Red Sonja (1985)

S

stripe

Sovs Favorite Moderator
Joined
Sep 30, 2000
Messages
1,499
Anyone seen this one?

079284078X.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif


Red Sonja (1985) Castings

Brigitte Nielsen
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Sandahl Bergman
Paul Smith
Ernie Reyes Jr.
Ronald Lace

Plot Summary


Made in 1985 and starring Brigitte Nielsen in her screen debut, Red Sonja is your usual sword and sorcery quest movie. It opens with the a text scrawl, then moves directly into some very clumsy exposition, in which an angel (or something similarly white and floaty) explains to Red Sonja (just in case she might have forgotten) that her family has been slaughtered before her eyes and she has been raped by the soldiers of Queen Gedren, all for refusing to be the Queen's love slave. Seems a little extreme to me, but then, I'm not the ruler of all I survey (more's the pity). The angel then gifts Sonja with massive strength so that she can beat the pants off anyone she pleases.

Meanwhile, at an unnamed temple full of white-clad, sword-bearing priestesses, the Talisman with which the High God (!) created the world is slated to be destroyed by casting it into Eternal Darkness. Although the High Lord (a title never sufficiently explained) is supposed to be present for the destruction, he is late. The High Priestess (there are an awful lot of "high" folk in this movie) decides to go on with the ceremony without him. Just after the ceremony starts, the Bad Guys, led by Queen Gedren, her (cough) Handmaiden and Ikol (played by Ronald Lacey, a.k.a. Fishlips), attack the temple, slaughter the priestesses and steal the Talisman, a ball of green light encased in an iron cage.

One priestess escapes and goes for help, with the Bad Guys in hot pursuit (does anyone ever go in cold pursuit?). Wounded and dying, the priestess meets up with Kalidor, the High Lord, played by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger, fresh from displaying his rippling musculature as Conan (the Destroyer). She begs him to find her sister -- (wait for it) Red Sonja. Sonja, in the meantime, has been training in how to use the sword. The ancient master of her school, who has apparently been to the Leia/Amidala School of Fashion and Hair Design, has just given her a sword and some pithy commentary on tolerating men, when Kalidor rides in looking for her. Amazingly enough, she is already packed and her horse is saddled and ready to go. Off they gallop to the distant spot where Kalidor left the dying Varna.

Varna, of course, charges Sonja with finding and destroying the Talisman and the quest begins. Sonja repeatedly spurns Kalidor's help, but he follows after her anyway -- at a discreet distance. Along the way, she picks up a young prince and his guardian. As is usually the way, she teaches the prince several valuable lessons about life, the universe and everything.

Ultimately, of course, Sonja meets with and fights Gedren in a well-choreographed sword battle in a room full of lit candles during an earthquake. Sonja triumphs, the Talisman is destroyed and everyone lives happily ever after. Well, except for the Bad Guys, of course.

The movie is based on the Red Sonja stories by Robert E. Howard. One hopes that his original stories were better than the screenplay for the movie.

For some reason, Arnold got top billing, even though his character appears for only about half an hour total. He completely disappears for the middle part of the movie, only to reappear near the end already knowing all about the quest and the names of Sonja's companions. Apparently, he read the script. His best scene is undoubtedly where he and Sonja spend some time chasing one another about the woods with swords. The longer the scene goes, the wilder their swings get, as they tire out. At last, they sink down in exhaustion on opposite sides of a tree.

Ernie Reyes, Jr., who got a lot of work in the 1980s as a martial arts prodigy, is quite good as the arrogant young Prince Tarn. His guardian, Falkon, is played by Paul Smith. That pair, along with Arnold, are the only good actors in the movie.

Queen Gedren is played by Sandahl Bergman, who appeared with Arnold in Conan the Barbarian. She wasn't particularly good in that, and her acting skills didn't improve for this movie. Although she's reasonably good at being menacing, when she is required to show any other emotion, her performance is so flat and wooden that you could build a table out of her.
 
Yes it is a naff film, full of errors, holes, plot devies and shows up Nielsen's and Arnie's wooden acting to a treat.

But you have to admit it is an entertaining film.

I can forgive a lot, if I am entertained. :)
 
Originally posted by ray gower
Yes it is a naff film, full of errors, holes, plot devies and shows up Nielsen's and Arnie's wooden acting to a treat.

