Combat Shock

Combat Shock (1986)
Troma
Dir: Buudy Giovanazzo
Starring : Ricky Giovanazzo

Let me start by saying that combat shock is not for everyone.It is a extremely grim take on a post war vets life and the affects the war had taken on him and in all honesty I ave seen more of this type of results from going into war than I have seen the positive side.I am not going into an anti - millitary speech here I am just stating things I have seen from my friends that have been to war.
So with that being said....
Combat Shock starts with our main character Frankie in what appears to be Vietnam and he is narrarting that he is being chsed down by some villagers and sounds coinvincingly paranoid while doing so,We see him gun down a young woman who appears to be a innocent villager and then He awakes as it was apparently a flashback nightmare.From here we see Frankie in his run down New York apartment and we meet his wife Cathy and their one year old son who is badly deformed.It seems that Frankie has no job and no means to support his family and then he recieves a eviction notice which aids him into the later eentually colapse we see later.Upon finding this note he decides to hit the streets in search for work to no avail.On his journeys we learn that he owes money to a shiesty loan shark/pimp/drug peddler Paco and his boys and we see some of frankies Drug addicted friends.The atmosphere in this film is truly grityy and although the performances may be a bit over the top they work well in this film.Everyone just seems digustingand that is what this film attempt to portray ,the pathetic side of life.Without spoiling to much of this film I will just say Frankies day does not unfold well and he periodically has flashbacks which hint that he was held captive by the enemy in war and possibly even snapped and killed his own men.The day seems to continually get worse until frakie gets a gun and then the shit hits the fan leading to a really fucked up and shocking ending sequence, which has to be seen to be beieved.
This film is really good for what went into it and it really gets it’s point across vividly.The film is really grimmy and gritty and the story telling is kind of like a cross between Taxi driver , Eraserhead and Private Parts which in my eyes is awesome.The directors cut of this film is the one to watch and Buddy Givanazzo also directed a few shorts before this film that are cool to and they come with the special edition DVD release from troma.One of Buddy’s shorts I had seen some years ago on one of my favortie movies 1980’s Maniac seems he filmed the short Maniac 2:Mr. Robbie which was meant to be a full length feature but the actor joe Spinell passed while filming which is sad because the Short/Trailer makes it look awesome and I think the duo of Spinell and Giovanazzo would have pulled it off effortlessly.
so my verdict for Combat Shock is
5 out of 5
Not a film for everyone but a film everyone should see definitley.