Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Savage (Iglehart) is a military man currently in the Philippines. His original mission was to capture the leader of a revolutionary rebel army that's trying to brew an insurrection in the country. When things go wrong, as they often do, Savage goes on the run. Thankfully, before that happens, he meets two female circus performers who team up with him. Vicki (Edmund Jr.) is a knife-thrower, and Amanda (Speed) is a high-wire artist. The three come to realize that what the rebels are fighting for is a worthy cause, so they join up. That's lucky for the rebels, as Savage probably knows more about gun-shooting and hut-exploding than anyone else in the country. And it wouldn't be a Philippines-set/Cirio movie without the presence of Vic Diaz. Will Savage and his fellow rebels come out on top? Or will retaliation be SAVAGE? While most people know this movie as Savage! (don't forget the exclamation point), if they know the movie at all, we saw it as Black Valor, the VHS release on Scimitar/Bingo Video. It is in EP mode and the quality is poor. The colors are so washed out, you can't even read the credits. Of course, there is a highly-obvious superimposed video title where the original title was supposed to be. And the models on the cover are not in the movie. It's puzzling why they thought they had to do all that, as the Blaxploitation craze was long over by the 80's VHS release, and Savage! is a perfectly fine and saleable title. But such was the video store era. You never know what you're going to discover.As for the movie itself, it's probably one of Cirio's weakest. Thankfully, it's only 80 minutes, but it feels longer. You'd really think Savage's travails in the jungle, which include plenty of gun-shooting, exploding huts, punch-ups (and even a few seconds of racquetball) would be enough to carry the movie, but there are many slow moments and the whole outing has a lack of urgency. It could have used more intensity, or - and this may be asking a bit much - character development. But that being said, there is some interesting camera-work at times, the Don Julian score is extremely funky and excellent, far better than the movie deserves, and the presences of Edmund Jr. (Can a woman be a Jr.?) and Speed liven things up. It would have been a total jungle slog without them.Probably the most interesting idea (perhaps the only actual idea) in Black Valor is the fact that the two circus girls (who, let's face it, work for the lowest budget circus of all time) use their circus skills to kill baddies. The knife thrower - who usually throws knives around a nervous participant, now uses her accuracy to throw them into the chests and stomachs of the goons around her. And the trapeze girl uses her agility to flip around stuff and kick bad guys. There's even a Gymkata-esque moment where she - while outside during a chase, mind you - somehow finds what are essentially parallel bars that just happen to be there, so she can hang on and kick people from them. So that was enjoyable, but there should have been more of it. It's almost enough of an idea to support a movie on its own. Also different was, instead of the Prerequisite Torture of the hero, there was the Prerequisite Torture of one of the circus ladies. You'd think it would have been Iglehart. But no.In the end, Savage! AKA Black Valor is a pretty standard jungle/El Presidente outing. It just doesn't have that magical "It" factor - it's really just another movie that you see once and then it sits on a shelf

"Jim Haygood" (James Iglehart) is a mercenary from America who has been hired by a corrupt government in Southeast Asia to help put down a revolt. As it so happens his platoon captures the leader of the rebels who goes by the name of "Moncada" and he turns him over to his superiors. He also turns over a young woman for their interrogation as well. Not long afterward he is shocked to hear that Moncada was murdered and the young woman was repeatedly raped and then also killed. When he angrily confronts his superiors things get out of hand and he is imprisoned and informed that he will be executed soon. Having nothing to lose he attempts an escape and manages to take shelter in a room belonging to two young American women by the names of "Vicki" (Lada Edmund Jr.) and "Amanda" (Carol Speed). Unfortunately, the authorities soon raid the room and although both James and Amanda manage to escape into the jungle, Vicki isn't as fortunate and is forcibly taken to a jail cell to be tortured until she gives them the location of where they can find James. Now rather than reveal any more of the story and risk ruining the film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this movie had potential but wasn't quite as good as it could have been. For starters the combat scenes were a bit too unrealistic. Additionally, the dialogue could have also used some improvement. Even so this wasn't a terribly bad "blaxploitation" picture and I rate it as just slightly below average.

I'm no expert on the whole blaxploitation genre but I have seen, Shaft (1971), TNT Jackson (1974) etc and have to say this film was a big surprise for me.The story of a CIA(or some kind of military special forces adviser) played by James Iglehart as Savage set in some south east Asian country(read:Vietnam) who first helps the dictatorship and then realizes his mistake and turns on his former allies is not new.There are a lot of clichés but this film has some very dark undercurrents that few films in the same genre can match.Savage! (1973)is more reminiscent of The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973) a highly controversial film about a African American who joins up with the CIA and starts a revolution in the USA using the knowledge he acquired from CIA.One wonders whether or not Cirio H. Santiago(director of Savage!) saw The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)or if just one of those strange coincidences? The parallels between the political awareness among americas youth and growth of various organizations like Black Panther Party, Weather Underground etc and the ongoing Vietnam war is strangely reflected in this cheaply made b-movie.Savage behaviour is a reminder of Muhammad Alis refusal to fight in Vietnam. Savage also behaves like a young member of the Black Panther Party and film becomes a metaphor for the internal struggle that USA was going through at that time.However it is a blaxploitation movie filled with fun, action scenes, loose women(and some interracial sex!) especially knife throwing bomb shell Lada Edmund Jr. who is just amazing in this film.Lada Edmund Jr. was a very talented gogo dancer and there are lots of nice clips of her on Youtube.Supported by talented actors like Vic Diaz, Carol Speed etc this a very good blaxploitation film that deserves more attention.Why it is more or less forgotten today is strange but should be seen by anyone who wants to see a different kind of blaxploitation film.

One of the more obscure pictures produced in The Philippines by Roger Corman's New World Pictures, Savage! (or Black Valor, if you're more familiar with the Bingo Home Video release) stars James Inglehart as the titular gun for hire. As the box art informs us, he's 'the toughest, baddest, bravest dude ever to hit the jungle!', and he's certainly the most taciturn. Hired by leering rotter Vic Diaz to help tamp down a righteous local rebellion, Savage switches sides after witnessing the savage rape of a witness and offers his valuable advise to the People's Liberation Army. Inglehart was quite memorable in Russ Meyer's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, but director Cirio Santiago doesn't get much of an effort from him here. Dolly bird Carol Speed seems to be having fun though, and Diaz is, as always, great fun. Don Julian's score is suitably funky, though it's a shame The Meadowlarks couldn't contribute.