The 1980s saw no shortage of cinematic offerings from disreputable exploitation directors, most of whom were known for marrying subversive politics with a mastery of down-low, oft-repugnant grindhouse shocks. Consider the films ofLarry Cohen, a prolific genre maverick who has directed landmarks works in the respective subcategories of Blaxploitation (Black Caesar,Hell Up In Harlem), supernatural horror (It’s Aliveand its sequels), werewolf flicks (Full Moon High), andJohn Carpenter-inspired social lampoons (The Stuff). Or how about the cheerfully perverse filmography ofFrank Henenlotter,who gave us the button-pushing likes ofBasket CaseandFrankenhooker? Do we even have to mention Troma’s output during this same period? Seriously, have you guys seenThe Toxic Avenger?
Even when juxtaposed against the rest of this scuzzy bunch,William Lustigstands out from the crowd. Lustig is perhaps best known for 1980’s notoriousManiac– still, to this day, one of the nastiest, sleaziest slashers of the decade, which is really saying something. In later years, Lustig would become (in)famous for his wildManiac Copseries, in which a corrupt police officer is slain in the line of duty before proceeding to rise from the dead to exact murderous revenge. Lustig’s grim 1982 street thrillerVigilanteis also an underrated gem, beating theDeath Wishfilms at their own sadistic game.
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One of Lustig’s more unfortunately overlooked movies isUncle Sam, a hilariously funny and satirically prescient horror-comedy that went straight to video in the mid-90’s and is currently available to stream on the horror home streaming serviceShudder.(Coincidentally,Uncle Samboasts a screenwriting credit from one of the B-movie trailblazers that was mentioned in the first paragraph, Larry Cohen.) It’s easy to see whyUncle Samwas greeted with derision in some circles. It’s a movie that proudly owns its amateurish qualities, often laughing at itself as a form of beating audiences to the punch. In a retrospective write-up that was published by The A.V. Club in 2002, Nathan Rabin pannedUncle Sam, claiming that Lustig’s final movie was “every bit as lazy and uninspired as theManiac Copfilms that preceded it.” Indeed,Uncle Samis deeply silly and undeniably slapdash: that’s part of its charm. It is a true-blue Midnight Movie that punctuates moments of terror with the goofiest manifestations of cartoon brutality that the viewer can imagine.
And yet… and yet. It would seem that, withUncle Sam, Lustig and Cohen were after a lot more than simply rehashing themes and techniques from their old work. Look past the hammy dialogue and over-the-top gore, and you’ll find a surprisingly cutting critique of jingoistic fearmongering, military fetishism, and toxic nationalism disguised as patriotism. Much like theManiac Copfilms indirectly address police brutality by couching an incensed political message in the Trojan Horse of a grimy drive-in movie experience,Uncle Samaddresses our nation’s cyclical, still-ongoing love affair with the military industrial complex by setting a murderous fascist zombie loose in an apple-pie American suburb.
What is ‘Uncle Sam’ About?
Uncle Samis the story of Sam Harper, an American military sergeant who is killed in Kuwait as a result of friendly fire in the movie’s first scene. Even when his corpse is transported back to the States just in time for his hometown’s 4th of July celebration, mourning is kept to a minimum. This isn’t because Sam’s family are sociopaths who are averse to grieving – rather, it’s because everyone in the family seems to acknowledge that Sam was kind of a terrible dude - the kind with a penchant for substance abuse, as well as other, more innately cruel forms of harm directed at other, more vulnerable individuals in his life. Sam’s sister, when we meet her, is handling the affairs related to her late brother’s expiry. A great deal of screentime is languished on her son, Jody, who adores and worships the United States military and dreams of one day fighting to defend America in the same way that his Uncle Sam (get it?) did.
In scene after scene, Jody is shown either playing with toy soldiers, or extolling the virtues of our country’s military might to his visibly overwhelmed mother. In any other film of this sort, Jody would simply be another precocious, motor-mouthed young kid who exists to stand up to and inevitably vanquish the Big Bad near the climax. Here, he’s a stand-in for a country too enamored by the residual cultural side effects ofRed Dawn,Rambo,and other hyper-patriotic movies to process the very real collateral damage of what he’s unwittingly romanticizing.
At first, the viewer is left to deduce that Uncle Sam himself is merely choosing to violently dispatch with any poor soul who dares to offend his brazenly pro-America views. By the end of Lustig’s film, the bloodshed is all-consuming, entirely wholesale, and we’re left to observe that what the filmmakers really see at the core of their villain’s unwavering sense of flag-waving tribal pride is a kind of defeated nihilism. There is nothing left for this broken individual to do, even in death, but indiscriminately dish out more pain and abuse.
There are plenty more surprises in store for those who decide to strap in and take the ride withUncle Sam: a handful of incredibly creative kills (one of the more memorable examples sees reanimated death-zombie Sam adopting a particularly macabre new manner of hoisting the American flag), a Civil War-era battle cannon used as a weapon, and none other thanIsaac Hayes(who, as he proved inEscape From New York, is no stranger to this sort of movie), lending this otherwise knowingly junky thrill ride an authentic sense of pathos. As ridiculous asUncle Samoften is – and it is very, very ridiculous indeed – the movie is also informed by a genuine sense of outrage that renders it, against all odds, one of William Lustig’s most curiously enduring works.
It is easy to scoff and laugh at movies like this. It is easy to look down on this sort of material and feel like you’re the smartest person in the room. In some ways, one could argue that the filmmakers actively invite this type of scorn. The Lustig’s and Cohen’s of the world seem to enjoy making dirty, fun, irreverent pictures in this vein; why should they worry about what critics think? Yet, the political message ofUncle Samhits harder for not being shoved down your throat. To its credit, Lustig’s swan song gives you your dessert first, then your veggies: you come for the sight of a villainous American mascot traipsing through a suburban borough at night on stilts that would look oversized on a giraffe, but you stay in your seat for the cogent social commentary.
