The Arena (1974) Movie Review

The Arena (La rivolta delle gladiatrici, Naked Warriors) is a 1974 exploitation sword-and-sandal film directed by Steve Carver (Big Bad Mama), produced by Roger Corman (along with the Italian company Rover Film) and written by the couple of John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington. It stars blaxploitation queen Pam Grier, Margaret Markov (who also paired up with Grier in Black Mama White Mama), Lucretia Love, Paul Muller and Daniele Vargas. The film was remade in Russia for the direct-to-video market in 2001 under the same title by director Timur Bekmambetov.

In Brundisium, during ancient Roman times, slave girls are captured and taken in by the fiendish Timarchus who organizes deadly events at the local colosseum, involving gladiators fighting for their lives. When Timarchus pits female gladiators against each other, the women are now in peril and a revolt is planned in order to survive together.

Taking advantage of the women's-lib movement and the recent success of several of his women-in-prison films, Roger Corman made this small but effective little film that took the core concept of the prison genre and mixed it with some good old European peplum action in Roman times, slightly based on Spartacus. The result is a very fruitful and refreshing take on the subgenre with a very rich story. 

It was shot by Joe D'Amato, who gives the movie a very dynamic visual flair with a lot of very solid shot compositions, rapid zooms that accelerate the tension, swift camera movements and careful lighting that adds a very elegant flavor to the crummy and limited sets. The typical limitations in budget and resources are well handled by the crew and the director in order to make it look and feel more expensive than what it already is.

Since this is essentially a historical version of the women-in-prison genre but transported into a period setting, it has the very basic themes of revolution against the oppressive forces of society, focusing on the struggles of women and/or slaves against the dominant order that forces them to fight among each other for their entertainment. Predictably, the film ends with a slave revolt and the women fighting their way out of their shackles.

The different conflicts the writers gave to the characters are quite solid and they all add to the story and it's theme in a very real way, often the script puts the spotlight on the effects the savage gladiator fights have on the people who suffer through them and how certain groups of people are so desensitized or brought up believing it is natural and normal, ideas that are challenged by the wiser or less conformist characters. Pam Grier's character is also put in a very interesting moral dilemma when she is in the arena, which affects her relationship with other slave gladiators.

With a magnificent final battle, a sense of doom and misery all throughout, without ever feeling like a cheap or dumb scenario, the film achieves a very legitimate feel and flavor due to the filmmakers creating a sound storyline with deeper characters and issues than usual as well as a better pace and dramatic organization of the story than average.

Very recommended low budget exploitation affair with some nice battles and a captivating story.

Amazon women in Goliath Against the Giants (1961)

The queen and her warriors.

The amazons arent even in the poster.

Yet another peplum movie that features the Amazons for some parts of its plot. This reminded me of both Hercules and Colossus and the Amazon Women. In the first instance the Amazons were only there for a few scenes as part of the many adventures of Hercules in that movie and I was reminded of the second one because the costumes for the amazons are fairly similar to the ones seen in that film, with some notable alterations. 

In this movie, Goliath must dethrone an evil ruler who seeks to murder him but once he escapes an assassination attempt the mighty hero finds himself battling a sea monster and eventually ends up in Amazon territory after getting shipwrecked. His friend, Briseo, is kidnapped by the woman warriors, these amazons ambush Goliath and his people and take them to their leader.

An amazon held hostage.

Soon enough, a dissenting amazon warrior betrays her people and saves Goliath since he's the powerful hero who fights for justice, she then takes him to Briseo. After fighting with the tribe of amazons, Goliath and company escape, but the treacherous amazon simply goes along with them on their journey but doesn't do much. They make a sexist remark about not understanding women (a lady companion disappeared and left them behind) and then the story moves along.

The captain takes revenge.

The amazon women are generic and feature nothing new or interesting. They are good archers, skilled fighters and very antagonistic towards foreigners. Kind of known territory at this point. I do like how they are far more warrior-like than in the Hercules movie but since they are incidental characters they don't have as much personality as the ones in the Colossus movie. 

