MICHAEL SOPKIW
Hell-O, Freex! Before I get into the subject at hand, let me first welcome everybody to what will be my monthly column here at good ol' BthroughZ. Every month I will explore the underbelly of horror and exploitation cinema from around the world - the trashier the better! From American slashers to Eurosleaze to Asian weirdfests - all will have a place here. Don't expect thorough reviews, just my thoughts on some of my favorite films and the people involved with them and why 'in my opinion' they worth viewing. Also I should point out that while I may praise some bad movies here, I do know the difference between a "good" movie and a "bad" movie - I just happen to enjoy bad movies more and what is good or bad is really a matter of perception anyways - so please don't take what I say here so seriously…as most horror fans seem to do.
I stand proudly as a fan of Italian exploitation here at BthroughZ, much to the disdain of our head honcho, Jamie and a few other contributors I'm sure. At the same time I can understand why some people (squares really) do not like Italian b-movies or any Euro-exploitation/horror for that matter - it's almost as if European filmmakers are coming from a different state of consciousness. Nonlinear storytelling can be a real turn off as can a lack of any real plot or movies that assume that everyone believes in the supernatural. If I may focus on just horror for a second, American horror movies are like pop music - it has a pattern that everyone is familiar with, it's made for mass appeal, it gets more attention and is more 'pop'-ular than other forms of music. Eurohorror is more like really artsy progressive rock - there is no set pattern, the songs can be long and self-indulgent (i.e. boring) and they usually feature strange subject matter in the lyrics. I hate most modern pop music and I hate most modern horror, I love progressive rock from the 70's and I love Eurohorror from the 70's, I love 80's pop music and I love 80's American horror - coincidence? I think not. What does all this mean? Fuck if I know. Let's move on, shall we?
In my opinion the greatest era for horror and exploitation was the 70's and the early 80's. A lot of films were churned out in those days and a lot of them were loaded with mindless violence and tons of explicit t&a - shamelessly I might add. This was before the age of political correctness and as long as a film got asses in the seats, moviemakers didn't care what the hell was put on the screen and God love 'em for it! Most of what got spat out on the silver screen in those days was pure trash, exploitive and nasty...these are compliments by the way and no country had a clear conscience - exploitation came from all over the world, but the Italians seemed to have exploitation down to a fine art. Who were they exploiting? Mainly American movies, taking key plot points and putting their own twisted spin on them. Case in point, Sergio Martino's 2019: After The Fall of New York – a not so subtle rip-off of John Carpenter's Escape From New York - from a glance anyways. What the film takes from Escape is the idea of an anti-hero loner sent on a rescue mission that takes place in New York City in a dystopian future. Rip-off? Sure, but to say 2019 is a carbon copy of Escape would be an incredible injustice, but I'm not hear to discuss Sergio Martino's post-apocalyptic cheesefest (anyone interested in that can find my review of that film on YouTube), I'm here to discuss the star of that film, Michael Sopkiw - the best b-movie actor that you've (probably) never heard of.
Sopkiw only made 4 films in his entire career and he was the leading man in each film. Before he became an actor, Sopkiw sailed ships for a living and that ended badly…
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"Well, back in the '70's, I took up sailing yachts and later ships for about 7 years after a year of college in Miami. To make a long story shorter, I ended up in our Federal Correctional Institutes (seems my cargo of marijuana was frowned upon by the Drug Enforcement Agency) for 1 year of a 2 1/2 year sentence." *
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After prison he ended up doing some modeling which is no surprise because he's a handsome devil. He also studied acting in New York City which eventually lead him to Europe where he was discovered by Sergio Martino and based mostly on his leading man looks nailed the part of poorly named, Parsifal in 2019: After the Fall of New York or 2019 - Dopo la caduta di New York for the purists. The role was basically a mock version of Snake Plisken, Kurt Russell's character from Escape From New York. For his first starring role - not to mention his first film period - he gives a pretty damn good performance. Given the horrible dialogue and cheaper than cheap looking sets, Sopkiw could have gave a shitty performance and nobody would have noticed, but that fact that he gave a good performance enhanced the likeability of the movie overall.
