danstancu

I was in Romania circa 1987-1988 and saw this movie at the Bulgarian Television channel as we used to have antenna. What is interesting is that there was no season or episodes of this movie but just one movie alone. Must have been the pilot version unless they put it in 2 parts....which is possible. The movie was running on a late night show called Studio X in Bulgary (Bulgaria) and we all (romanians) knew that studio x was the best show for watching a good movie when nothing was on our TV (only Ceausescu propaganda news) So....i remember the name of it and the fact that there was a snake (viper) in the middle of the desert or dry plains.

It is with great pleasure after some old memory recalls to get back to remember and search for this movie....and finally to find it. This was a goof movie from my childhood.

This review is written in English even though the movie was released only in Germany, Hungary, and the filmed country Romania. The language of the film is in Romanian only.

Plot: the overall plot is boring. Until the last 10 minutes of the movie there is almost no action at all. At the end we get to see Margelatu and Buza de Iepure shooting 10 guys.

Cons: The movie's production is so poor that you keep on wondering why was even made. The end of the movie is ridiculous. The soldier was about to drink water when he spotted Margelatu sitting at the pub and ordering a drink. The angle of which the solider spotted Margelatu while he was drinking water did not make any sense. Then all of a sudden more soliders are coming (as if they were communicating with each other via walky-talky) and then the leader of them is telling Agata what is happening as if he was a jurnalist: ok now they are inside. and then Agata tells him to burn them and all of a sudden like in 1 second he tells his soldiers bring the barrels...the entire written plot of this movie is so bad that you don't know if you want to laugh of how stupid it is or you want to tease yourself to accept that there are still more minutes until it finishes. Seriously? Is this the Margelatu saga or the sequel ? It is by far a joke. Actress Marga Barbu at her 53 years acting as if she is 19 years old. Terrible taste. And the worst part is we get to see this old grandmother in all the future Margelatu episodes almost as if someone cursed our eyes to have no choice and see her....one more time. I am really tired to even watch her nevermind about wanting to see the connection between this movie and the next episode. German language is very bad spoken...as if the Germans are emmigrants. Wien (Vienna) or how the actors are pronouncing it for that era "Vianna" is not showing any old buildings or gardens of how they really are instead we get to see Bucharest and other Romanian cities looking like Wien....very poorly created.

Highlights: 1) as usual the actor Florin Piersic plays this episode very good. His German language is actually better than some of the town characters (supposedly born there in Austria) 2) Margelatu's funny gun gets more air footage and we can see it more often than in the previous Drumul Oaselor (Killing road) 3) Buza de iepure (rabbit's lip), another "Robin Hood like" character in Margelatu's series gets born. We learned Margelatu saved his life and in his turn Buza devotes his life to protect him and be on his side.

This review is written in English even though the movie was released only in Germany, Hungary, and the filmed country Romania. The language of the film is in Romanian only.

Plot: the overall plot is boring. Half of the movie there is not much action. Should you consider give the movie an action-adventure genere...I would think twice before hitting that button.

The actors are super old. We are seeing 51 year old Marga Barbu kissing in the end of the movie with Florin Piersic (44 years old.) It is so unethical and immoral to have a 51 year old actress chosen by "Romaniafilm Prezinta" when there were throusands of other younger and more beautiful actresses in 1980 in Romania. This leads me understand that the actress must have got benefits up high and someone from Ceausescu's regime put her in to play. I am pretty sure that it was done on purpose and this had nothing to do with the producer's choice or even more unfair with the actresses' performance. The voices that are dubbed in the movie are almost as if they are robots and not humans. You have to pause the movie and go back a few times before understanding what they were talking about. The language used in the movie is very elegant though. Words like "spurcat" (spoiled) instead of "violat" (rapped). The name "trandafirul galben" (yellow rose) kinda concides with Alain Delon's movie "laleau neagra" (black tulip) only that black tulip was inspired from Alexander Dumas' novel with the same title. The ending of the movie is very good except the fact that you are so happy to see Agatha Slatineanu (Maarga Barbu) disappearing in the water (even though we don't get to see her but only her hat floating)....and to learn that in 1982 another sequel movie is made called "Trandafirul Galben" (yellow rose) where we see Agatha Slatineanu alive...as if she made it ok in the river ...and yet again now a 53 year old actress was really needed for this continuation. Not only that she is old and ugly, but her voice makes you wanna slap her face and tell her up front: shut the hell up lady. You can't play this movie.

And now here are some highlights of this movie:

1) Actor Florin Piersic played very good. 2) The name of the main character Margelatu (Florin Piersic) sounded very good in Romanian language as almost as it personifying him with Zorro. In fact the entire movie is a western-spagehtti with zorro-ish like similarities (the poor vs the rich.) But the name Margelatu is very creative for 1980. 3) The gun that Margelatu is using looks very cool yet funny due to its size. It make you laugh thinking that such a small calibre will shoot someone from such a long distance. But...it is indeed a movie where we soupposed to believe in its fantasy rather than reality. Funny yet original Margelatu throws spirt/alcohol into the gun to make it look like it is a "hot gun" 4) The sunflower that Margelatu carries while chewing seeds from it...makes it very Romanian and original as a western spaghetti film. This is also similar to the Czechoslovakian western spaghetti movie Lemonade Joe from 1964. In this movie, Joe drinks only lemonade and not alcohol where as Margelatu eats only seeds before starting to shoot his gun.

Consumption of your brain - memories that we call in this life holographic imprints.

This movies will remain imprinted in every Christian's mind for a long time if not...forever.

If you are not Christian this movie is not for you.

For the end-to-end Christian this is by far a superb movie. The facts and events portray the truth at its best sculpted deep down from the shadow of the valley and given to your mortal minds to understand.

It is an iconoclast. If you own a bible or you ever bothered in reading it, this movie will save your time in understanding it.

10 stars is simply not enough.

The movie's overall has a great taste for anyone who loves crime and mystery.

For those who know the actor is not worth seeing this movie unless you leave aside your prejudism and think that Sergiu Nicolaescu is not in fact Sergiu Nicolaescu.

The actor here looks old - white hair and rids on his face. Don't judge. This movies implies simplicity and intelligence altogether. The actor does not wear any makeup and leaves his character to be seen as it is.

The plot is not all the way sincere because thats how all mysterious plots are. In the end it is felt and revealed what really happened.

It is a movie that requires patience and analysis. If you possess any of these skills then you will find this movie significant and mesmerizing.

I consider that by far this is an excellent movie.

Dan