Final Justice
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Final Justice | |
|---|---|
 DVD Cover |
|
| Directed by | Greydon Clark |
| Produced by | Greydon Clark |
| Written by | Greydon Clark |
| Starring | Joe Don Baker Rossano Brazzi Venantino Venantini Patrizia Pellegrino Bill McKinney Helena Abella Lino Grech Tony Ellul |
| Music by | David Bell |
| Cinematography | Nicholas Josef von Sternberg |
| Editing by | Larry Bock |
| Distributed by | Arista Films |
| Release date(s) | May 1985 (USA) |
| Running time | 90 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | Unknown |
| IMDb profile | |
Final Justice is a 1984 film starring Joe Don Baker and directed by Greydon Clark. It follows the exploits of a Texas sheriff who overturns a Maltese city to find the bad guy who killed his partner. The film was lampooned in 1999 on Mystery Science Theater 3000. It is the second Joe Don Baker film to be riffed on MST3K, following Mitchell, to which a few references are made in this episode.
Joe Don Baker plays Texas "lawman" Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III, a beefy sheriff and avid milk drinker. His partner, the former sheriff, is killed by an Italian mobster. He finds the criminal, a man named Joseph Palermo, and escorts him back to Europe, only to lose him in the capital city of Valletta in Malta. He then thumbs his nose at local law enforcement and uses all the tactics of Texas justice to pursue Palermo. A cat-and-mouse game follows, with fistfights and car & boat chases.
The film contained a notoriously cyclical plot. It would begin at a hole-in-the-wall bar called The Smuggler's Tavern, populated by a bartender with an attitude, a crowd of Mediterranean bad guys, and triangle-clad strip dancers. The jukebox continuously played You Better Run, the film's theme song. The sheriff would get a tipoff, then would search the city. Property damage and violence would result, followed by Sheriff Geronimo being thrown into jail. Police Superintendent Mifsud would chew him out, let him go, and the sheriff would be back at the bar, and so forth. The producers were able to recycle a considerable amount of footage in this revolving sequence.
The film also contains a very prominent editing mistake; in the scene near the beginning of the film where Geronimo's boss, the sheriff (played by director Greydon Clark) dies, there is a shot of the partner getting killed and collapsing to the ground. Moments later, the exact shot is repeated.
