Customer Reviews

The Sword and The Sorcerer [VHS]

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3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

In the ancient days of the early '80s, many Conan-imitation fantasies stalked the land. Most of them were cheap, dreary, and unwatchable. But the best of this low-budget bunch was the successful 1982 flick, "The Sword and the Sorcerer." Director Albert Pyun has gone onto to direct a slew of very cheesy movies, often featuring kickboxing, but this is his best film. People who love brawny sword-swingin' action will get a kick out of it. Yes, it's done cheaply, but there's some honest imagination in it, and the plot -- although filled with massive holes as deep as torture pits -- actually seems as if the writers took some time to think it up. The story still follows the basic clichés of this type of fantasy -- saving princesses, a vengeance-seeking hero, a resurrected evil wizard -- but it flows well and keeps you interested.

Of course,the film has tons of problems, and anyone who isn't seriously into the fantasy genre or early 80s movies will probably hate it. The sets are inexpensive and unimpressive, the photography cramps the action to stretch the budget, visual effects are minimal, and the acting is at best only adequate (but still better than most films of this kind). Lee Horsley plays the wise-cracking hero Talon, who wields a silly but rather cool three-bladed sword. Talon joins the resistance against evil King Cromwell (veteran b-movie villain Richard Lynch) in order to rescue a princess (Kathleen Beller). Behind it all lurks a monstrous sorcerer (Richard Moll under some well-done make-up) who has it in for Cromwell for betraying him and manipulates the resistance for his own ends. The story builds up to a surprisingly exciting finale that flexes some furious muscle and spills copious amounts of blood.

Unlike fantasy movies made today, "The Sword and the Sorcerer" is adult in tone: the violence gets quite bloody and extreme, and casual nudity is sprinkled throughout. The DVD from Anchor Bay is an adequate presentation. The picture is letterboxed and enhanced for widescreen TVs. There is some grain, but the well-lit scenes look quite clear. The sound comes in 2.0 surround and 5.1. The 5.1 mostly expands the music to the back speakers, but it sound good considering the age and budget of the film. The only extras are two trailers (almost exactly the same) and a TV spot. As usual with Anchor Bay, there are no subtitles whatsoever, not even in English.

For night with people who love sword-slashing fun and don't mind some silly budget-cutting, "The Sword and the Sorcerer" is a good bet.

This is one of the best, and surprisingly underestimated, fantasy movies of the 80's. It goes along the lines of classics like Beastmaster, Conan, Dragonslayer, Krull and Legend. Its best features are the great dialogues and solidly written characters, the marvelous sets, a surprisingly coherent and original plot, and an excellent soundtrack. The acting on the movie is not so good, but the story is so entertaining and funny that you won't really mind.
Talon, the son of a murdered King, turns into a barbarian hero who tries to end the rule of an evil conqueror and his allied demon. To achieve his goal he must free the heirs of the kingdom and avenge his father. In his quest he will encounter all the elements common in most fantasy stories: sword battles, powerful demons and treacherous villains, beautiful and exotic damsels in distress and dark ancient rituals and magic spells.
After the credits roll by, you will probably be left expecting to see the second installment of this movie: Tales of the Ancient Empire, which unfortunately, was never made.
A word of warning: the image quality of the DVD is not great, nor does this movie have any Special Features, but it's very unlikely it will ever get a better edition.
A must for fantasy film buffs.
--Reviewed by M. E. Volmar

`Know you now of days long past, a time when the world was young, when sorcery thrived and wild adventure was forever in the offing, and of this epoch little is known save that which is veiled in the mist of legend'...that's the opening line of narration from the fantasy adventure feature The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982), and it's also how nearly every Dungeons and Dragons game I ever played back in the day started, although generally not as eloquent...co-written and directed by Albert Pyun (Alien from L.A., Cyborg, Captain America), the film stars Lee Horsley ("Matt Houston") in his first feature film, Kathleen Beller (The Betsy, "Dynasty"), and perennial screen villain Richard Lynch (Deathsport, Invasion U.S.A., The Barbarians). Also appearing is Simon MacCorkindale (Death on the Nile, Jaws 3-D), George Maharis (The Satan Bug), and Richard Moll (The Dungeonmaster, House), probably best know as the tall, bald headed bailiff Bull from the popular television series "Night Court".

