The Sword and the Sorcerer

Weak “Conan the Barbarian” knockoff In a distant fantastical past, the rightful heir of a conquered kingdom (Lee Horsley) returns to his homeland as the formidable leader of a mercenary band. He assists “Prince” Mikah (Simon MacCorkindale) and his cute sister (Kathleen Beller) to overthrow the evil king (Richard Lynch) and his former evil sorcerer (Richard Moll). “The Sword and the Sorcerer” debuted two weeks before “Conan the Barbarian” in the spring of 1982 and it’s just a second-rate S&S adventure by comparison. It’s heroic fantasy with the tone of Star Wars, but without the blockbuster budget and in-depth characters. In light of the somewhat kiddie vibe I was surprised by the female top-nudity. “Conan” was heroic fantasy as well, but it lacked the Star Wars air, had more interesting characters, a compelling story and a mind-blowing score by Basil Poledouris. I’m surprised that BOTH movies raked in roughly the same amount domestically at the box office, almost $40 million. Speaking of the story, the set-up in the first act is too convoluted to create any drive, although the opening on Tomb Island where the hideous Xusia is resurrected in the bowels of the earth is well done. Horsley is gallant and Beller is adorable, but the characters are paper thin. At just over an hour and a half, the tortuous story has no time to breathe and therefore fails to flesh-out the heroes or villains, like “Conan” did. That said, some of the characters are kinda memorable, like the spirited black warrior (whom I can’t discern from the cast list). While there are worthwhile bits throughout this movie they don’t amount to a quality S&S picture. “The Sword and the Sorcerer” is decidedly bush league. The end credits claim that the sequel is “coming soon.” Actually, it didn’t surface until 28 years later under the title “Abelar: Tales of an Ancient Empire” (2010). The film runs 1 hour, 39 minutes and was shot in Southern Cal (Griffith Park, Los Angeles; Culver City; and Riverside). GRADE: C/C-

This actually benefits from having the germ of a decent story of dynastic skulduggery. The evil king "Cromwell" (Richard Lynch) has designs on the throne of the peaceable king "Richard" (Christopher Cary). To that end he awakens the lethal and demonic "Xusia" (Richard Moll) to destabilise "Eh-Dan" and make it ripe for the picking. Fortunately, young prince "Talon" (Lee Horsley) escapes this terror and flees leaving his elder sister "Alana" (Kathleen Beller) behind - a slave. He doesn't forget though, and trains hard, learning how to handle a triple-bladed sword that he plans to use as he returns to reclaim his inheritance and free his sibling. Needless to say, though, neither "Xusia" nor the usurper are going to be welcoming him with open arms! The visual effects are OK here and the drama keeps going fine at the beginning, but the quality of both acting and writing soon starts to drag the whole thing down into cheap and cheerful television movie-dom. The tousled Horsley is pretty amateur from the get-go and although Beller tries to inject a little feistiness into her character, the whole thing just lacks any sense of menace. Indeed, Moll is about as intimidating as yesterday's lettuce. It is little raunchier than many of the genre but in the end it's rather disappointing and eminently forgettable.

They made a sequel to this that was bucking for arthouse... and it was horrible. This movie was self aware enough to know that they weren't making Chinatown. The dialogue was pretty fun and understood that it wasn't anywhere near a good film, so it could still be light hearted enough to throw in gags here and there in the script, to over-act when it suited the scene, to be fun for the sake of being fun. It's a B sword and sorcery flick that knows how bad it is, and makes the best of it that sort of turned the film into a cult classic. It's a serious movie that has fun with itself, has fun with it's content, and because of that the viewer can sit back and be entertained. Not everything has to take itself seriously.