The Beastmaster is an above average entry in the sword and sorcery stakes. Released around the same time as the influential (and even better) Conan The Barbarian, Don Coscarelli's fantasy film moves along at a rapid pace and has some memorable and imaginative sequences. I saw the film for the first time when I was a 10
years old, and watched it many times on video and cable.
Evil priest Maax (Rip Torn) orders the sacrifice of his king's unborn son in order to prevent the coming of a prophecy in which the said son grows up and slays him. However, the baby survives its fate and is rescued by a farmer who raises him as his own and names him Dar. As Dar grows into adulthood (the adult Dar being played by Marc Singer), he gradually discovers that he has bizarre powers, including the ability to communicate with animals. He also is trained by his adopted father into becoming a very skilled swordsman. Dar's village is destroyed by a marauding band of raiders called the Juns, who kill everyone including Dar's adopted dad. Dar, the only survivor, sets off in pursuit of the Jun horde hoping to avenge their deaths. Along the way he gains several animal companions - a hawk, two ferrets, and a black panther - and also meets a slave girl named Kiri (Tanya Roberts) to whom he is immediately attracted. During his travels Dar eventually, almost accidentally, stumbles across the town where he was born. The king has long been imprisoned in the town's pyramid, and Maax is now in control, busily sacrificing the children of the repressed townsfolk. Dar vows to rid the town of Maax, but his plan is jeopardised following the rescue of the king.... for the king, during his years of imprisonment, has grown old and blind and, not realising who Dar is, refuses to take his advice on how best to confront Maax.
Some of the sequences in the film have a really impressive, long-lasting level of invention. The sacrificial murder of a child thrown into a fiery pit; the eagle men liquefying a victim inside their rubbery capes; Dar pulling himself upside-down and backwards along a passage full of gauntleted hands that grab at his legs; the rather sad demise of one of the ferrets near the film's end. On the other hand, the performances (as noted already) are pretty bad. Singer is physically imposing but that's about all; Torn makes for a hysterically overblown villain; and Roberts struggles with even the simplest of lines (though she does LOOK terrific - and even has some skimpy costumes and a nude swimming scene to encourage us to forgive the amateurishness of her acting). Lee Holstridge provides an infectious score that sounds somewhat similar to the old Battlestar Galactica music. And John Alcott, the cinematographer, gives the film a visual polish that is probably a bit above the material. The Beastmaster is a guilty pleasure - lots of fun, lots of blood-spilling, lots of earnest enthusiasm all round.
May 6, 2011
