Beastmaster - Der Befreier

This is a tale of death, blood and vendetta set in a mythical primitive world and wild age . A good sword and sorcery story dealing on bouncing Dar(Marc Singer, a Conan-Tarzan hybrid), a hunk hero who communicates with animals such as a puma, eagle, and a duo of sympathetic ferrets. Meanwhile he falls in love with a gorgeous,tempting slave-warrior(splendid beauty Tanya Roberts) and fights against nasty magician( hateful Rip Torn)and bewitching sorceress.

This amusing movie packs witchery, wizardly, necromancy, brutality, magnificent production values and lots of adventures and action. In the wake of Robert E. Howard's Conan (John Milius) and Conan the Destroyer(Richard Fleischer), it's a sort of comic-strip and one of the best from ¨Sword and Sorcery¨ genre . Thrills, action and adventures are brilliantly presented and edited to offer the maximum impact. Marc Singer is perfect cast as classic fantasy-hero. Glimmer and rousing cinematography by John Alcott, Stanley Kubrick's cameraman (Barry Lyndon). Spectacular and emotive musical score by Lee Holdridge. This entertaining film is well directed by Don Coscarelli(phantasm and followings) appointing the accent on the adventures and struggles.

It's followed by inferior sequels and TV series , as : 1) ¨Beastmaster 2 : Through the portal of time(1991)¨ by Sylvio Tabet(also trilogy's producer) with Kari Wuhrer, Sarah Douglas and Wing Hauser , where Dar tracks down an ominous tyrant throughout a dimensional portal to modern-day L.A. 2) ¨Beastmaster 3 : The eye of Braxus(1995)¨ by Gabrielle Beaumont with Casper Van Dien, David Warner and Leslie-Anne Down; where again Marc Singer is involved in a life-and-death fights with nasties . And 3) Television series (1999)starred by Daniel Goddard as Dar. Camp fun for ¨Sword and Witchery¨ genre fans.

For one of the slew of quickly produced movies of the 80's this one is pretty good. You've got Marc Singer when he was young and fit (not leathery and ancient like in the later movies of this series) and Tanya Roberts who is hot in this film. You've got swordfights, sorcery, the whole works. That said, I did find the ferrets a little annoying, but that's just me.

On the whole the movie works well and there are some touches, like the flying humanoids that envelop and dissolve their prey, that just make the film.

SUMMARY: Hero who can talk to animals sets out to overthrow an evil warlord.

I remember watching "The Beastmaster" when I was a kid, and I thoroughly enjoyed it back then. And as I purchased the DVD in 2013 and re-visited the movie for another watching, I can honestly say that I enjoy it as much today as I did back then.

This is a classic tale of sword and sorcery. An infant is rescued from a ritual offering and grow up on the plains with herders and huntsmen, fully unaware of his royal heritage. Growing up, Dar discovers that he has abilities that allow him mastery over animals and being capable of communicating with them. Drawn into a game of treachery and heroism, Dar have to take up the fight against the vile sorcerer Maax.

Sure, this was shot back in 1982, but it was a blast then, and it is actually quite fun to watch even in 2013. The effects were adequately back then and serves their point straight on. However, don't prepare to be dazzled by today's standards. But if you are a fan of the sword and sorcery genre, then "The Beastmaster" is a sure must-watch-movie.

The people cast for the various roles did good jobs with their given roles, and I don't really remember Marc Singer as being that buffed and muscular when I saw him in the original "V" series. But he was really well-cast for the role of Dar/The Beastmaster. Even the animals trained for the movie were doing good jobs.

"The Beastmaster" is a an excellent sword and sorcery movie, and a very formidable choice of movie to the "Conan" movies. I thoroughly enjoy this 1982 movie and I know that I will put it back in the DVD player again after some years.

The sorcerer Maax receives a prophecy that he'll be killed by the King's unborn child, so Maax gets a witch to transfer the baby into a cow's womb and then be sacrificed. A man stumbles across the activity, rescues the baby and adopts the child as his own. He was born with the gift to communicate with animals. Dar would be his name and he would grow up to be a muscularly skilled warrior. After his father and his village are butchered by the sorcerer Maax's orders, he sets out for revenge. Along the way he gets in contact with some resourceful animals, a slave girl Kiri and the captive king's right-hand man Seth.