But you have to admit it is an entertaining film.

I can forgive a lot, if I am entertained. :)
Click to expand...
Ditto. lol...

I concur. Entertaining? Yeah.

:rolly2:
 
The actress that played Red Sonja's sister would have been afar better choice for the lead then Bridgette Neilson who, just cannot ac and worse why was Arnold playing a chapter other then Conan in this one ?
 
Bridgette Neilson had a suitable accent and stature and that's about it. I ignore the name Kalidor and assume Arnold is playing Conan trying to keep a low profile. It wouldn't be the first time Conan went by another name.
 
I believe its because the Conan and Red Sonja licences are different entities in the legal world and whilst they began together they eventually got split up. Right now Marvel (or DC I forget which) has Conan whereas last year or so it was held by Dark Horse. Meanwhile Red Sonja is still held by Dynamite. At least that's the comic side of things, the movie rights to those characters might be even more complicated.

However it explains why he's not Conan in all but name; because they couldn't get all the licence under one heading for the film.
 
I wonder of the reboot of this film is ever happening?
 
If you mean the Red Sonja Queen of Plagues animation then its not what many would consider "proper" animation. It's an animated comic. Which basically means that they've made it by taking still images from the comic (or likenesses of them) and then animated them by moving bits. The result can be very odd because things don't move correctly; instead of animating a leg or arm moving they just take the still picture and move the leg around. It's honestly quite jarring and whilst I've seen this type of animation used in a good few computer game intro videos (often by smaller studios that can't afford massive CIG costs for a high end video); the Sonja version just feels really off. Plus its a kind of animation that works for small motions not large actions (since you're not animating the muscles or perspective shifts etc... as parts of the character move).
 
At one point, Rose McGowan was supposed to be a proposed reboot of Red Sonja.
 
I think the problem is that its held by Dynamite. They are big enough to be well known but have nothing like the resources nor market presence of DC or Marvel. I'd also say that once they'd done their earlier run of Red Sonja stories and detailed her origins and epic final battle they've sort of not really known what to do with her I think. Part of them seems to want to keep her as the red haired female Conan adventurer; another part seems almost to want to push her forward like a DC/Marvel Superhero with world crossovers and such being cannon and etc "super villain enemy". Which I think is honestly the wrong direction to take her and I'd have far preferred if she'd remained part of the Conan licence and was remaining as an adventurer character in a fantasy setting; rather than something trying to become a super-hero type character.
 
Overread said:
I think the problem is that its held by Dynamite. They are big enough to be well known but have nothing like the resources nor market presence of DC or Marvel. I'd also say that once they'd done their earlier run of Red Sonja stories and detailed her origins and epic final battle they've sort of not really known what to do with her I think. Part of them seems to want to keep her as the red haired female Conan adventurer; another part seems almost to want to push her forward like a DC/Marvel Superhero with world crossovers and such being cannon and etc "super villain enemy". Which I think is honestly the wrong direction to take her and I'd have far preferred if she'd remained part of the Conan licence and was remaining as an adventurer character in a fantasy setting; rather than something trying to become a super-hero type character.
Click to expand...

The Red Sonja that that we all know in the Movie and in the Comice is different from the character that Robert E Howard originally created. She was not in any way part of the Hyborian age. of Conan.
 
ray gower said:
Yes it is a naff film, full of errors, holes, plot devies and shows up Nielsen's and Arnie's wooden acting to a treat.

But you have to admit it is an entertaining film.

I can forgive a lot, if I am entertained. :)
Click to expand...

It does have a certain entertainment value .:)
 
I think they have featured Red Sonja with Conan in the Comics books . I recall reading that they did one in which King Kull was in the story.:unsure:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
Guttersnipe Amazing Stories (1985) General TV Discussion 11
Tgoode451 (Found) Post-apoc sci-fI read in 1985 or so, green cover. “Glittering autostrada” warfare, with psychotropic effects that linger in many characters. Book Search 4
E my favorite scene from the lost empier 1985 General Film Discussion 0
Victoria Silverwolf "Terrarium" by Scott Russell Sanders (1985) Reviews & Interviews 0
D Red Sonja (2009) -Staring Rose McGowan General Film Discussion 0

Similar threads


Back
Top