53: Raiders of Atlantis

About this episode

The episode discusses the absurd action movie Raiders of Atlantis and its context within the Italian film industry.

This week we're returning to Italy for a look at one of the dumbest, most baffling action movies ever made, Raiders of Atlantis, aka Atlantis Interceptors, from the notorious Ruggero Deodato of Cannibal Holocaust fame. In this film, a pair of mercenary buddies and a team of scientists from a botched attempt to raise a sunken Russian submarine find themselves stranded on a tropical island in the Atlantic as the feral, violent denizens of lost Atlantis arise from the silent depths of the ocean to reclaim the world. Or something to that effect. It's a desperate fight to survive against wave after wave of road warrior freaks, an race against time to translate an ancient tablet that will restore the ancient civilization, and an endless series of violent gun battles and if I'm being honest, I'm working overtime to make this movie make sense. It's 90 minutes of high-flying nonsense but somehow it ends up being a lot of fun. Shot against the backdrop of Italy's exploitation film industry struggling to find an alternative to the declining horror and giallo markets, it capitalizes on the then-extremely popular trend of Mad Max ripoffs but also tries to tap in to the world's hunger for…

People in this episode

Hosts: Bryan White, Dave White

Topics covered

• action movies
• exploitation films
• Italian cinema
• Mad Max ripoffs
• survival
• ancient civilizations

Keywords

• Raiders of Atlantis
• Ruggero Deodato
• action movies
• Italian cinema
• Mad Max
• survival
• exploitation films

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Raiders of Atlantis, Cannibal Holocaust, Atlantis Interceptors, Raiders of the Lost Ark

Places: Italy, Philippines

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