As the film begins we learn through narration and visuals that a tyrant usurper named Titus Cromwell (Lynch) desperately wants overthrow a peaceful and wealthy neighboring kingdom, so much so he resurrects a demonic, reptilian faced wizard named Xusia (Moll) to aid him in his efforts. Xusia's main power seems to be the ability to yank out other peoples internal organs through mental telepathy, which is pretty nasty, but I'm unsure how it would assist in overthrowing a kingdom, but whatever...apparently Cromwell realizes this, too, as he quickly betrays Xusia with a sword to the guts, but the wily wizard manages to escape. Anyway, Cromwell does succeed in his bid to take the kingdom, killing off nearly the entire royal family except for Prince Talon, who gets away with a three bladed sword (two of the blades can be fired like projectile weapons) entrusted to him by his father. As the years pass Talon grows into a man (who looks a lot like Lee Horsley), and Cromwell becomes a powerful ruler with an eye towards ruling the entire civilized world (he wants all the cheese). In one particular kingdom a rebellion forms against Cromwell, lead by a prince named Mikah (MacCorkindale), assisted by his sister Princess Alana (Beller), who's got a real bad habit of kneeing guys in their nether regions...actually, it's a pretty poor rebellion as rebellions go, as it seems made up of only a handful of greasy farmers...anyway, there's a bit of betrayal resulting the Mikah being captured, forcing Alana to enlist the aid of Talon, agreeing to partake in a night of whoopee with Talon if he saves her brother (having seen Ms. Beller in all her nekkid glory in the 1978 film The Betsy, I'd have to say it's worth it). A whole bunch of stuff happens, most of which I won't go into, but Xusia eventually returns, Talon gets crucified, and Cromwell tries to hook up with Alana, all leading up to a climatic battle between the forces of good and evil, the fate of the world hanging in the balance...

The fantasy action/adventure genre really busted loose in the early to mid 1980s with the release of the good...Conan the Barbarian (1982), Dragonslayer (1981), Krull (1983), The Beastmaster (1982), Legend (1985), and the not so good...Lucio Fulci's Conquest (1983), and Hawk the Slayer (1980), to name a couple...where does The Sword and the Sorcerer fall? For me, somewhere in the middle. It's not a completely bad movie, but it does have an abundance of flaws, the main ones including a fairly convoluted plot, not so hot production values, goofy acting (a pretty common fault in many sword and sorcery pictures of the time), and some fairly funky, eye rolling dialog (pay particular attention to the bit between Talon and the princess, talking about his `sword'). As far as the plot, it is messy and confusing, but I have to give the filmmakers credit for their ambition as they did try to cram more in here than is usually found within films of the genre, but it got a little out of hand as things progressed. One thing that really annoyed me early on was the narration...for about the first twenty minutes or so, the narrator chimes in on a regular basis, spewing forth unnecessary exposition. Horsley actually came off alright, except for the fact he appeared to be wearing a dead wombat on his head the entire time. I think it was meant to be a wild, untamed coif, but it reminded me of the ridiculous perm my older brother got himself in the late 1970s. Lynch does well enough, but it's pretty much a role I've seen him in any number of times before. His character did seem a bit too `hands on', always insinuating himself into things I wouldn't think he'd normally be involved in, you know, given the fact he's running an entire kingdom and such, but given the general ineptitude of his minions, I suppose he had little choice (on the flipside, Talon's men certainly weren't of the rocket scientist variety either). I did learn much from this film, including the following...

