Barbarian Queen was a 1985 sword-and-Sandal fantasy action film directed by Héctor Olivera, written by Howard R. Cohen and produced by B-movie king Roger Corman as part of his nine picture deal that included shooting several films in Don Torcuato, Argentina. The cast includes six foot bombshell Lana Clarkson, actress turned writer/director Katt Shea, Frank Zagarino, Dawn Dunlap, Armando Bó's son Víctor Bó, Susana Traverso, Andrea Barbieri and Tony Middleton. The film was one in a series of fantasy films Corman shot in that country throughout the 1980s, including Deathstalker (1983), The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984), Wizards of the Lost Kingdom (1985), Amazons (1986) and Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans (1987). Most of these films recycled the same sets, props, costumes and even footage, each movie recycling more and more resources.
The wedding of Queen Amethea is interrupted by a gang of bloodthirsty soldiers following the orders of Lord Arrakur. Her groom is captured and her sister is raped. Amethea unites with her handmained, Estrild, and a warrior, Tiniara, in order to rescue her loved ones and defeat the man who caused her such pain.
Without much to brag about, Barbarian Queen functions very smoothly and without issues as a likable and fast paced fantasy flick with all of the ingredients that make this type of formula work: cheap attires that add to the drab ancient look, lots of violence and nudity for the sake of exploitation that makes the whole ordeal sleazy, captivating characters that fall into archetypes but that are decently played by the cast, a simple but ultimately engaging storyline that has all the emotion and rawness needed to entertain and a particular rhythm that makes things more digestable. It's a pretty complete package, it goes along well with the technical skills of Hector Olivera and his wonderful directing as the film is well blocked and expertly lit, giving a lot of texture and grittiness to the images.
While the characters are not profoundly explored they are very well defined, which gives the routine plotline some more substance. The performers do their job very well and the three main ladies stand out both because of their skills and their physicality seen on the frame. They really do have some screen presence. We also get some cheap and silly but endearing special effects that are not that bad considering that it's such a meager production. The film's biggest flaws are the more misogynistic components and the lack of investment in the bonding or interactions between the female leads themselves.
The fact that this was a low budget genre film should already give you a hint of how sleazy this film is going to be. Some will find shocking the fact that a film with a semi-feminist message ends up exploiting women and has some lurid nudity and sexual assault as a form of spectacle for the public but a lot of these contradictions are why exploitation movies are fascinating. By having to appeal to the market they can also inject some thoughtful commentary or ideas without having to lose the audience. Nothing wrong with touching upon subjects directly, but having this distance and paradoxical nature does give us some very interesting results. It should also be said that this is a common thing for Corman, especially considering how there's small remains of The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957) throughout this film, only updated and modified to fit the Conan rip-off mold.
Overall, this is a good sword-and-sandal item of the eighties with enough virtues and interesting implications in its subtext.
No comments:
Post a Comment