Renegade / They Call Me Renegade (1987) – 3/5

The young Hill’s final movie

„They Call Me Renegade“ or just „Renegade“ is an Italian movie in the English language from 1987, so this one has its 35th anniversary this year. It runs for approximately 1.5 hours and the director is Enzo Barboni and he is of course a man who has worked on several films starring Bud Spencer and Terence Hill. Those days were pretty much a thing of the past though at that point already, but we still have Hill in here and he is also one of the three writers. He directed several of his movies, but not this one here. Another writer is Marco Barboni, the son of Enzo and he has also collaborated with both his dad and Hill on other occasions. He was in charge of penning the story for two Hill films back in 2009. The last writer from the trio is Sergio Donati. He is maybe not as much part of the circle, but he has so many credits and one is also a real classic of the western genre, namely „C’era una volta il West“. He seems retired now, but pretty impressive body of work and as he is almost 90 and thus still another five years older than Hill, so he sure deserves a quiet retirement. This means that Hill was around the age of 50 in this film here. Completely unrelated, I read the other day that Hill finally officially became a German citizen and this is no surprise because I see he has a German mother and the woman he has been married to for many decades now also has a German(-sounding) name. At least before she took his name, so maybe I should say „had“. Anyway, with this film here, there are also a few things to say about the cast. Third credit was Ross Hill, who was adopted by Terence Hill as a baby and he was a teenager in this film and pretty much a co-lead almost you could say. There is real tragedy to him as he died in a car accident in 1990 when he was still considerably under the age of 20 and it seemed as if Hill was moving forward with turning his son into an actor as well. But fate went in the way and he only appeared in two films. Ironically, London-born actor Norman Bowler, who plays Ross Hill’s character’s father in this film, is still alive at the age of 90 now. He is somewhat known for a different kind of Avengers release. So Terence Hill only has one son left now and he is the biological father of that one and also worked with him on a few projects, just not in front of the camera.

The second credit here is Robert Vaughn and for the large part of the film we do not even know there is a main antagonist in this film really. But it becomes obvious when these lawyers arrive to „convince“ (the) Hill’s character(s) to sell the house. It still takes a while though until we finally get to see Vaughn in person, even if the way he enters the picture then is kinda epic, almost a bit exaggerated in the sense of how we witness a big star (okay, he was an Oscar nominee already at that point, but was he really this much of an icon?) when he sits there on his chair and turns around and tells Hill’s character something along the lines how it was the worst thing he could have done to come there right into the lion’s den. Not long there until Hill’s character jumps out of the closed window to get away before the bad guy’s helpers can shoot him. Like some kind of Superman though, he has no injuries. The story there develops in a completely different direction. All the western elements from the almost 60 minutes before that are gone. I will get to those a little later. As for the plot inclusions I just mentioned I must still say that this was where I liked the film the least. It was not bad or anything, but just weaker compared to all the scenes before that. The scene when this gigantic amount of bikers comes to help Hill’s character there in the desert was also not half as iconic as it could have been sadly. I still think American patriots will enjoy it. So yeah, there you also see why it is an English-language movie with where it is set and of course Hill’s English was also flawless at that point. Anyway, now I really wanna talk about the scenes before all this. I think it was a pretty top-notch western and it was closer to being a great film than to being a weak film for the most part. „Good“ would be a nice adjective to choose. You really get all you could ask for. Some bar brawling, a decent soundtrack (Lynyrd Skynyrd), the scene with the special card at the dartboard was quite something. We also get a few cute girls from a settler father or so, at least a man with a very long beard, and those were pretty indeed. Pretty pretty. Hill’s character and his son’s character would surely agree.

I mentioned the people that made this film and especially the inclusion of the Barbonis here and as they worked on Spencer/Hill films too, this movie here did have a touch of those others without a doubt. It became obvious for example when Hill was fighting the biker boss on one occasion and for once it was not a one-sided affair, but they both had their moments like when Spencer and Hill (or their respective characters) fought each other in the movies. The biker boss was also pretty big and strong. Actually, I found it fairly funny when we see the two fight there and the two teenage boys stand there and realize they knew and helped each other in the past and they chat like buddies while behind them the two grown-ups physically fight each other. One of the most hilarious moments for me there and also nice camera work, but as I stated earlier already, the bikers are not the bad guys either. They come to help in the end and Hill and the biker boss clearly respect each other for being equally strong. It was still a bit strange when the police arrived finally that all the bikers were applauding. Now this is nothing you are gonna see anytime soon in the 2020s. At least not here in Germany. Bikers and police are not friends at all. Looks like things were different back then in America. Good for them. Harmony is always appreciated. Oh yeah, I must also talk about this very big black truck. Now that was one hell of a vehicle and resulted in another western scene I liked, well more modern western scene as this did not take place centuries ago and we have motors in the truck and also in the Hills‘ characters‘ vehicle obviously. It was funny to watch though and I really liked the idea of bringing this scene back as some kind of closure in the end and that final scene was just as hilarious as the earlier one. You could really wonder with the way the film ended if there would be a sequel at some point. It seemed possible, but as I stated earlier fate got in the way.

Terence Hill planned on casting his son as a crucial character in the then upcoming Lucky Luke movie, but it was not meant to be. You can still find parallels. I mean Hill plays a character named Luke here and he has a horse. The shape of things to come perhaps. A bit of a look at the future then. The Lucky Luke film still got made despite Hill’s son’s untimely death. I kinda thought the horse would play a bigger role in this movie here, but after the scene at the very start, it is pretty much gone for the rest of the film. Well, it is still there, but does not really have any impact on the story anymore. Also it is not talking like Jolly Jumper. I kinda expected the horse to return to Hill’s character quickly afterwards and boom that is what it did. Hill’s character expected the same and knew the horse would return. You see I hesitate a bit with calling him Renegade here as I am not really sure about the meaning of this term, but I think it is also linked to the second half of the film and the revelation about Vaughn’s character and his true identity in the past. This was also nothing that impressed me too much I have to admit. I remember a Bud Spencer film and I think Hill was a part of that movie too where they played police officers and there was a similar twist that the main antagonist had a new identity and kept hiding his past as a criminal. Well, here Vaughn’s character was not a criminal in that sense, but from another perspective. Not gonna go into detail there. Watch the film if you wanna know.

In the end, it all unfolds nicely and good triumphs. Totally triumphs even as the child character’s father is even released from jail and the bad guy is taken to jail instead of him. This was an even happier ending than I expected. I was nicely entertained pretty much from beginning to end if we ignore some slightly underwhelming twists in the second half and these were also made up for by the really hilarious aforementioned ending again when our heroes run a second time (or third if we count the bar fight) into the two minor antagonists that are driving the big black truck. I think there is no way you come across this film without knowing Hill (and Spencer) already from other movies as it is definitely not among his/their most seen films, so you should be able to decide yourself if this is your kind of genre or preferred entertainment. I liked it. I think it is underseen and I suggest you give it a go if it is on television again or if you find it somewhere else. It is admittedly not really much of a factor anymore and it surely deserves more and better exposure. Thumbs-up.