1. Moldy, powerful, reptilian mages recently resurrected from the dead are extremely cranky and likely to yank someone's guts out.
2. Usurping tyrants are often fickle, and will turn on their underlings in a heartbeat, even moldy, powerful, reptilian mages resurrected from the dead intended to help them accomplish a goal not yet completed.
3. If you do revive a moldy, powerful, reptilian mage from the dead and plan on betraying him, best to kill him dead as they tend to hold a grudge.
4. When your soon to be dead father makes you swear to avenge his death, it's okay to take an extensive amount of time off for yourself to wander the globe, have grand adventures, and score with babes before actually getting down to business.
5. Princesses tend to go for the gonasticales when threatened and will use access to their goodies to barter for necessary services.
6. Princes are laughably gullible.
7. A prince, a princess, and eight, greasy, spindly armed farmers do not a rebellion make.
8. If you're sneaking into a castle via the sewers and one of your party, especially an inconsequential member (an elderly man, perhaps), falls behind, best to leave him rather than try and assist him and get eaten by ravenous rats.
9. Best to kill the architect of your castle, rather than imprisoning him in the dungeon in an effort to protect information regarding secret passageways and such, eliminating the opportunity for some swarthy hero-type from rescuing him and using said information against you.
10. Interior doors within castles are made of balsa wood.
11. A crucified man makes an interesting set piece for a wedding.
12. If you have enough intestinal fortitude, you can free yourself after being crucified.
13. A three bladed sword, one that launches two of the blades as projectiles, seems an impractical and unwieldy weapon (where does one get replacement blades?).
14. Gold lamay armor festooned with sequins may look pretty, but does little in protecting ones vitals.
15. The days of yore were full of smoke, mist, fog, vapors, steam, smog, and anything else that could just generally keep one from clearly seeing what's going on.

Just a note...on the surface this might appear a film suitable for general audiences, but there is a good amount of violence, blood and even some nekkidness once things get going, so it might not be one for younger viewers.

The picture on this Anchor Bay Entertainment DVD release, presented in widescreen (1.85:1), enhanced for 16X9 televisions, looks all right I suppose, but some of the scenes are kind of murky and muddled. The audio, available in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Surround 2.0, comes through very well. As far as extras, there are two theatrical trailers, a television spot, and a 5X7 insert reproduction of original poster art, with the chapter stops on the flipside.

Cookieman108

One last thing, at the end of the film there's mention of a forthcoming sequel titled Tales of the Ancient Empire, but it never materialized.

I was certain that I would never own a copy of The Sword and the Sorcerer in this day and age when it is seemingly forgotten - especially a copy on DVD. And yet, to my complete shock, I stumbled across it, brand new, and picked it up at once to add it to my ever-expanding collection of fantasy films. The Sword and the Sorcerer is a rather obscure contender from the early '80s, and at a glance seems like a Conan the Barbarian clone given the poor box art and the many parallels between the films. The Sword and the Sorcerer has nothing on said classic fantasy, however, but offers many delights all its own, even if they are clothed sometimes in distasteful cheeseball ambience. While Conan the Barbarian is a dark, vengeance-driven epic, The Sword and the Sorcerer is a lighter (and, yes, vengeance-driven) adventure story with a healthy dosage of comedy that shows the film tries not to take itself too seriously. This sense of humor is what sets it apart from the rest, and is probably its finest attribute given its less respectable production values and acting.

The plot revolves around Prince Talon, a mercenary warrior who seems to lack much in the way of principle, who has wandered the land for many years seeking to reclaim the kingdom of Adon and avenge the deaths of his family at the hands of the evil Titus Cromwell. And yet Titus is not the only villain, for the sorcerer Xusia, whom Titus betrayed and thought slain by his own hand, has returned to claim vengeance of his own. All the while, the rabble of Adon prepare for revolution, with an unwitting Talon as their shining hope.

This is certainly not a film that would ever garner high praise from all viewers, but to those who enjoy barbarian-style '80s fantasy with a touch of humor and a surprisingly interesting story, this is something you should consider adding to your collection. It is far more fun than a movie of this mold has a right to be, and I consider its DVD debut a very welcome, if surprising, thing. Now somebody get to work on that Beastmaster DVD...

