Red Sonja (1985)

Director:

Richard Fleischer

Writers:

Robert E. Howard (character)
Clive Exton (written by) ...

Release Date:

3 July 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy

Tagline:

A woman and a warrior that became a legend.

Plot:

The tyrant Gedren seeks the total power in a world of barbarism. She raids the city Hablac and kills...

Plot Keywords:

Talisman | Topless | Underwater | Action Heroine | Based On Comic

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Arnold Schwarzenegger	...	Kalidor
Brigitte Nielsen	...	Red Sonja
Sandahl Bergman	...	Queen Gedren
Paul L. Smith	...	Falkon (as Paul Smith)
Ernie Reyes Jr.	...	Prince Tarn
Ronald Lacey	...	Ikol
Pat Roach	...	Brytag
Terry Richards	...	Djart
Janet Agren	...	Varna, Red Sonja's Sister
Donna Osterbuhr	...	Kendra the High Priestess
Lara Lamberti	...	Gedren's Handmaid (as Lara Naszinsky)
Hans Meyer	...	Red Sonja's Father
Francesca Romana Coluzzi	...	Red Sonja's Mother
Stefano Maria Mioni	...	Barlok, Red Sonja's Brother (as Stafano Mioni)
Tutte Lemkow	...	Wizard

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

Netherlands | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor) | Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Italy:T | Iceland:12 | Netherlands:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Germany:16 (DVD rating) | Australia:PG | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | UK:PG (cut) | USA:PG-13 | West Germany:12 (f) | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Italy

Company:

Dino De Laurentiis Company

Trivia:

It is commonly believed that Robert E. Howard created the character of Red Sonja in one of his Conan short stories. In reality, he created a character with a similar name (Red Sonya) that appeared in a minor role in a non-fantasy work of historical fiction. "Red Sonja", the character popularized by the 1985 movie, actually first appeared in a Conan comic book written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Barry Windsor-Smith.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the scene where Red Sonja and Falkon fight the bandits that captured Prince Tarn, Falkon hits a downed bandit with his bone club and part of the club breaks off upon impact. When he appears on screen again a moment later, the club is undamaged.

Quotes:

Red Sonja: No man may have me, unless he's beaten me in a fair fight.
Kalidor: So, the only man that can have you, is one who's trying to kill you. That's logic.
[Red Sonja goes and lies down. Kalidor picks up his sword and holds it to her throat]
Kalidor: If you yield only to a conqueror, then prepared to be conquered... Little Sonja...
Red Sonja: Don't be a fool, I don't want to kill you.
Kalidor: Try it.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Conan: The Rise of a Fantasy Legend (2005) (V)

Inept sword 'n' sorcery flick which pretty much destroyed its own genre.

Red Sonja is a career-step-in-the-wrong-direction for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Having made a couple of sword 'n' sorcery films (as Conan) he had moved onto slightly more serious acting roles in films like The Terminator and Commando, only to make a mystifying return to the sword 'n' sorcery genre for this 1985 debacle. It's hard to figure out why he bothered, as this is weaker than both Conan films in every conceivable department. Allegedly, this was to have been the third Conan film, but for one reason or another the emphasis was shifted onto the leading female character, the titular red-head, leaving poor old Arnold to play an incredibly dull supporting role. Spare a thought, too, for director Richard Fleischer who had given the world classics like 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Fantastic Voyage, The Boston Strangler and 10 Rillington Place. In this - his penultimate film - Fleischer also has taken a gigantic career step backwards.

Evil queen Gedren (Sandahl Bergman) wants to rule the world, and she needs a priceless and powerful talisman to do so. She and her brutish army storm a keep populated by priestesses and steal the said talisman, massacring the helpless priestesses as they go. One of the dead priestesses has a sister named Sonja (Brigitte Nielsen), a fiery red-headed warrior, who upon hearing of her sister's death swears revenge upon the evil Gedren. Sonja rides across the land in search of Gedren's lair. Along the way she picks up travelling companions in the shape of a boy prince, Tarn (Ernie Reyes Jr) and his bodyguard Falkon (Paul Smith). She also meets the muscular warrior Conan - sorry, I mean Kalidor (!) - who offers to join her in her quest. Initially Sonja doesn't want the help of Kalidor (Arnold Schwarzenegger), preferring instead to prove that she can confront and defeat her enemies alone, but eventually she warms to him and accepts his assistance.

Red Sonja is a staggeringly poor film, all the more so when one muses that it was made in 1985 when the sword 'n' sorcery genre was close to its end. It seems so simplistic and amateurish that one could easily mistake it for an early example of its kind. The performances are poor on the whole, ranging from Bergman's embarrassingly OTT villain to Reyes' unbelievably irritating spoilt brat to Schwarzenegger's wooden and unenthusiastic hero. Nielsen is slightly better as the heroine - presumably full of enthusiasm at the thought of being in her first starring role - but she is let down very badly by the stupidity of Clive Exton and George MacDonald Fraser's script. The film is riddled with goofs, including a scene where Schwarzenegger is seen in close-up hacking down bad guys but in a long-shot in the same sequence there isn't a corpse in sight. Technically it is very inept too, with sub-standard special effects and appallingly mechanical monsters. There are a few compensations, such as Ennio Morricone's enjoyable music (Morricone spent a great deal of the '80s providing good music for awful films, e.g The Island, Treasure of the Four Crowns and Hundra). Another compensation is Giuseppe Rotunno's lensing of the locations - in fact, much of the time it's a hell of a lot more gratifying to look at the lovely scenery than the actors standing in the foreground! There were very few sword 'n' sorcery films after Red Sonja, so in some ways it might go down in history as the film which destroyed its own genre.