cannibale ''Ultimo mondo cannibale'' (English language, English: ''Last Cannibal World''; also known as ''Cannibal'', ''Jungle Holocaust'' and ''The Last Survivor'') is a 1977 Italian cannibal film, cannibal exploitation film directed by Ruggero Deodato a ...

'' (1977) and ''

Cannibal Holocaust ''Cannibal Holocaust'' is a 1980 Italian cannibal film directed by Ruggero Deodato and written by Gianfranco Clerici. It stars Robert Kerman as Harold Monroe, an anthropologist who leads a rescue team into the Amazon rainforest to locate a ...

'' (1980), and follows a news reporter caught in a war between drug traffickers and a murderous cult in the

Amazon jungle The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses , of which are covered by the rainfo ...

Plot

News reporter Fran Hudson and her cameraman Mark Ludman investigate a war in the jungles of South America between drug cartels and the cult-like army of Colonel Brian Horne, a

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

veteran and former associate of

Jim Jones James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American cult leader, preacher and mass murderer who founded and led the Peoples Temple between 1955 and 1978. Jones and the members of his inner circle planned and orchestrat ...

Cast

Production

''Cut and Run'' was originally developed as a project by director

Wes Craven Wesley Earl Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American film director, screenwriter and producer. Amongst his Wes Craven filmography, prolific filmography, Craven worked primarily in the Horror film, horror genre, particularly sla ...

with the working title ''Marimba''. It was initially going to star

Tim McIntire Timothy John McIntire (July 19, 1944 – April 15, 1986) was an American character actor, perhaps best known for his starring roles as Alan Freed in the film ''American Hot Wax'' (1978), as singer George Jones in the television movie ''Stand by ...

Dirk Benedict Dirk Benedict (born Dirk Niewoehner; March 1, 1945) is an American actor and author. He is best known for playing the characters Lieutenant Starbuck in the original ''Battlestar Galactica'' film and television series and Templeton "Face" Peck ...

, and

Christopher Mitchum Christopher Mitchum (born October 16, 1943) is an American film actor, screenwriter, and businessman. He was born in Los Angeles, California, the second son of film star Robert Mitchum and Dorothy Mitchum. He is the younger brother of actor Jame ...

, with a screenplay written by Craven,

, and Luciano Vincenzoni. Shooting took place in

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

and

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. ''Cut and Run'' was one of the earliest Italian films to be shot with live

sync sound Sync sound (synchronized sound recording) refers to sound recorded at the time of the filming of movies. It has been widely used in movies since the birth of sound movies. History Even in the silent film era, films were shown with sounds, often ...

instead of MOS, as most of the cast were American and all dialogue was performed in English. The film was produced in two separate versions, a "softer" R-rated cut intended for the North American market, and a "harder" version for theatrical release in Europe. The latter features additional, graphic kill scenes and gore not present in the former. Several key sequences were shot twice, once with a "soft" take, and a second time with a "harder" take.

Release

The film was released in Italy 8 August 1985. It was released in the United States by

New World Pictures New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment, New World Communications Group, Inc., and New World International) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia com ...

on 2 May 1986.

Home video

After being absent on home video for many years, the film was released on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

by Code Red, with a new 2K restoration of both the R-rated and Unrated cuts.

References

Footnotes

Sources

* *

External links

* * {{Ruggero Deodato 1980s English-language films 1980s Italian films Cannibal-boom films English-language Italian films Films directed by Ruggero Deodato Films scored by Claudio Simonetti Films set in Venezuela Films shot in Venezuela Italian splatter films Italian thriller films Italian adventure thriller films 1985 films 1985 horror films 1985 thriller films Films set in Miami Films shot in Miami English-language horror films English-language thriller films