Sword and Sorcery Movies Movie Review

There's something about a man with a big sword…particularly if he's up against the forces of darkness in a primeval world. Tales of heroic warriors are of course among the oldest stories told. Later on, in the boring old 20th Century, writers like Robert E. Howard would appropriate the best elements of the old sagas for stories set in magical worlds that never existed. Countless pulp stories and paperback novels established the barbarian hero as an archetype of modern fantasy.

It took the movies a while to catch up, though. Before the ‘80s, U.S. and British directors had made impressive use of the legends of King Arthur and the Arabian Nights. Many of these, like Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad movies, are still wonderful. Russian director Alexander Ptushko drew on the myths of his homeland to create the truly epic The Sword and the Dragon. Hercules movies were all the rage in Italy in the ‘60s, and a number of Asian films of the same era also drew on heroic legendry.

But it wasn't until fantasy role-playing games began getting press in the late ‘70s that budget-strapped filmmakers started to take notice. The success of fantasy films like Dragonslayer and John Milius’ long-awaited film version of Conan the Barbarian in 1982 made a sword-and-sorcery boom seem inevitable. Why not make some movies to take advantage of this latest fad? Any local forest would do for a set; clothe your actors in fake-fur loincloths, rent some swords from a costume shop, some low-rent special effects and you got yourself a modest blockbuster, right?

Well, in theory maybe, but the results could be less than overwhelming. Take Sorceress, for instance, the tale of a young warrior queen in a pseudo-medieval kingdom. This film by cult-film legend Jack (Spider Baby) Hill is so bad it's been known to make grown Conan fans weep. Sorceress‘ Neanderthal cheesecake look, however, became a staple of the new genre, as witness such low-rent wonders as Barbarian Queen and Amazons. Love those chainmail-and-rabbitskin bikinis! Italian director Luigi Fulci, best known for his zombie movies, contributed Conquest, whose villainess wears little more than a metal mask. Other films of this type at least tried to tell a good story. The Sword and the Sorcerer in 1982 featured a high-tech flying sword that looked like something from a medieval James Bond's private arsenal. Beastmaster spawned two sequels with its appealing use of friendly animals as plot-devices. Deathstalker, with former Playboy Bunnie Barbie Benton as the heroine, also inspired sequels, but was far hokier.

Entertainingly cheap sword-and-sorcery films have become a little less popular these days, but the success of TV shows like Hercules, The Legendary Journeys, and Xena, Warrior Princess suggest that quest for the perfect fantasy is likely to continue for some time.