The traitor amazon and Goliath.

The rest is actually worth watching, it's a fun flick for peplum movie fans.

See all of their scenes here:

Wonder Woman (1942): The original run (Part 1)

In 1942 one of our favorite female superheroes was born: Wonder Woman. This astounding amazon warrior found Steve Trevor after he was knocked out of his plane during WWII. Trevor fell down into paradise island and was rescued by Diana, daughter of Aphrodite and princess of the amazons.

After that, the comics follow her adventures fighting against nazis, criminals, monsters and all kinds of threats. 

Although she appeared in All Star Comics #8, she soon got her own run and became highly popular with audiences.

This first book tells an abridged origin story for Diana and gives us a lot of details about the amazons and the lore of the series. It introduces us to Diana as a powerful but kind warrior.

We get a great story about how the amazon women rebelled against the males of ancient Greece and defeated their oppressors with the power of their goddess. 

After that, Wonder Woman uses her skills to rescue Trevor and also uses her abilities as a scientist and doctor in order to aid him. 

Soon after, the amazons hold a tournament to decide which one of them should go to the world of man. Diana's mother, the queen, doesn't want her daughter to participate. Because of this, Diana disguises herself and enters the contest. She, of course, kicks their butts and wins.

I loved how the amazons and Diana seem to be quite aggressive and they feature more robust bodies as well. It's common to see movies or recent iterations in the comics where the Amazons are badly handled and treated as dull generic skinny female warriors without an edge or sometimes they are too peaceful to even be considered warriors. Here, they are quite well characterized. Not to mention, their beasts and uniforms are much more interesting and creative than in the vast majority of adaptations, keeping the old style of pulpy fiction and making it attractive for the comic book medium.

After Diana becomes the champion and after Trevor gets better, she travels with him to the world of man in order to destroy the axis and bring peace to humans. 

I must say, while this is a very good first issue, there is some racist iconography that was common at the time. Other than that, it's a great place to start if you wanna get into Wonder Woman’s classic comics, showing her world, her powers and personality. 

Yikes.

The amazon women from Colossus and the Amazon Queen (1960)

This Italian Peplum movie is about a muscleman and his companions who are accidentally taken to the land of the Amazon Women, there, they will fight for their freedom and lots of funny scenarios and misadventures involving the men and the amazon warriors will follow. 

Antiope, the first amazon the guys meet.

The amazon civilization is fairly typical, it's a paradisiac greek town with lavish locations, training fields and waterfalls. Of course, some are misandric and dislike men, at least the main antagonist is. 

The antagonistic amazon menaces Colossus.

Antiope (played by Dorian Gray) wants to cooperate with the men but she's opposed by a rival amazon who doesn't. The queen is undecided and wants to test their theories as she feels rather lonely and unloved without the company of males.

Likes men.

Doesn't like men. Simple.

We have great costumes for the amazons, some slightly comedic moments and fun fights, not so much with the ladies, most of the punching is done by the males and the amazons only have a few unconvincing and soft fight sequences near the end of the film. 

Antiope ready for her battle.

The amazons training place.

It's obviously dated to a baffling degree, with some really sexist and homophobic ideas. However, because of its light tone we are also presented with some physical comedy and defined personalities for the female warriors, something not seen very often in these movies as most tend to be generic damsels in distress. Also, because it's such a silly movie we can't really take it too seriously. 

The amazons kick butt in this movie... literally.

They also bite butts.

Most of the film follows the evil amazon planning to take down the men and Antiope by any means, there are also evil bandits who fight the amazons, the queen and Antiope romance the males, eventually the guys and Colossus win the day and the hearts of the amazons. Predictable.

The warriors choosing their men.

Defeating a peplum muscle man isnt an easy task, so these girls are very powerful.

They make good use of their bows and arrows.

This was a great chance to see a good amazon portrayal that wasn't about them needing men or dealing with love but I guess it was too much to ask for at the time. Wasted potential on that side but it still features some good concepts that should be seen more in adventure movies.

See all of their scenes here: