White Fire Blu Ray Review (Arrow Video)

White Fire (aKa Vivre Pour Survivre & Le Diamant) is a 1984 action film written, produced, & directed by Jean-Marie Pallardy (Emmanuelle 3, Emmanuelle goes to Cannes, Foxtrap, & Overdose). It was produced by Alan G. Rainer (The Game & The Butterfly Ball). Bo (played by: Robert Ginty from The Exterminator 1/2, Maniac Killer, Mission Kill, Warrior of the Lost World, & Madhouse) & Inga (played by: Belinda Mayne from Krull, Alien 2: On Earth, Nightkill, & Don’t Open Till Christmas) are jewel thieves who target the legendary ‘White Fire’ diamond. A priceless rock so hot it actually burns those who try to lay their hands on it!

When a minor discovers the rare diamond, he goes to Olaf (played by: Gordon Mitchell from Bikini Drive-In, Blood Delirium, Evil Spawn, & She) but he gets killed for his expensive secret. This sets off a chain of crazy events that’s full of greed & disaster. When tragedy strikes, Bo undertakes an outrageous plan involving plastic surgery & explosives to infiltrate the mine where the diamond awaits to be found. Bo’s plan hits an unexpected snag with the arrival of smooth-talking assassin Noah Barclay (played by Fred Williamson from Dusk ‘Til Dawn, Starsky & Hutch, VFW, Hell Up in Harlem, Boss, Bucktown, & Black Caesar). Noah’s hunting for a missing prostitute & he thinks these two criminal siblings hold the key to her disappearance. As time goes by, their mission gets more dangerous. No one can be trusted here!!!!

This one is very obscure, the actual movie will barely pop up if you google it. You will mainly find a variety of pictures & information on a unique marijuana with the same name instead. I never heard of it until the great folks at Arrow Video announced it for this blu ray release. Are you into so bad that it’s good flicks? If so, you will have a blast with this batshit crazy action film from the 80’s. It has the awesome combination of horrible dubbing, over the top acting, cheesy villains with impressive mustaches, Herschell Gordon Lewis gore, explosions, incest, full frontal nudity, chainsaw fights, & Fred Williamson. If all of that don’t sell you on this then White Fire probably isn’t for you. This feature never takes itself serious, it was made for pure entertainment & fun. Fred Williamson has the best performance & role here. Robert Ginty & Belinda Mayne are solid here but they “ham it up” in this. Belinda Mayne is the reason to watch White Fire, she’s excellent eye candy & she shows off the goods for White Fire. It had all kinds of action including the amazing chainsaw fight that I mentioned above. The fight scenes were very weird & unintentionally hilarious at times. Yes, this low budget movie is awful but it’s a fun viewing experience. Plus the the theme song, score, & overall music is really good here. It takes you back to the 80’s & it fits this production perfect. This would be the perfect type of flick to enjoy with some friends while drinking or something else on the weekend. Considering how wild it is, this definitely has some great replay value to it. You have to see this at least once in your life because there’s really not much like it out there.

Let’s talk about the high definition presentation from Arrow Video! This 1080p (1.78:1) transfer is the best possible version of this rarely seen action film. It’s actually longer than some of the previous home video releases that looked terrible so this brand new blu ray may not be reference quality but it’s a massive upgrade compared to the past. It has two different audio options which includes English: LPCM 2.0 Mono & French: LPCM Mono on the release. The audio is big improvement over all the older & low quality material from back in the day. The dialogue is very clean, all the action has a killer boost to it, & the music is elevated here. Speaking of the music, the theme song for this will get stuck in your head for days after viewing it. It also has English SDH subtitles.

Let’s discuss the special features from Arrow Video. It has an “Audio Commentary” with Diabolique’s own Kat Ellinger. She’s been popping up on all kinds of home video releases lately. She is always fun to check out when it comes to commentaries. Considering how crazy & rare this film is, I am very impressed that she knows so much about it. You actually learn a decent amount about it’s history & production here. “Enter the Hammer” is a little over 11 minute interview with action icon Fred Williamson. He talks how black stars were being low balled in Europe for their films at the time but refused & held out for a bigger payout. He chats about how he got involved with this project. He goes over his experience with the cast & crew. He made sure they knew his rules before he accepted the role. He says that he directed & put together his own fight scenes in White Fire. He mentions how all the other fights were too staged, weird, & edited real sloppy for this. He calls White Fire a so bad it’s good film. “Surviving the Fire” is a little over 22 minute interview with director Jean-Marie Pallardy. It’s in French with English subtitles. He chats about his erotic film career. He brings up that he didn’t have much luck making films in France so he shot them in other countries. He talks about doing normal films after establishing himself as a x-rated filmmaker. He goes over how the cast was put together & his experience with them. He says that the investors basically picked out who they wanted to be in White Fire for their money. He mentions that he actually wanted to cast Robert Forster & a few others but he didn’t have much control over it. He brings up that actor Fred Williamson helped direct a few action scenes for this. He covers incest, editing, & the famous chainsaw fight also. “Diamond Cutter” is an almost 21 minute interview with editor Bruno Zicone. He talks about how he got started in the film industry as an editor. He mentions some directors that he has worked with. He talks about how he met Jean-Marie Pallardy & started working on his erotic films under an alias. He goes over his experience on White Fire including how he put together some of the violence while using animal parts for the special fx. It has a brand new “Trailer” for the film. It also has a slipcover, reversible artwork with the original poster & a 24 page booklet with all kinds of pictures plus information about the production. Can’t believe this got such a great release, that’s why you have to love Arrow Video. They bring back some of the most unknown & rarely seen films back to home video. This is available everywhere right now!!!!