Even though I loved this stuff (and still do enjoyed it). Thanks for reminding me that this existed, MC.
shareI thought the same thing, how in the world have I never even heard of this before recently? I mean I love sword and sorcery, and animated features of the era. I just don't understand how this slipped by without me even knowing about it, for decades. I'm going to get the 4K next month for sure, it has to be good, it just has to be.
shareI did too. I would have loved it as a kid. Just saw it and was a bit disappointed. I expected a bit more from an R rated 80's fantasy film. More brothel, more nudity, bathing virgins, etc. This seemed like a PG movie. Conan The Barbarian still has set the standard, imo.
shareI caught on HBO back when it first came there, once it had left the theaters. Back then, I enjoyed it almost as much as Conan the Barbarian, which, being a fan of the original R.E. Howard stories, I had made sure to go see it the theaters -- I had to get my dad to take me to Conan, as I was just 13, and it was an R-rated film. At the time, I ranked them pretty close together in how much I liked them, but I was just a kid. Now, as an adult, I can see how much better a film Conan is absolutely every way. The Sword and the Sorcerer is, frankly, a B movie, and the sets, the cinematography, and the performances by most of the supporting cast show it all too well. It looks and feels like a made-for-TV movie that somehow got a theater release.
Still, I do enjoy the film, though if I saw it for the first time as an adult, I might not rank it nearly as highly as I do. Certainly the director, Albert Pyun, never made anything else of any note. He did finally make the sequel to this movie that was announced at the end of the credits, with the words "Talon will return in Tales of the Ancient Empire." It came out in 2010 with the slightly altered title Tales of an Ancient Empire. I doubt it was the same story they had originally planned, since almost three decades had past, and a much older, and somewhat overweight Lee Horsley was no longer hero material; though Horsley does have a cameo (and if this is how Talon, who was a prince, and a hero, was meant to end up... ugh!). The movie was staggeringly bad. Honestly one of the all time worst films I have ever seen. So maybe it's a blessing the sequel never got made back in the day. As it is, Sword and the Sorcerer stands fine on its own as a pretty good, enjoyable B movie.