{"id":21851,"date":"2016-08-15T00:50:54","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T04:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=21851"},"modified":"2016-08-17T10:01:35","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T14:01:35","slug":"red-sonja-1985","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/15\/red-sonja-1985\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sonja (1985)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RedSonja\"<\/a>I\u2019m not ashamed to admit that \u201cRed Sonja\u201d is a childhood favorite. As a TV junkie, I spent a lot of my childhood watching movies on network TV and I constantly tuned in to \u201cRed Sonja.\u201d It was such a departure from the normal movies I watched as it sported a female heroine, Ernie Reyes Jr. trying his best to kick ass, and an unusual narrative that feels like a mix of \u201cBarbarella\u201d and \u201cWizard of Oz.\u201d Of course this being 1985, you can sense Dino DiLaurentiis also trying to build his own movie series a la \u201cStar Wars,\u201d even featuring a battle with an underwater monster in a cave. I never caught on to it before, but this is also one of the rare action movies from the eighties where there is a heavily implied sexual affair between heroine Sonja and villainous Queen Gedren.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Though it\u2019s not extrapolated on as it should be, there seems to be the indication that after refusing to side with her after a passionate affair, Queen Gedren pretty much laid waste to Sonja\u2019s life. Now Sonja is essentially on the journey to avenge her family and confront her ex-lover all the while coming to terms with her own bisexuality. It\u2019s popular to bash \u201cRed Sonja\u201d these days, but it\u2019s still a shockingly progressive fantasy tale considering most of the eighties fantasy movies were for kids, or had stories about young men saving princesses and maidens. Granted, \u201cRed Sonja\u201d is not a masterpiece, but it embraces the somewhat groundbreaking territory while also transforming in to a bit of cheap exploitation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The presence of Lord Kalidor as played by Schwarzenneger (an obvious Conan avatar) is a funny gimmick using the Conan influence to keep \u201cRed Sonja\u201d afloat. Meanwhile all Red Sonja needs is to flirt with Kalidor before she realizes she actually likes men, and isn\u2019t so lesbian anymore, gosh darnit. When I was a kid, Schwarzenneger was Conan, no matter what \u201cRed Sonja\u201d identified him as. It was merely Conan travelling incognito. \u201cRed Sonja\u201d is just a simple fantasy actioner tracking down the Queen that ruined her life and is looking to destroy the Macguffin known as the Talisman. Said Talisman can only be operated by women, for some reason, and has the key to all power\u2014or something. I was never clear, there.<\/span><\/p>\n

But hey, Sandahl Bergman is very sexy as Queen Gedren and has a palpable tension with Nielsen. Schwarzenneger is also fun as Kalidor, while Ernie Reyes and Paul L. Smith fulfill their purpose as comic relief from the decapitations and impalings. As for Brigitte Nielsen, she is at her peak sexiness, and if you can forgive her often stiff acting, you might enjoy the undertones heroism and nobility she exhudes. Seriously, whenever Brigitte Nielsen recites lines in “Red Sonja” she sounds like a \u201cSpeak and Spell.\u201d But that said, Nielsen compensates for that with the Amazonian build, ace choreography, and a competent enough performance to keep you entertained. \u201cRed Sonja\u201d is a favorite from the eighties, it\u2019s a fun and exciting movie I enjoying for the swords and sorcery, Schwarzenneger flaunting his god-like image, and Brigitte Nielsen\u2019s damn stellar mullet.<\/span><\/p>\n