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Mar 21, 2025 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick

In the nuclear war-ravage wastelands of what was once Texas, a small community maintains a power plant while living in relative peace. Their tranquility is interrupted by the Black One—a ruthless dictator who looks like someone gene-spliced James Tolkan with Bull from Night Court—who shows up with an army of soldiers with bulletproof force fields. He enslaves the peaceful people in his mines and murders their leader, Nexus. It’s up to Nexus’ wife, Maida, and his former Texas Ranger colleagues to overthrow their totalitarian leader, and the only way they can do that is with the help of a local Native American warrior tribe.

If that synopsis sounds like absolute gibberish, well, you probably haven’t watched enough of these Italian, post-nuke Mad Max rip-offs to be interested in a 4K restoration of the ultra-cheap, ultra-shameless 2020 Texas Gladiators (1983), a joint effort from sleaze legend Joe D’Amato and actor-filmmaker George Eastman (of Anthropothagus, The Barbarians and so many others.) In spite of what the title would lead you to believe, only the first ten minutes of the film are set in the year 2020—the bulk of the movie takes place today (!) in the year 2025. The hairstyles, on the other hand, are definitely from the early ‘80s.

These movies were all over the action section of the mom-and-pop video stores back in the day, since all you really needed to produce these post-apocalyptic flicks was a bit of desert and some burned-up trash or condemned buildings strewn about. The covers of the tapes always looked amazing, but the movies never remotely came close to featuring anything as cool as what the artwork promised. 2020 Texas Gladiators was no exception: there aren’t any barbarians riding futuristic rocket-launching motorcycles, but there are skinny dudes on tiny mopeds. We do get a wild mishmash of technologies, however: forcefields and laserguns exist alongside a “Native American” cavalry charge straight out of a Spaghetti Western.

2020 Texas Gladiators is nonsense, but it’s (mostly) entertaining nonsense with an unmistakable Italo flavor. (D’Amato fans know what they’re in for.) The 4K restoration is really stunning considering the source material; while the costumes and makeup look cheap, it’s still a well-enough shot film. Not until a film like this is released in HD or better can you really appreciate the craft that went into making it in spite of its limited resources.

The included documentary, Shoot Me: The Real Story of the Italian Texas Gladiators, is cut together from archival interviews with Joe D’Amato, writer Luigi Montefiori, and assistant director (future director of Stage Fright and Cemetery Man) Michele Soavi. All three are relatively dismissive of the film — the production was as quick and cheap as it looks — but it does shine some light on how the industry worked during that particular peak era. (All three share a sort of love-hate bond with each other; it’s refreshing that they’re not shy about discussing their disagreements on this movie and in their individual filmmaking philosophies.) Actress Geretta Geretta — a staple of Italian exploitation most recognized for her role in Demons (1985) — provides a separate, fun, on-camera interview where she talks about an unlikely career that took her from a New York fashion design school to the film industry in Rome.

The three-disc limited edition release of 2020 Texas Gladiators comes with a much-appreciated soundtrack CD. Carlo Maria Cordio (Schocking Dark, Troll 2, Ator) may not be Goblin or Fabio Frizzi, but his score for 2020 Texas Gladiators is one element of the film that doesn’t feel like it was skimped on. It’s some prime ‘80s Italo synth in all its cheesy glory, and will probably wind up being your most-spun disc from this particular set.

(severinfilms.com/products/2020-texas-gladiators-3-disc-4k-uhd-w-limited-edition-slipcover)