Director Don Coscarelli's cult b-grade sword and sorcery epic (well it's close enough to one) "The Beastmaster" is an enjoyably mystical adventure, which knows it's all a bit of fun. There's no doubting how silly and cheesy it just happens to be, but gladly this item is not overly put off by it. There's a real kid-like mentality to it, but it breathes an sincereness that sweeps you along for the journey. Coming out the same time as "Conan the Barbarian" , it was hard no to compare the two. While Conan is obviously the better made grandeur production, it kind of had a pretentious feel to it and pacing was incredibly sluggish. Beastmaster might be systematic in the story, but to me it was far more entertaining. I might not win any votes for what I have just typed, but I'll stick to it.

Coscarelli who co-wrote the story with Paul Pepperman takes the central idea of our hero communicating with animals from Andre Norton's novel of the same name. The campy plot is routine (there's no real twists or surprises) with a constant mixture of sub-plots and ideas involving different adventures (which were mostly about rescuing someone/ or thing), which all lead onto the main story of Dar getting revenge. Some might be worthless and too straightforward with relax pacing, but I never found a boring moment within them. The direction by Coscarelli has a muscular touch to it and imagination to spare in some creative stabs and visuals. He knows how to create a rich atmosphere and his at his top when his going for that dark edge. The way he staged some of the one-on-one combat scenes though, came across as too clean and choreographed (especially the final climax). The larger battle scenes were gritty, kinetic and relentlessly staged though. Also don't expect much in the way of blood from this mainstream aimed piece.

Since the budget was reasonably modest, it did give the film a slick technical advantage, but it definitely tried to outdo itself with the budget it had. The camera-work by John Alcott is beautifully sprawling and nippy. Same treatment for Lee Holdridge's grandly bravura sounding musical score that only heightens the atmosphere, locations and actions. Sound effects were effectively cutting and location sets were cleverly shaped. Only draw-card in this would be that editing at times came across as very ragged. Reading that the film was far shorter in the first cut, the producers then got the editors to extend certain scenes and Coscarelli and Pepperman had no say in it. That's disappointing, because it would have been better off with the first cut and maybe gained more respect. The acting is nothing sensational, but acceptably good. Marc Singer wasn't too bad and felt right at home in the part of Dar. Tanya Roberts looks drop dead gorgeous, but isn't called on to do too much. Chewing it up as the villain is Rip Torn as he fabulously turns it up with plenty of flavour and John Amos is acceptably solid as Seth. Then you got the well-trained animals that impress and charm when on screen.

"The Beastmaster" is extremely goofy, but at the same time this humorous corker makes for great comic-style entertainment. There's nothing spectacular to it, but this cult fantasy flick (which gained popularity on cable TV) is one of the better genre efforts.

Like most I missed the theatrical run on this film, who didn't? I caught it on cable. I believe Dennis Miller had a running joke about HBO meaning "Hey Beastmaster' on!" This isn't agreat film, there are a lot of very obvious red herrings, but it's a lot of fun and certainly has earned it's cult status.

This sword and sorcery plot is well handled by Don Coscarelli and he directs his good looking leads, Marc Singer & Tanya Roberts, well. The photography on John Alcott is excellent and one of the highlights of the film. Lee Holdrigde's original score and Alf Clausens orchestrations are absolutely superb. Truly I thought the music was excellent. It's epic, memorable and so suited to the scenes!

For a film called the Beastmaster, its smart enough not to ignore the animals. The ferrets are cute, and yes ferrets are like that!, the Tiger (black panther) is fierce and the Hawk is mysterious, yet so graceful. I thought Marc Singer (Dar's) rapport with the animals was just great. The final fight with the Juns is fantastic in it's use of lighting and movement.

This film really should appeal to teenage boys and on that level it succeeds beautifully.