First, let me emphasis what S&tS *isn't*: it isn't big budget, it doesn't have mind-blowing special effects, and it certainly doesn't have that mainstream American appeal that most of the films churned out of Hollywood seem to have. It doesn't have the polish of Krull, or the big-name actors of Conan, or the whiz-bang animatronics of Dragonslayer. Rather, it has a gritty, European import flavor, cheesy special effects, and has the requisite T&A one might expect from a movie of this calibre.

Now, let me discuss what S&tS is: it is a darn fine fantasy adventure movie, and perhaps the overall best one to come during that early 80's period where Dungeons & Dragons hit its apex of popularity. I make this observation based on the fact that it has no real weak points, and on the strength of the character actors that populated this film. Lee Horsley, as the protagonist Talon, has a combination of charm and presence unmatched by Arnold (Conan), Peter McNichol (Dragonslayer), Ken Marshall (Krull), and even Rutger Hauer (Ladyhawke). Veteran character actors Richard Lynch (Cromwell) and Richard Moll (Xuxa of Dulles) are outstanding in their portrayal of the finest antagonists this side of Legend's Tim Curry (Dark). True, Kathleen Beller detracts more than she adds, but Anthony De Longis and Simon MacCorkindale more than make up for her wooden performance. Save for Beller's Alana, all of the main characters exhibit remarkable depth and dimension for a B-movie, much less an A-movie.

The plot is somewhat preposterous, even for a fantasy film, but it is intriguing, and draws you in. Light humor is applied liberally and intelligently throughout as a contrast to the drama and danger, and is spaced such that one feels as if he's on a rollercoaster ride from start to finish. This is a film that doesn't take itself too seriously, nor does it attempt to teach a moral lesson to the viewer. Simply stated, this is a good, old-fashioned, high-adventure romp.

My only criticisms are that the DVD is lacking in features (subtitles would've been nice), and the editing of the film, particularly in the climactic final battle, is pretty poor; a director's cut of this film would have been most welcome. Otherwise, this is a film that belongs in the collection of every fantasy genre fan.

When you go to a local burger joint, you know the guy who makes the burgers is there in the back just cranking the things out. His cuisine is never going to reign supreme on "Iron Chef." But does that stop you from going there? No -- if you want a perfect combination of grease, cheese, and charred animal proteins, you can still enjoy the heck out of a good burger.

That, in a nutshell, is The Sword and the Sorcerer. It's a brilliantly dumb movie that has no pretensions of being High Cinema, and as such it succeeds better than any other movie of heroic fantasy (especially Conan the Barbarian, which any reader of the books knows is watery-weak in plot and vacuum-sparse in its characterization).

See it for the sometimes striking and sometimes laughable special effects. See it for its fantastic, bombastic soundtrack. See it for hammy acting and borderline clever double-entendres, tons of bit parts by B-list actors, a swirlingly complex plot that really doesn't matter, and a swaggering hero who out-Conan's the Schwarzenneger Conan and manages to do it despite some wincingly bad hair days.

If you like cheesy movies, you should love this one.

Summary: An Evil King seeks the aid of an evil sorcerer in order to conquer a peaceful kingdom. One of the good king's sons escapes and later seeks vengeance as an adult.

My Opinion: This is a very fun movie. I loved at when I saw it years ago and I'm very glad to have it in my collection now. I loved Lee Horsley as Matt Houston and he is great here as well. This movie is one of those guilty pleasures for Fantasy fans. It may be cheesy and silly but it's so much fun that I don't even notice.

DVD Quality: Pretty much bare bones with a couple of trailers. Hey at least it's on DVD!

What You Should Do: If you are a SciFi or Fantasy fan and a collector, you should buy this DVD. I can't imagine them putting out a Special Edition of this one, so there's no need to wait. If you liked Beastmaster, Krull, Dragonslayer, Conan or anything along those lines, then give it a rent. Otherwise skip it.

