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4
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4 |
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10
= Highest
Rating
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Roger
Corman's New World Pictures financed this variation on the Women
In Prison exploitation theme, set during the days of the ancient
Roman Empire. It was produced by former actor Mark Damon (Corman's
Fall Of The House Of Usher), who'd
retired from acting and become a film producer in Europe after
moving there. Shot in Italy with a mostly European cast — featuring
many familiar faces from a host of Eurohorror films — The
Arena (also known as Naked Warriors) is Roman
spectacle on a shoestring, a bargain basement Gladiator
for the '70s drive-in circuit. It'd be the picture that belonged
on the bottom of the double bill were it not for the presence
of then-rising cult movie goddess Pam Grier (Coffy,
Foxy Brown).
At least that's the impression gleaned from this DVD, which
unfortunately presents the film in full-screen format. More
about that later.
Grier and statuesque blonde Margaret Markov
(who'd teamed previously in 1972's Black
Mama, White Mama) costar as Mamawe of Nubia and Bodicia,
a priestess from Brittany. Both are kidnapped from their homelands
by Roman soldiers. They, along with other women, find themselves
on the auction block in the slave market of Brundusium. Flamboyantly
gay Priscium (Sid Lawrence) buys the lot of them for his master,
the politically-connected organizer of the local games, Timarchus
(Daniele Vargas). The girls are purchased as sex slaves for
the entertainment of Timarchus' powerful friends and as wine
servers during the games. Only Bodicia and Mamawe maintain a
semblance of dignity under the yoke of servitude, defiant even
to Timarchus' haughty overseer Cornelia. (Played by "Sarah
Bay", a.k.a. Italian sex symbol Rosalba Neri [Lady
Frankenstein, Amuck!]. Unfortunately
she doesn't take her clothes off in this one.) When the gals
engage in a food-throwing catfight that demolishes the kitchen,
one of Timarchus' buddies suggests turning them into gladiators
for the arena. Keen to keep ticket-buying citizens coming back
for more, Timarchus soon has the women training for combat under
the tutelage of master gladiator Septimus (the Tor Johnson-ish
Peter Cester), a hulking bald fighter who makes the mistake
of falling in love with one of his new pupils, Lucinia (Mary
Count). The first public contest between the female gladiators
is a (supposedly) comical affair, with no one getting injured
or killed. But the bloodthirsty crowds are easily bored — the
next match will be to the death. The survivors, led by Mamawe
and Bodicia, realize that each of them in turn will eventually
die on the blood-soaked sand of the arena unless they make a
daring break for freedom.
This isn't a particularly good film, at least
in the "formatted for TV" version. There's plenty
of action, particularly in the final 15 minutes, but when cropped
fullframe much of it looks like it was shot too close — you
can't really tell who's fighting who when the gladiators revolt
and battle soldiers of the city's garrison. There are also a
number of scenes with two people in the shot, each with half
of their faces cropped off and just a lot of space in between
them filling up the screen. But there are plenty of problems
with The Arena unrelated to the
aspect ratio. The low budget reduces the aesthetic of the Roman
Empire to drapery and a few bits of statuary here and there.
(What's the deal, Corman? Didn't want to pay for stock footage
from some Italian peplum?) Most of the European cast members,
speaking English phonetically, are terribly dubbed. The cliché-riddled
script by John and Joyce Corrington (The
Omega Man) seems to compress time to a remarkable degree
(a child born to Lucinia is mentioned but she's never seen pregnant;
the gals become proficient warriors practically overnight, besting
troops of the Roman Army); either that or big chunks of the
movie were cut prior to release. (At 78 minutes it does whiz
by at a rapid clip. Good thing, too.) The main villain, Timarchus,
is a simpering, hysterical girlyman, never a good move for an
action flick. As for exploitation elements... Violence is surprisingly
tame, without much blood being spilled. There's a good dose
of female skin on display, thank goodness (mostly courtesy of
bodacious Bodicia), but things could've been better had they
padded it out with just a few more minutes of babes in the buff.
Like maybe a scene with the gals giving Rosalba a bath or something...
C'mon! Wouldn't that have been better than seeing hairy-backed
Paul Müller ravage Margaret Markov? Recommended for gladiator
freaks or Pam Grier completists only.
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mentioned, the New Concorde DVD utilizes a cropped, full-screen
version of the film. Frustratingly, the opening and closing credits
are letterboxed, as is the trailer, which only serve to confirm
that Arena has to be
a better viewing experience when shown in its correct aspect ratio.
The audio track is also sub-par, with noticeable hiss and instances
of muffled dialog. If
not for these major flaws, this bargain-priced disc would be a
real steal. In addition to the trailer for The
Arena, coming attractions to six other Corman-financed
pictures are included (basically the same ones found on other
New Concorde DVDs): Big Bad Mama,
the classic WIP exploitationer The Big Doll
House (also starring Pam Grier),
Eat My Dust!, Death
Race 2000, Humanoids From
The Deep, and, inexplicably, the 1997 direct-to-video Knocking
On Death's Door. The DVD also comes with short text biographies
of Corman, Grier, Markov, and director Steve Carver (Lone
Wolf McQuade), plus an 8-minute video interview of B-movie
kingpin Corman with film critic Leonard Maltin fielding the questions.
5/26/02
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| UPDATE
The disc reviewed here went OOP in 2004 or thereabouts. Since
Buena Vista began reissuing the New Concorde catalog in 2005,
it may eventually return to DVD. |
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