The Archer: Fugitive from the Empire

I was a 10 year old boy when I saw this on TV. Odd how certain things stick in your mind.

I still remember something about the evil guy--I believe he had a black beard?--and his magic item, as a sort of contrast to the Heartbow, was, if I recall, a sort of metal gauntlet thing with a blue gemstone in it. I don't recall what its power was, but if he put it on, he had some sort of energy power. I think the screen would turn blue and dark/light inverted, as when the Heartbow arrows "exploded". A modern film reference to the blue gauntlet would be a good obscure reference.

The great thing about the internet is you can ramble like this about things that don't matter in the slightest little bit...and it's okay.

As with certain films of the filmed noir genre, there are unheralded fantasy films that also fall in to the category of "sleepers" i.e., very entertaining but not widely reviewed/seen. To name a few: Forbidden Planet, The Forbidden Street, I'll Never Forget You (Berkely Square), The Sword & the Sorcerer, Sinbad the Sailor, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Sinbad & the Eye of the Tiger, Demon Seed, Five Million Years to Earth, Omar Khayyam, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (now a classic), as well as The Dam Busters, (if you are not offended by the name of the dog) and the exceptional, Curse of the Demon.

These are but a few examples of some lesser credited "sleepers", yet they are thoroughly entertaining films. I would handily rate it **** out of ***** stars.

When this movie appeared in 1981, I was a young boy filled with dreams of one day becoming a great warrior. Silly as these dreams may seem now, at the time they helped fill what were otherwise boring afternoons in a time when we were all waiting for the 80's to fully materialize. Looking back on this film now after twenty-five years, I still feel young and strong and full of magical powers every time I see it as it gave us the feel of otherworldly power and secrets that may have existed long ago, before movies like THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy put that idea into the minds of young and old alike. The acting was weak and character development was pushed aside in favor of time constraints but all-in-all I liked the way the film made me feel. And, after all, isn't that why we give up two hours of our precious time anyway?

Hi, Everyone, I worked as an extra in this TV movie. We worked in the hills near Magic Mountain on December, 3, 4, and 5 of 1980. It rained most of the time. We wore fur hides that kept our upper bodies warm enough. We had some campfires going most of the time.

On one of the days there was an invasion of some type of small winged insect that got into our food and probably can be seen in some of the scenes. The mud was very deep. We would wade into a muddy road area and made glopping sounds as we pulled our feet out.

Somehow it was some of the most fun days I have ever had in the movie business. The group of guys who worked on the show, cast, crew and extras were laughing a lot. Nick the director, was very nice and articulate. Warren, the A.D. was a pleasure to be with. I worked with him many times, including on Thorn Birds and Airwolf.

I watched the movie when they showed it on TV. I have not seen it since. I did enjoy it. I think it would stand up well today if it were re-released with some special notes about the making.

When we did our village (hill dweller types) scenes with George Kennedy, there were more different kinds of animals in one scene than I have ever observed working together in any other project. There were dogs, a bear, cougars, horses and some falcons and a chimp.

The horse was not at all pleased being near the bear and the cougars were not friendly except with their handlers.

Well worth watching.

Tom Willett (Yonhope)

I did enjoy this made for television movie far more than my rating indicates. My low rating is more for the fact many plot elements were introduced and only one resolved. If I remember the advertising at the time, this was supposed to be the first in a series of made for television movies, with each released at 3-12 month intervals. The movies would introduce characters giving their background. They would, across the series, slowly form a typical fantasy role playing adventuring group and save the day. It was essentially a pilot. This allowed the expectation many plot elements would be let unresolved but resolved in subsequent titles. The movie apparently was not as much of a draw as hoped and no further installments were ever made. If you enjoy fantasy AND enjoyed the movie Eragon you will probably enjoy this movie. Just do not expect to see a story with an ending.