| Ravagers | |
| Director: | Richard Compton |
| Producer: | John W. Hyde executive Saul David |
| Starring: | Richard Harris Ernest Borgnine Ann Turkel Art Carney |
| Music: | Fred Karlin |
| Cinematography: | Vincent Saizis |
| Editing: | Maury Winetrobe |
| Screenplay: | Donald S. Sanford[1] |
| Based On: | novel A Path to Savagery by Robert Edmond Alter |
| Studio: | Cinecorp |
| Budget: | $4 million[2] |
| Distributor: | Columbia Pictures |
| Runtime: | 87 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Ravagers is a 1979 American science fiction action film directed by Richard Compton and based on the 1966 novel Path to Savagery by Robert Edmond Alter.[3] The screenplay concerns survivors of a nuclear holocaust, who do what they can to protect themselves against ravagers, a mutated group of vicious marauders who terrorize the few remaining civilized inhabitants.
In the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, animal-like creatures known as "the ravagers" roam the earth and kill all survivors. A man named Falk (Richard Harris)[4] witnesses his wife's murder by the creatures. Seeking vengeance, Falk becomes a vigilante.
He joins a small community, led by Rann (Ernest Borgnine), living aboard a ship anchored off shore. The ship is destroyed in an attack by the ravagers. Falk then leads his fellow survivors on a desperate quest for a place where they can live in peace.
The film was shot at the Alabama Space and Rocket Center and at the "Three Caves Quarry" at the base of Monte Sano in Huntsville, Alabama. The Three Caves location is unique because it was one of the first limestone quarries in Alabama and for a brief time in 1962 a possible fallout shelter.
Ravagers is part of a long line of Hollywood-backed post-apocalyptic films from the 1970s which are difficult to find on television or home video. In the UK the film was released on Betamax and VHS, where Alana Stewart's voice was dubbed by actress Molly Wryn.[5] [6]
The Los Angeles Times called Ravagers "handsomely produced but relentlessly dull... doesn't have enough story to tell."[7]