The Sword and the Sorcerer [DVD]

Wow. The Sword & the Sorcerer, on DVD. A blast from my past that I can't pass up. Bear with me while I reminisce briefly - I'll come around to the point in a moment.Once upon a time, long, long ago, I found a book. Just a couple hundred pages long, but chock-full of bloody adventure. The cover is what grabbed my attention, really: a vicious looking ape-thing, partially covered with a tattered crimson cape, and a lean, scarred, snarling blue-eyed barbarian, armed with nothing but a short blade, clinging to the monster's back. I begged my mom to buy it for me. After several head-shakes and skeptical looks regarding my fascination with the silly thing, she gave in. And thus it was my first exposure to Robert E. Howard and Frank Frazetta, an event that probably warped me beyond belief. I spent the next few years tracking down everything Howard ever wrote, every Conan story ever published, and just about every other conceivable sword & sorcery and dark fantasy story/compilation/novel I could lay my hands on, with authors ranging from the swashbuckling classics (Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories) to the dark, creepy and, well, Wagner-esk (Karl Edward Wagner, and his sorcerer/warrior/killer, Kane).Spiral down the road bit - I'm a little older, haphazardly dealing with my freshman year of high school, and suddenly Howard's stories came to life with a Muscle & Fitness magazine article featuring pre-Gubornator Ah-nold and the film version of Conan the Barbarian. Being rebels, albeit too young to go see an R-rated movie by ourselves, some friends and I promptly decided to sneak into a local theater on opening day and watch Ah-nold mangle the English language on celluloid. We stayed and watched him defeat Thulsa Doom and toss James Earl Jones' severed head down those steep marble steps five times in a row.Right afterwards, I ran to the store and bought the movie novelization. Read that. Re-read all my Conan comic books, too.And so it went - my obsession with sword & sorcery books suddenly transmorgified into a new obsession with, ta-dah! Movies! And thank God, because right about that time She decided to invent the VCR (err, yeah, I know, Betamax came first. Whatever). My dad splurged and bought a big, clunky top-loading VCR that cost something like four hundred bucks (but hey - now he could tape golf while he watched football) and had a 'remote' with a four-foot cord that was attached directly to the unit (Ah, the golden days. But you know what? That thing was a freakin' tank - it lasted FOREVER and would play ANYTHING, no matter how messed up the tape was).So I spent the next four years watching every cheesy sci-fi/fantasy flick that our local, pre-Blockbuster/mega-video store managed to pull in to stock. From the Good (Conan, Excalibur) to the crummy (Conan the Destroyer, the Barbarians), to... this. The Sword & the Sorcerer.Low budget. Yes. But so much better for it. This baby is right out of the gritty, blood-caked, Weird Tales style of dark fantasy, with the swashbuckling warrior (Lee Horsely, who's career pretty much ended right here), on a bloodthirsty quest to rescue the sultry, beautiful princess (Kathleen Beller) from the vile, wicked sorcerer (Richard Moll), in the process winning back his stolen kingdom, torn away by a bloodthirsty tyrant (Richard Lynch). Sci-fi/action hack supreme Albert Pyun (see Nemesis - one the cooler Blade Runner/Terminator/Cyborg style knock-offs) directs with an unusual flair for something this on-the-cheap, making Sword & The Sorcerer a cheesy treat to remember.By the way - yeah, I bought the novelization for this one, too. And I still have it, safely tucked away with all my old Conan books. Even though I just ordered Sword & Sorcerer on DVD, I dunno if I can wait. Think I'll go pull the book out now, then jump into bed with a flashlight, pull the covers over my head, and read until the sun creeps up.Maybe I'm not so grown up yet after all.

My friend and I are both huge Robert E. Howard fans, and needless to say we were pretty disappointed when we saw the first conan on the big screen after waiting years after hearing the rumors it was being made. I guess we were both happy that R.E.H.'s character hit the big screen at all, we both agreed that Arnold was a living special effect and the only one we knew of that came close to matching Conans stature. Other than that we were bummed out. This was'nt conan, some sad little blue eyed boy placidly excepting the beheading of his mother, some dim witted slave who,s physique was formed from forced slavery and was so ignorant he did,nt realize he was being paired off in a pit fight to the death until he was being chewed up and spit out!!! NOT Robert E. Howards Conan at all! Then my friend brought over a VHS tape called "The Sword and the Sorcerer" and said you gotta see this! Well I watched it and when it was done I turned to my friend and said holy crap that was conan, he just smiled and said I know. Other than Talons noble heritage his character is Robert E. Howards Conan the whole movie was a R.E.H. Conan adventure from the demonic wizard to the giant snake & horde of rats. Lee Horley even captured Conans wit " thats a small threat, a very small threat."Hilarious. The crucifixtion scene when Talon pushes through the pain and with brute force free's his self, pure R.E.H.Conan. The king says he thought Talon was off ruling some black tribe to the south...all Conan. The intro of Talon's different occupations strait out of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories even the violence was so R.E.H. skulls being split to the chin, sadistic jailers every thing about this movie was more Conan than "Conan the barbarian". If I dubbed over Talon's name with Conan and if Lee Horsley had given prince Mika the three bladed sword back to him along with the crown this would be the best Conan movie ever made! Some might say this movie did'nt have a big enough budget and its B-rate don't let that detour you from getting this movie if you are a fan of sword & scorcery this is a must for your collection. If your a Robert E. Howard fan this movie is a must for your collection. Robert E. Howard wrote that Conan was known by many names he was called Amra when he was a pirate & chieftan of the black tribes to the south I think he was called Talon in the city of Adan & prince Mika was the kid fighting in the begining of this movie, Ha Ha Ha ... Great sword & scorcery film budget be deviled.

It's an 80s fantasy/ sword and sorcery movie! I mean it's a bit thin and predictable on plot but great fun and that's what mattered to me.

Swashbuckling, dastardly villains, naked chicks (but not the starring actress, though skimpily dressed) and the dumbest sword in the history of film - what's not to like?

Dvd arrived quickly and in great condition. Great adventures flick, One of the original, maybe THE "sword and sorcery" movie, 99 minutes, R, color, wide-screen, no subtitles, extras, trailer and TV spot.

Thank you for releasing this movie back to normal without them dumb committed with Raffa or what it is it should be shown both normal and the other way so you have a choice of which way you want to watch it. It's not fair to the B movie fans.

I remember this First time round and it would be Decades before Pyun would move away from His Robot/Cyborg/Action range of flicks and return with A Semi Sequel.The thing Sword always had going for it was its Campy,tongue in Cheek sense of Fun which was all wrapped up in a satisfying Swords and Boobs epic that you just knew its makers were not taking totally seriously.The acting is above average with Lee Horsley,Richard Moll and the always highly Hissable! Richard Lynch.Not the Best Fantasy flick out there but Head and shoulders above the Fantasy Dreck thats churned out these Days.

Dvd cam in great condition and plays without issue which is always a concern when buying second hand.

This is one of my old favourites and I was really glad to see it available on DVD, as I only recently got rid of my video version. I went for the slightly more expensive version of the DVD and I'm glad I did. It's a very good clear version of this now pretty old film. Top quality.

I bought this in the spur of the moment, as I couldn't find what I was looking for, well worth it if you like the cheesy fantasy films... ;o)

ok fantasy if you like this sort of thing