Red Sonja (film)

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Movie
German title Red Sonja
Original title Red Sonja
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1985
length 85 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Richard Fleischer
script Clive Exton
George MacDonald Fraser
production Christian Ferry
A. Michael Lieberman
music Ennio Morricone
camera Giuseppe Rotunno
cut Frank J. Urioste
occupation

Red Sonja (alternatively: The Swordsman's Revenge ) is an American barbarian film from 1985 with Brigitte Nielsen and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the leading roles. Directed by Richard Fleischer and written by Clive Exton and George MacDonald Fraser . The film opened in German cinemas on September 5, 1985.

action

Red Sonja resists Queen Gedren's advances and scratches her face. As a result, Sonja's family is slain by the queen's henchmen and they themselves raped . The following night Sonja has a vision and swears revenge.

In a temple , priestesses are preparing to destroy a talisman whose destructive power is too dangerous. Queen Gedren and her soldiers raid the temple in order to get the talisman, which only women can safely touch. In the fight against overwhelming odds, the priestesses are killed except for Sonja's sister Varna, who escapes from the temple. The fighter Kalidor saves the badly wounded Varna from her pursuers and, at her request, goes in search of her sister.

Sonja, who learned the art of sword fighting from a grandmaster , is brought to her dying sister by Kalidor. Sonja has to promise to wrest the destructive talisman from the queen and destroy it. Kalidor offers to help, but Sonja says she doesn't need any help from a man.

On the way to Gedren's castle, Sonja meets the childlike Prince Tarn, whose city the Queen destroyed with the help of the talisman. He asks her to join his new army, which she refuses. In a duel , Sonja kills Prince Brytag, after which she faces his soldiers alone. Kalidor, who had secretly followed her, helps her against the overwhelming power, after which Sonja rides on. When Kalidor rejoins her in a dangerous situation, he reveals that centuries ago the lords of Hyrcania had given the talisman to the priestesses for safekeeping and that he was the current lord. The talisman can only be destroyed in his presence, which is why he was on the way to the temple of the priestesses.

Sonja frees Tarn from bandits, together with his servant and Kalidor they get to Gedren's fortress, in which the energy of the talisman is no longer controllable and opens a large crevice in the ground. After a sword fight, Sonja thrusts Gedren and the talisman into the magma . The four can escape from the fortress before it is destroyed by a lava eruption. Sonja and Kalidor kiss in the last scene.

Reviews

The film received mostly negative reviews. The film review portal Rotten Tomatoes gives the film 15% positive reviews and it has a Metascore of 35 out of 100 on Metacritic .

"Brigitte Nielsen in her first film role and muscle man Schwarzenegger are the attractive stars of a romantic and comedic fairy tale."

- Lexicon "Films on TV"

"A fantasy film that turned out to be very primitive at times with comedic encores and, after all, excellent landscape shots."

"A fantasy adventure with comedic episodes and wonderful landscape shots."

- Feature films 89. The highlights of the television year

John J. Puccio criticized the film on www.dvdtown.com on August 23, 2004 as "pure silliness", but not stupid enough to be entertaining. He compared the film with the film Conan the Destroyer , which Richard Fleischer also directed. Puccio criticized the portrayals of Brigitte Nielsen and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the "clumsy" direction, the "uninspired" film music, the costumes and the special effects.

Awards

Brigitte Nielsen and Sandahl Bergman were nominated for the Golden Raspberry in 1986.

backgrounds

  • The figure of Red Sonja , invented by Roy Thomas , made her debut in 1973 in issue 23 of the comic series Conan the Barbarian . After her first solo adventures in Marvel Feature Issue 1-7 (1975-76) she received in 1977 their own offshoot -Comicserie Red Sonja , which since then (until 1995 at Marvel Comics , meanwhile at Blackthorne Publishing and Cross Plains and since 2005 at Dynamite Entertainment ) is continued with interruptions until today.
  • The production cost of the film were about 15 million US dollars . The shooting took place in Italy .
  • Originally, Red Sonja was supposed to join the Conan series, but for licensing reasons the name "Conan" could not be used. Therefore, the character played by Arnold Schwarzenegger was renamed.
  • A new adaptation of the Red Sonja fabric has been announced since 2009 .

literature

  • From 1981 to 1983 six Red Sonja novels appeared in the USA, written by David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney.
  • Red Sonja has appeared in numerous comic publications from Marvel Comics since 1977 (his own series and previously guest appearances in other series since 1975) . In addition to her own comic series, she also had guest appearances a. a. in the comic series of Conan the Barbarian and Spider-Man .

A list of German publications can be found under Red Sonja (comic figure) .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Red Sonja at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
  2. Red Sonja at Metacritic (English)
  3. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" . (Extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 671 (Rating: 2½ stars = above average)
  4. Red Sonja. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. Dirk Manthey (ed.), Jörg Altendorf (ed.), Willi Bär (ed.): Feature films 89. The highlights of the television year . Kino Verlag, Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-89324-037-3 , p. 170
  6. Richard Fleischer: Red Sonja. July 3, 1985. Retrieved September 27, 2016 .
  7. Trivia page of the film in the Internet Movie Database
  8. Red Sonja. In: moviepilot.de. Retrieved September 27, 2016 .
  9. https://www.wunschliste.de/episode/51189/conan-der-abenteurer-1997-das-geheimnis-der-ewigen-jugend