My review was written in May 1984 after a Times Square screening.
"Fleshburn", lensed last year in the Tucson area under the title of Brian Garfield's novel, "Fear in a Handful of Dust", is a tedious, uneventful low-budget survival drama. Wearying rather than entertaining, B-picture has no perceptible audience in mind.
Filmmakers Beth and George Gage have a modest B-picture storyline to work with. Navajo Indian Calvin Duggal (pronounced "Do-Gay", played by Sonny Landham) has escaped from a mental hospital to wreak vengeance upon the people whose court testimony sent him there as a nutcase, after leaving several men to die in the desert in 1975 as a result of a tribal argument. He speedily captures Shirley (Karen Carlson), her husband Jay (Robert Chimento), a psychiatrist turned forest ranger Sam (Steve Kanaly) and another shrink Earl (Macon McCalman) and strands the foursome in the desert while he hovers around to make sure they don't escape and to prove his "medicine" is stronger than that of the white man.
That's all she wrote, over 90 grueling minutes of running time. At first, Sam's ingenuity in using cacti, rabbits and other materials at hand to prolong their lifespan is intriguing, but the orange-filtered visuals and static, low-on-action dramaturgy heads nowhere. Sam's unbelievable outwitting of Dubba at a nearby springs and non-ending are very disappointing payoffs for the wait.
Cast is capable in very sketchy roles, and Landham, effective as a heavy in Walter Hill's "48 HRS.", has the strong face and physique to qualify for a "Conan"-style assignment. Background musical score is spare but promising in a Jerry Goldsmith-vein, and other tech credits are modest. Director George Gage's earlier feature assignment was the stillborn trend pic "Skateboard", barely released by Universal in 1978.
"Fleshburn", lensed last year in the Tucson area under the title of Brian Garfield's novel, "Fear in a Handful of Dust", is a tedious, uneventful low-budget survival drama. Wearying rather than entertaining, B-picture has no perceptible audience in mind.
Filmmakers Beth and George Gage have a modest B-picture storyline to work with. Navajo Indian Calvin Duggal (pronounced "Do-Gay", played by Sonny Landham) has escaped from a mental hospital to wreak vengeance upon the people whose court testimony sent him there as a nutcase, after leaving several men to die in the desert in 1975 as a result of a tribal argument. He speedily captures Shirley (Karen Carlson), her husband Jay (Robert Chimento), a psychiatrist turned forest ranger Sam (Steve Kanaly) and another shrink Earl (Macon McCalman) and strands the foursome in the desert while he hovers around to make sure they don't escape and to prove his "medicine" is stronger than that of the white man.
That's all she wrote, over 90 grueling minutes of running time. At first, Sam's ingenuity in using cacti, rabbits and other materials at hand to prolong their lifespan is intriguing, but the orange-filtered visuals and static, low-on-action dramaturgy heads nowhere. Sam's unbelievable outwitting of Dubba at a nearby springs and non-ending are very disappointing payoffs for the wait.
Cast is capable in very sketchy roles, and Landham, effective as a heavy in Walter Hill's "48 HRS.", has the strong face and physique to qualify for a "Conan"-style assignment. Background musical score is spare but promising in a Jerry Goldsmith-vein, and other tech credits are modest. Director George Gage's earlier feature assignment was the stillborn trend pic "Skateboard", barely released by Universal in 1978.
