Sangraal, la spada di fuoco

My review was written in September 1983 after a Times Square screening.

"The Sword of the Barbarians" is a chintzy Italian imitation of "Conan the Barbarian", one of dozens of pasta fantasies ground out recently. Cannon pickup (released independently, not part of the MGM-UA distribution deal) is minus the novelty of fantastic special effects which could earn it much of a following theatrically.

Story has Sangral (Peter MacCoy), son of Ator, uniting his tribe of peaceful plains people in prehistoric times with Belem's tribe, alfter saving Belem's foxy daughter Aki from an attack by nasties belonging to evil Naluk's tribe, Naluk is protected by the Golden Goddess, Rani (Sabrina Siani), to whom he makes human sacrifices, officiated by his set of hunchbacked priests. Rani, who periodically appears via cheap special effects behind the altar fire, has declared war upon Sangral, and in one skirmish Naluk's men kill Sangral's beautiful, platinum blonde wife Leni.

Strictly copying the format of the "Conan" film, Sangral vows to bring his wife back to life, and accompanied by Aki and an oriental friend Lee Wa Twan, he treks to visit a black magician Rudak to obtain the secret of rebirth. Rudak can't help but sends him instead on a mission to the Ark of the Templars, from which Sangral extracts a laughably oversize crossbow which shoots three arrows at once. Dull climax has Sangral dutifully wiping out Naluk and even the goddess.

Director credited as Michael E. Lemick tries to stretch his minimal budget with over-use of low-angle and wide angle shots but to no avail. Underpopulated picture features beasts that are actors in cheapest makeup imaginable and virtually none of the promised sorcery. It's just hand-to-hand battle nonsense in the vein of the Hercules and Maciste films of over 20 years ago. Peter MacCoy has the right muscleman build for the lead role and has appeared in several other local items including two "Gunan" features. Judging from the opening narration, his character here is apparently a descendant of the Miles O'Keeffe "Ato", though no family tree of prehistoric Italian schlock heroes has yet been charted. As the evil goddess, Sabrina Siani, also a vet of many of these pics, is an alluring personage, resembling the young Claudia Cardinale.

I've seen yesterday on a local Tv this movie and i can say that it is superb. It's better not only than Ator flicks,but also than Conan curse. Sangraal has got a lot of violence,action,fights;it hasn't got the absurdities of "Blade Master"(The ultra-bow has more sense than the hang-glider) and has got a lot of superb BREASTS SHOTS! I can say that Tarantini has made the better finish for this type of flicks. With the exclusion of Red Sonja, the entire group of sword an sorcery movies say on the finish the hero leave the heroine alone,refusing their love with the stupidest phrases that you can hear in your life ; well,in these situation the hero in question saves the girl(who seems like Caroline Munro) from collapse of the cave ,bringing her to safety. Sangraal DOES NOT cover girl's breasts and begins to kiss with her! And finally the hero shares his new horse with her(probably to go to make love otherwhere,so the heroine remains with nude breasts)!! I'm serious but this finish is the best that i have never seen for this genre of movies!!Brilliant,brilliant,brilliant! There aren't the massacres that we can see on other flicks,and this can make the happiness of those who love action movies with many survivors. I'm sad only for the death of Hal Yamanouchi... But i give to SANGRAAL 10 stars out of 10!! It's indefinitely better also to Deathstalker!

Having basically grown up with them, I admit to being a sucker for the cheesy sword-and-sorcery flicks of the early 1980s. However, this was one I had never heard of before coming across it – nor am I familiar with the work of its director, since he mostly dabbled in vulgar comedies…though I am sure some have nevertheless tried to build a cult around his resume' in view of his surname being similar to that of a certain American film-maker!

Anyway, this (originally intended as a sequel to Franco Prosperi's GUNAN, KING OF THE BARBARIAN released earlier that same year) is pretty much standard fare though marked by a couple of excesses that make it unintentionally hilarious. Upfront is the intermittent narration, which is so utterly downbeat and gravely-spoken to boot that I swear the speaker was on the verge of tears at times! The other is the sheer display of histrionics by the villain who frequently – and not always with good reason – takes to shouting out the hero's name at the top of his lungs; incidentally, his beef with him is merely because the latter has killed a number of his priests-cum-minions, thus thwarting an onslaught on a neighboring village…so I wanted to yell back at him: "Get over it already"! As usual, the protagonist is muscle-bound yet thoroughly bland: at the beginning of the film, he survives the obligatory extermination of a peaceful tribe; eventually, he leads the remaining members of the clan to a promised land (along the way to which, some have begun to despair and almost turn against him – sounds familiar?!); as if that were not sufficiently Biblical, the hero is named Sangraal which, literally, means "Holy Grail"!

