Beastmaster - The Liberator

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Movie
German title Beastmaster - The Liberator
Original title The Beastmaster
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1982
length 118 minutes
Rod
Director Don Coscarelli
script Don Coscarelli,
Paul Pepperman
production Sylvio Tabet ,
Paul Pepperman
music Lee Holdridge
camera John Alcott
cut Roy Watts
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
Beastmaster II - The Time Jumper

Beastmaster - The Liberator (Original Title: The Beastmaster ) is an American barbarian film from 1982 . It is based on the book The Beast Master by Andre Norton . The director and screenwriter was Don Coscarelli , with Marc Singer , Tanya Roberts and Rip Torn in the leading roles . It is the first film in a trilogy , followed by Beastmaster II - The Time Jumper (1991) and Beastmaster - The Eye of Braxus (1995). In addition, the television series Beastmaster - Lord of the Wild was produced from 1999 to 2002 .

action

King Zed wants his kingdom to be freed from black magic and human sacrifices and therefore banishes the high priest Maax (Rip Torn), who shares himself with fortune tellers and witches . He takes revenge by having the queen's unborn child transferred from a witch to a cow. The witch takes the child out of the cow's belly and burns a mark on his hand. When she wants to sacrifice it by the fire , it is saved by a peasant and swordsman passing by.

The son of King Zed grows up under the name Dar with the man in a small farming village and learns the art of sword fighting. One day he realizes that he can talk to animals in his mind. When his village is invaded by the Jun riding hordes , Dar is the only survivor. He takes his sword and goes to seek revenge. On the way he takes in two ferrets and a panther and an eagle join him.

On his way, Dar meets bird-like creatures in a cave, who eat up a whole man within seconds and only leave his skeleton. But they respect him when they notice his connection with the eagle and hand him a medallion.

At a pond he meets the beautiful temple slave Kiri and falls in love with her. Dar later meets the man Seth and the boy Tal, who are saving his panther from Maax's men. He learns that Tal is the son of King Zed, who is being held in a dungeon by Maax, and that Kiri is his cousin.

Dar goes secretly into the city, where high priest Maax lets people sacrifice on a step pyramid in the fire. Dar lets his eagle save a child from sacrificial death. He learns from the child's parents that Kiri will soon also be sacrificed. Together with Seth and Tal, he sets out to free them. With Kiri's help, Dar, Seth, Tal and the panther sneak into the city, penetrate the pyramid, free the king and take him to a rebel camp.

The king does not want to have anything to do with Dar, whom he considers abnormal due to his association with the animals, and rejects him. He forges a plan to retake his city, but Maax spies on him and the plan fails. All rebels are to be sacrificed. The father of the rescued child reports this to Dar, who immediately goes to town and uses his Maax sword to fight men on the pyramid and save Kiri. King Zed and the high priest Maax die.

The city's residents are now afraid of the approaching Jun, Maax's ally. Dar sends his eagle with the medallion to the bird beings and prepares the city for a siege. When he is in the middle of a fight with the Jun, whose leader he can kill, the bird creatures attack the Jun and shortly destroy them.

After the battle, Seth realizes that Dar is the actual heir to the throne. But he renounces and leaves the crown to his young brother Tal. He goes on his way with Kiri and his animals.

background

The film had a budget of $ 9 million but grossed only $ 4 million. He could not assert himself against the at the same time launched and extremely successful barbarian film Conan the Barbarian . The role of Maax was originally written for Klaus Kinski and Kiri was to be played by Demi Moore, who was eighteen when the casting started .

The German cinema premiere was on October 28, 1982.

Reviews

  • “Trivial fantasy story, interspersed with dramatic scenes of violence, which at times develops convincing mythical scenarios, but for the most part appears plagiaristic.” - Lexicon of international film

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interview with Sylvio Tabet
  2. ^ "Lexicon of International Films" (CD-ROM edition), Systhema, Munich 1997
  3. ↑ Beastmaster - The Liberator. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 16, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used