I love this film!! I saw this, at the ripe old age of 31, way back in 1982, when the sword and sorcery genre was just getting started....in fact, with this movie and "Conan The Barbarian". "Conan" struck me as being ridiculous, especially with Arnold wearing a phylactery on his head with his forehead showing, unlike every illustrated image I had ever seen of Robert E. Howard's hero. James Earl Jones' Thulsa Doom was BEYOND ridiculous with that pathetic longhaired wig that just didn't jibe with his features.

Now, "Sword & the Sorcerer" didn't have the bucks behind it that "Conan" did, however, it is MUCH truer to the spirit of both the novels and Marvel comics stories that I remember reading when I was in college. Though the acting in some spots is laughable, this movie has a definite "matinee" quality that makes you root, if only internally, for the hero and his friends.

I only just recently realized that Lee Horsley played Talon, the hero, because he doesn't even remotely resemble Matt Houston or his "Paradise" character in the role. Other TV people pepper the cast with their presence, but the weirdest cast member HAS to be Joe Regalbuto as one of Talon's freebooting colleagues. Hard to imagine Frank Fontana playing a pirate, isn't it? Richard Lynch, a man who has made a career out of playing truly despicable characters, plays Titus Cromwell, a usurper king who has to be patterned after Hollywood's generic image of Alexander the Great. He OOZES evil in the role, relishing every snarl and hiss he speaks. Kathleen Beller, who has to have the prettiest brown eyes and long lashes in TV, plays the hero-girl and love interest Alana.

While the art direction is actually pretty good for the time it was made, and holds up over time, and the cinematography is almost exemplary, the TRULY hammy acting is what gives this movie its funky, campy charm! Richard Lynch assays a line in the movie that will go down in cinema history as one of the classics of the "Yonduh lies da cassul of my fodduh" school, when he tells George Maharis' Count Machelli that he must "Obey" his "orduhs". Maharis follows a few scenes later with an equally comically read line "...He must be one of SHOOSIA'S demons!". (That's actually spelled "Xusia", but Maharis' too-American reading of it lengthens the "u" sound in the word and puts an "sh" where a "z' sound should be in the beginning of the name.)

ALL the characters are portrayed rather broadly, with some of the corniest double-entendrés and dialogue you're likely to ever see in a movie made after 1939! Like I said, this is the charm of the movie....it's actually very witty in parts, and one character, Captain Morgan, the only black with a speaking part in the flick, utters some of the funniest diction you'll ever hear as he says "Blast you, Eric! Spread the word of Talon's plight!" in tones so clipped, you'll swear he just learned English. Phonetically!

Talon, it turns out, is the long lost son of the king Cromwell slayed when Talon was a young prince to obtain his peaceful kingdom, and to compensate for this loss, he has turned into a soldier of fortune, helping other kings retain or regain their kingdoms for a price. Alana, the daughter of one of his father's advisors, pleads her case with him, not knowing who he is, to rid his native Ehdan of the usurper Cromwell, so her brother, Prince Mikah, can sit on the throne as the "rightful heir". This Talon does, never revealing to anybody else but Cromwell who he really is. Along the way, there are various cartoon gorey scenes that a two year old could tell were fake, (though they're STILL pretty gruesome,)some actually pretty good music, very colorful frames, and some of the most comically corny dalogue and acting you'll ever see in a movie. It's easy to believe that the people involved INTENDED to make this movie so campy, because it's pretty consistent throughout.

This movie can be had dirt cheap, NEW, on VHS, so I recommend you get it, pop open a brewsky with your GF or buddies and enjoy one funny, well-filmed camp classic.

Wow. The Sword & the Sorcerer, on DVD. A blast from my past that I can't pass up. Bear with me while I reminisce briefly - I'll come around to the point in a moment.

