I found the final shot — Christ looking out at Manhattan with the Twin Towers in centre-frame, all through a warm digital haze — surprisingly poignant. Whether that's due to the film itself, my having seen it as a teenager, or the subsequent passage of time is by now impossible to untangle.
But there is something to this, in spite of/because of its ramshackle nature. (Honestly the very-early digital video is a bit much even for a lover of the…
A sweeping tale of guerrilla warfare in the desert, Bedouin rebels battling the superior firepower of European colonialists— invidious comparisons with Lawrence of Arabia are unavoidable. Still, in itself it's a solid historical epic of the old-fashioned style, with plenty of impressive landscape shots and lavishly staged & energetically executed battles.
(This is somewhat notorious for having been financed by Gadaffi's government — I suppose there were a lot worse things he could have done with the money.)
I feel like if you could look into the daydreams of a basically-well-meaning teenage otaku circa 1986, this is probably what you’d see. Girls in swimsuits shooting laser guns! A mad scientist cackling as he unleashes greebly mutants! Spaceships, explosions, impromptu bathing! All rendered wonderfully in the classic style with a super-vibrant palette, whilst synth-pop plays in the background. As colourful and disposable as neon bubblegum.
Their first album was made in twenty minutes. The second took even longer.
Honestly, this good-natured parody is pretty slight — in parts it comes close to being 'The Beatles but everyone has silly names'. But it's also perfectly charming, a stream of goofy jokes and actually-pretty-good songs that puts a smile on my face and doesn't outstay its welcome.
