What did I just see? T. Fikret Uçak’s 1973 film 3 Dev Adam is the story of the Turkish Captain America. Having just seen Captain America: Brave New World, my complaints are the same, but its production values are hundreds of millions of dollars off.
Captain America (Aytekin Akkaya), girlfriend Julia (Deniz Erkanat), and his trusty masked wrestler sidekick, El Santo (Yavuz Selekman), have been sent to Turkey to foil the plans of the notorious villain Spider-Man (Tevfik Şen).
Spider-Man is stealing ancient artifacts from rich people around the world and murdering them at the same time (often when they shower). He then sells them to unsuspecting buyers only to buy them back using counterfeit U.S. Dollars. His plan has caught the attention of the U.S. government and the Turkish Mafia, who want Spider-Man captured at any cost.
Captain America and El Santo always seem one step behind Spider-Man. When anyone gives them intel on his location, Spider-Man exacts revenge on anyone who tells the duo where he is “be-headed.”
“Spider-Man is stealing ancient artifacts from rich people around the world and murdering them at the same time (often when they shower).”
3 Dev Adam is about as cheap a superhero film as it gets. Produced in 1973, the tale has an Italian Eurocult/Adam West Batman vibe to it. The women are sexy, the heroes are good-looking, and the costumes are cheap as hell. I can’t get enough of the lousy Foley featuring footsteps that sound like horseshoes.
I mentioned Brave New World earlier. Like Brave New World, the story is all about action. Captain America moves from one scene of exposition to another scene of action. Dare I say, Captain America is Captain America in name only. It’s amazing that he speaks fluent Turkish and rarely says anything in English. He’s not exactly representing America and its virtues—he’s a crime fighter. His only skill is that he’s an exceptional fighter with a bulletproof costume. Then there’s Spider-Man, who dons green and red tights with a spider logo on it. He’s agile in his movements, and his webs are bullets.
I admire how 3 Dev Adam tries to take advantage of international trademark laws and produce what I believe is Spider-Man’s first movie. The flaws are too numerous to count, but the filmmakers at least had an excuse in this case. What we have is a D-Movie with a tiny budget and a not-so-sophisticated Turkish crew that wanted to make a superhero film for the pure love of it.
I can’t recommend this movie, but I can say I’m glad I saw 3 Dev Adam out of morbid curiosity and insane nostalgia. It’s refreshing to see a crew try to make a superhero film with very few resources, only to then watch Disney fail to make a superhero film and realize that money alone can’t guarantee a blockbuster.
"…What did I just see?"