Once upon a time, long, long ago, I found a book. Just a couple hundred pages long, but chock-full of bloody adventure. The cover is what grabbed my attention, really: a vicious looking ape-thing, partially covered with a tattered crimson cape, and a lean, scarred, snarling blue-eyed barbarian, armed with nothing but a short blade, clinging to the monster's back. I begged my mom to buy it for me. After several head-shakes and skeptical looks regarding my fascination with the silly thing, she gave in. And thus it was my first exposure to Robert E. Howard and Frank Frazetta, an event that probably warped me beyond belief. I spent the next few years tracking down everything Howard ever wrote, every Conan story ever published, and just about every other conceivable sword & sorcery and dark fantasy story/compilation/novel I could lay my hands on, with authors ranging from the swashbuckling classics (Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories) to the dark, creepy and, well, Wagner-esk (Karl Edward Wagner, and his sorcerer/warrior/killer, Kane).

Spiral down the road bit - I'm a little older, haphazardly dealing with my freshman year of high school, and suddenly Howard's stories came to life with a Muscle & Fitness magazine article featuring pre-Gubornator Ah-nold and the film version of Conan the Barbarian. Being rebels, albeit too young to go see an R-rated movie by ourselves, some friends and I promptly decided to sneak into a local theater on opening day and watch Ah-nold mangle the English language on celluloid. We stayed and watched him defeat Thulsa Doom and toss James Earl Jones' severed head down those steep marble steps five times in a row.

Right afterwards, I ran to the store and bought the movie novelization. Read that. Re-read all my Conan comic books, too.

And so it went - my obsession with sword & sorcery books suddenly transmorgified into a new obsession with, ta-dah! Movies! And thank God, because right about that time She decided to invent the VCR (err, yeah, I know, Betamax came first. Whatever). My dad splurged and bought a big, clunky top-loading VCR that cost something like four hundred bucks (but hey - now he could tape golf while he watched football) and had a 'remote' with a four-foot cord that was attached directly to the unit (Ah, the golden days. But you know what? That thing was a freakin' tank - it lasted FOREVER and would play ANYTHING, no matter how messed up the tape was).

So I spent the next four years watching every cheesy sci-fi/fantasy flick that our local, pre-Blockbuster/mega-video store managed to pull in to stock. From the Good (Conan, Excalibur) to the crummy (Conan the Destroyer, the Barbarians), to... this. The Sword & the Sorcerer.

Low budget. Yes. But so much better for it. This baby is right out of the gritty, blood-caked, Weird Tales style of dark fantasy, with the swashbuckling warrior (Lee Horsely, who's career pretty much ended right here), on a bloodthirsty quest to rescue the sultry, beautiful princess (Kathleen Beller) from the vile, wicked sorcerer (Richard Moll), in the process winning back his stolen kingdom, torn away by a bloodthirsty tyrant (Richard Lynch). Sci-fi/action hack supreme Albert Pyun (see Nemesis - one the cooler Blade Runner/Terminator/Cyborg style knock-offs) directs with an unusual flair for something this on-the-cheap, making Sword & The Sorcerer a cheesy treat to remember.

By the way - yeah, I bought the novelization for this one, too. And I still have it, safely tucked away with all my old Conan books. Even though I just ordered Sword & Sorcerer on DVD, I dunno if I can wait. Think I'll go pull the book out now, then jump into bed with a flashlight, pull the covers over my head, and read until the sun creeps up.

Maybe I'm not so grown up yet after all.

The end credits promise that Talon will return in Tales of the Ancient Empire... but what happened? Or is this just a joke like the ending of Buckaroo Banzai announcing the sequel: Buckaroo Banzai and the World Crime League?

Richard Lynch and Richard Moll give great performances and Lee Horsley as the campy pre-Bruce Cambell meets Errol Flynn manly hero. Excellent soundtrack Awesome 3 bladed projectile broadsword! A guilty childhood pleasure! Thanks for putting this one on DVD Anchor Bay!