His next role will be familiar with some fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Sopkiw would star in the extremely lame Jaws rip-off, Devil Fish directed by the son of the great Mario Bava - the not-so-great, Lamberto Bava. The film is pretty bad and has no redeeming value, but as an unintentional comedy. That being said, Sopkiw still stands out as a positive force in a crappy movie. For a film like Devil Fish it would have been excusable to sleepwalk through a performance, but Sopkiw being the champ that he is, gives his all and of course this would just lead to yet another leading role.
Arguably, Sopkiw's best role was in his next movie, Blastfighter, also directed by Lamberto Bava, which proves how much Bava's career was hit or miss (mostly miss). Devil Fish sucked ass while Blastfighter is pretty good much like Bava's Demons is incredible and the sequel blows goat wad. Anyways, Blastfighter is a kick ass action movie that is very Amercianized and it could easily stack up against most 80's American action flicks like First Blood and Commando (to name a few). The story is about an ex-cop named Jake "Tiger" Sharp that hides out in a mountain town after assassinating his wife's killer. While laying low Tiger is confronted by a bunch of howling rednecks that are poach hunting near his hideout and the rednecks "don't take to kindly to his kind 'round these parts" if you know what I mean. Tiger ends up in a war with the rednecks, that are really up to no good, and much ass kicking ensues. Did I mention Tiger has an experimental rifle? A gun called (what else?) "The Blastfighter", a gun with enough firepower to make anybody a one-man war machine. Unfortunately, Blastfighter has not yet had a DVD release in the states due to a lot of legal red tape that the film's studio is tangled up in.
Michael Sopkiw's last performance (the last to see the light of day anyways) was Michele Massimo Tarantini's Nudo e selvaggio or Massacre in Dinosaur Valley or Cannibal Ferox 2 or whatever other aliases it goes by. While Blastfighter may have been Sopkiw's best movie, I think his role as Kevin Hall in Massacre at Dinosaur Valley may be his best performance. Massacre in Dinosaur Valley may seem like just another Italian cannibal flick, but it's actually closer to an adventure movie the likes of Indiana Jones (albeit a poor man's Indiana Jones) than say, Cannibal Holocaust. If anything Massacre shows Sopkiw had the skills to be a leading man and the fact this was his last film is a real bummer. The movie itself is actually a pretty fun movie if you don't take it too seriously. Sopkiw's character is a paleontologist in Brazil collecting for dinosaur bones. He hitches a ride on comuter plane that is flying over a dinosuar fossil hotbed called Dinosaur Valley. The plan ends up crashing and the passengers, including a whacked out ex-soldier on a powertrip, his bitchy wife, some smutrag models, their photographer, another palentologist and his daughter, all end up stranded in the jungle. Of course the area is crawling with cannibals and they have to fight to survive as they are taken out one by one along the way. Nothing new and exciting, but for all it's silliness, the film is actually well made.
The performance by Sopkiw, yet again, is the standout. If given the opprotunity Sopkiw could have been the next big action star in Amercia or at least a cult star the likes of Bruce Campbell - whom he reminds me of a lot in some aspects. Attempts to make it in Hollywood were in vain and Sopkiw retired from acting...
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"I've pretty well given it up. My girlfriend of 13 years is an opera singer and one artist in the house is really enough! My door is open for the right script or even of a promise of enough fun!" *
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With that I say - what the fuck? Why is no one hiring this guy? From interviews I've seen (the Shriek Show DVD of Massacre In Dinosaur Valley has a great one) the guy is very cool and charismatic and he still has his looks! The four films that he starred in are really just a huge tease as it's very obvious the best was yet to come - someone please put this guy in front of a camera again! Michael Sopkiw - where are you?!
According to wikipedia, Michael has given up acting and went on to study medicinal plant science. He launched a company, Miron Glass, in California where he creates special glass bottles designed to protect plants from the sun.
Oh well...I guess I have to settle for watching my bootleg copy of Blastfighter, yet again.
Later, Freex!
* Quotes taken from http://www.post-apocalypse.co.uk/sopkiw.html
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