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6
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7 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett |
I've
not seen many Indonesian films but the few exploitation
movies from that country I have watched have convinced
me that they're second only to the Italians in
their zeal for ripping off Hollywood. After seeing
the incredible Lady
Terminator I thought I had a handle on their
standard operating procedure —
with The Devil's Sword
it turns out I was right. Generally they take
a huge box-office hit and remake it, adding a
dash of native mythology to the mix to appeal
to the home audience. The only change with this
film is that there seems to have been two Hollywood
hits on the producers' minds when this story was
conceived.
In a
distant, long ago time a wise man observes a meteor
fall to earth and from that heavenly stone he
forges a mighty sword. Imbued with magical energy
so vast that anyone wielding it will have ultimate
power, the wise man deems the weapon too dangerous
and hides it away. Years later a village on the
shores of a lake is faced with a crisis. For centuries
the people have sacrificed their strongest men
to the Crocodile Queen who lives beneath the water.
The Queen takes the young men as consorts and
uses them sexually until they die! (My preferred
method of death, but I digress.) This necessitates
a new sacrifice on a regular schedule, but the
village population has fallen and they feel they
can no longer give the next generation to the
insatiable appetites of the supernatural monarch.
The people have delayed the sacrifice for weeks
in hopes they can marry off the strongest men
and thus avoid the Queen's demands. (Once married
the men are off limits to her.) But as the ceremony
for another young man begins the Queen awakens
her servant Banyu-Jaga (Advent Bangun) to forcibly
bring her a new stud from the disobedient villagers.
Flying into the wedding on a rock (!), the sword-wielding
killer finds the people are willing to fight for
their future —
even the very well-trained women! As Banyu-Jaga
is supernaturally powerful he has little trouble
beating and maiming all comers until a passerby
on horseback spots the large-scale fight and stops
to lend a hand. The good Samaritan is Mandala
(Barry Prima), a mullet-haired warrior trained
by the same wise man as Banyu-Jaga. Mandala still
holds to his master's teachings and seeks only
to help those in need. Jumping into the melee
he battles his opponent to a standstill with the
evil fighter escaping only after calling on the
help of the Queen's nasty crocodile men. How the
crocodile men can rise up out of the ground is
a mystery never explained but I would have thought
they'd need to come out of the lake...
Disappointed
by his failure to stop Banyu-Jaga from kidnapping
the young bridegroom, Mandala travels to see his
master Abi-Rama. There he discovers the wise old
man beaten nearly to death by more of the Queen's
minions and learns that these evil warriors have
banded together to destroy all the world's "good"
warriors. They came to force information from
Abi-Rama about the terrible Devil's Sword crafted
so long ago. The idea that it might have been
smart to destroy the weapon or maybe NEVER MAKE
THE THING IN THE FIRST PLACE is never brought
up... but I certainly kept thinking it. Regardless,
Mandala sets off to find the sword and protect
it from the evil warriors. He is joined by the
stolen groom's fiancee, who is a pretty good fighter
on her own. She hopes to battle her way to Queen's
underwater lair to reclaim her man.
Of course, the two good warriors
travel to the sword's hiding place and, after
securing the weapon, confront the evil warriors
in a huge battle of comic book proportions. They're
helped in that the bad guys have fought among
themselves and whittled their numbers down by
the time Mandala shows up to finish the job. The
final confrontation between him and Banyu-Jaga
rages on for a while with both men suddenly demonstrating
amazing new mystic powers. But there's still the
Queen to face —
and all men should fear her lustful gaze.
As you
can tell from the synopsis above, this is one
kooky movie. Equal parts Conan
the Barbarian, Raiders
of the Lost Ark and crazed mythology, the
film is never boring and often so outrageous that
it reaches a level of pure entertainment other
films can only aspire to. I thought the sight
of Banyu-Jaga riding a huge flying boulder into
the village was strange enough, but to top the
scene with the rock crushing a hapless man against
a tree was genius. The violence on display here
is both fun and funny, as it often tends to be
so over-the-top it's impossible to take seriously.
Even with all the heads, hands, legs and entire
bodies being chopped up the fountain-like spurts
of fake blood grow more cartoonish with each new
splatter. The fights are interestingly staged
at times, with lots of sound and fury signifying
very little but the acrobatic work and energy
displayed are a blast to watch. The battle between
the various evil warriors is particularly fun,
especially when one talkative baddie won't die
just because she's been chopped in half! Generally
the effects are pretty amateurish and the wirework
used to create the magical elements of the fights
is silly at best. But the overall effect of all
this loopiness just adds to the otherworldly feel
that the film almost accidentally creates. This
is a classic of bizarre cinema and I can already
feel the urge to watch it again. That being said,
there's a strong streak of misogyny underpinning
the story. The evil Queen is presented as a heartless
sexual predator who uses men for pleasure, killing
them in the process. She has no concern for anything
but herself and her own sexual gratification,
simply not caring if she destroys the source of
her boy-toys. I noticed this view of sexually
hungry women as evil in Lady
Terminator. Both are derived from the same
myth, that of a sexually carnivorous queen wreaking
violence on anyone in her way. It would be nice
to say this malicious view of women was as indicative
of its foreign nature as its mythic trappings,
but I think its just as prevalent in Hollywood
movies today —
just hidden a little better. Indeed this view
of women is pretty common and always stems from
a male-dominated religious background. Still,
it's odd to see the 'female sexuality = evil'
equation so clearly laid out as the reason for
a villain's actions.
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Mondo Macabro has done a fantastic job bringing
this freaky film to DVD. The movie has been remastered
from the original negative and looks very good.
There are imperfections in the picture, but my
guess is that the occasional out of focus shot
is due more to budget limitations than the fault
of the transfer. The image is letterboxed at 2.35:1
(anamorphically enhanced) while the stereo soundtrack
is clear if unremarkable, with the competent English
dub being part of the fun.
On the Extras front, besides
the trailer, are three step-through text essays
—
on mythological Asian weaponry,
the film The Devil's
Sword and a bio of star Barry Prima. The
best of the bonus features is a 20-minute attempt
at an interview with the legendary Prima. (Well,
"interview" may be the wrong word.)
The Mondo Macabro camera crew tries to
question the very reclusive, retired actor in
a hotel restaurant. But although he seems to have
agreed to the talk his answers are at best partial,
he feigns ignorance of his co-stars and has nearly
nothing of interest to say about his career. The
DVD producers are clearly aware of how odd this
piece is, labeling it an "encounter"
with Prima and warning beforehand that they did
the best they could. It's a wash if you're looking
for information about the bizarre film the man
made but there are some unintentional laughs to
be had. Where outside of a Scientologist are you
going to find a movie star claiming to have been
healed by psychic surgery?
8/01/06
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