He has a blonde girlfriend but soon also sets his sights on the daughter of the people he defended; conveniently, another assault sees the former killed…which the hero is forced to watch from afar while strung up (crucified, get it?). Rather than start life anew with his other girl and make life easier for all of us, he determines to bring the dead woman back to life (yep, they keep coming!) and seeks out a hermit-like sage with the help of an Oriental archer who comes out of nowhere but subsequently breaks our balls by incessantly spouting Charlie Chan-type aphorisms! Pilfering yet another fashionable mystic source, the villain and his men worship a topless goddess who lives inside a fire a' la SHE (just as bloodthirsty and constantly threatening her disciple when his every ruse to dispatch the hero inevitably fails!).

Later on, the protagonist and his two companions are attacked by blind creatures that live in caves and sport webbed fingers – maybe their tatty 'costumes' were borrowed from Sergio Martino's ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN (1979)? – before stumbling upon a secret weapon, an unwieldy arrow-shooting contraption that barely sees service thereafter! Eventually, hero and villain engage in a one-on-one by the sea, with the latter ending up impaled on his own dagger! Mind you, in spite of my disparaging remarks, one cannot really hate this type of juvenile (nudity and gore notwithstanding) fare too much – in fact, on the strength of this, I acquired two other minor efforts (albeit from American exponents) in this vein i.e. Jack Hill's SORCERESS (1982) and THE WARRIOR AND THE SORCERESS (1984), though I probably will not be getting to them just now...

Seeking new land for his people a swordsman's wife is murdered by followers of the evil Goddess Rani. He vows vengeance upon the cult and journeys to the Ark of the Templars for a magic crossbow to exact his revenge.

Director Michele Massimo Tarantini's Sangraal The Sword of the Barbarian(s), Barbarian Master, la spada di fuoco (1982) is one of three swords and fantasy films to feature both lead Pietro Torrisi and also Sabrina Siani. The other two are Francesco Prosper's Gunan il guerriero, Gunan King Of The Barbarians or The Invincible Barbarian (1982) and Il trono di fuoco, The Throne of Fire (1983).

Here again, Torrisi looks uncannily just like live action He-Man as Sangraal. He does a more than competent job in the leads role, sadly he never gets a meatier script to test him. Blonde beauty Sabrina Siani's role is small but pivotal. Both blonde Margareta Rance as Lenna and Brunette Yvonne Fraschetti's Ati, daughter of a village leader fill the void. Xiomara Rodriguez is notable playing Rani, Goddess of Fire and Death, beautiful, vengeful and bloodthirsty who demands human sacrifice. Rani inexplicably needs to be topless, despite having a wonderful costume. Mario Novelli offers weight as evil warlord Nantuk. Sabrina Siani gets to give a wacky brief cameo performance as the temptress Goddess of Gold and Life in the final act.

Tarantini's basic story, Piero Regnoli's clunky screenplay with Ted Rusoff as dialogue supervisor features more of the same issues synonymous with the Italian produced sub-genre films. Editing, dubbing, sound design etc. That said, the costumes and props are well crafted, the locations especially the caves offer some credence to the production. The visual effects are bare minimum. Mostly smoke and mirrors. There's voiceover, horses, swords, nudity, skeletons snakes, severed limbs and sacrifice as Sangraal and Ati, joined by Hal Yamanouchi who plays an archer Li Wo Twan go about getting their revenge. Sandstorms and plenty of spear and sword action ensues as they tackle blind cave dwellers, morse code 'man monkeys' and other dangers.

Pasquale Fanetti's cinematography offers atmosphere. Alessandro Lucidi's editing is quite tight. Franco Campanino's dramatic music is fitting. Despite much of the poster art being misleading for this offering, those familiar with the genre will notice it's nothing new. To Tarantini's credit it's well put together compared to his Italian contemporaries of the sub-genre.

Ultimately, while the journey story isn't as fantasy filled as The Throne of Fire, it's one of the more rounded efforts of the Italian produced Conan, He-Man type swords and sorcery cash-ins.

Pietro Torrisi again doing of barbarian type CONAN. As in THRONE OF FIRE or THE INVINCIBLE BARBARIAN. Possibly this movie is the best of all the led ones for him. It is not bored nor kept woman. Simply they are adventures through, like CONAN'S comic-book. The script is not bad but much leaves that to wish, the actors not estan badly in I make concrete the protagonists' trio (the girl and the Chinesse) and SABRINA SIANI's brief appearance , typical in appearing in all the CONAN'S Italian developments (here she works out nake integral). The sets, makeups, wardrobe are pesimos (them same that italianadas as ATOR, GUNAN, THRONE OF FIRE ...) The battles are absurd and badly done, though they have something of gore and blood, in I make concrete and probably the better(best) of the movie, the scene in which the trio protagonist gets into a dark cave and they face men serpent (style WARHAMER FANTASY ROLGAME) well caracters , in a slightly bloody battle. Slightly boring, senseless of the humor and very serious. Only for fans of CONAN.