L'Archer et la Sorcière

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?

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.

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.

when I was a child. Damn, it's a long time ago I've seen this movie. It seems like an eternity, yet it was only six, seven, eight years ago, back when I was about 12. Man, this movie, it just rocks in my memory. I mean the fact that I saw it about 5 to 10 times and that I even remember seeing it now (about 8 years later) and being able to remember scenes and recognize photo's says it all. I think it is a great film. Underrated, not known to many folk but definitely a truly GREAT film. Although I liked the Neverending story too back then and now I think it is bad. But who cares I bet you it makes very good entertainment for kids.

8 out of 10

This was apparently the pilot for a proposed TV series that, for better or worse, failed to materialise.

Indeed it has that curiously distinctive eighties TV series feel to it, which in itself isn't necessarily such a bad thing, although some of the visual effects are sadly now very dated looking, such as whenever the hero (who you'll have to do a double take to make sure isn't in fact Rob Lowe!) scores a hit with his 'Heart Bow'.

It has to be said that the actual film is rather pedestrian in its execution (which is probably partly why it never continued as a series) The characterisations are generally bland at best and the acting never approaches rising above average.

The real problem here however, is that nothing particularly exciting actually occurs. This is decidedly illogical for the idea of a pilot, in which the aim should surely be to initially grab the viewers attention with lots of action and eye candy and hope that they'll be hooked enough to yearn for more.

Nonetheless, this movie must be commended for what was at the time, such a unique and innovative premise for a television series (bear in mind this actually predates Conan the Barbarian and the plethora of sword and sorcery films that followed it)

Ironically, it was perhaps in part due to this last point that the series failed to get off the ground.....perhaps it was TOO ahead of it's time for it's own good.