Red Sonja (film)

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For the comic book character, see Red Sonja.

Red Sonja
Directed by	Richard Fleischer
Produced by	Christian Ferry
Written by	Clive Exton George MacDonald Fraser (based on the character by Robert E. Howard
Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger Brigitte Nielsen Sandahl Bergman Paul Smith Ronald Lacey Ernie Reyes Jr.
Music by	Ennio Morricone
Cinematography	Giuseppe Rotunno
Distributed by	- USA - MGM/UA Entertainment Company - non-USA - Dino De Laurentiis Company
Release date(s)	3 July 1985
Running time	89 min
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
IMDb profile

Red Sonja is a 1985 sword and sorcery/action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger with Brigitte Nielsen as the title character. It was shot in Italy, on location in Celano and Abruzzi, near Rome, and at the Stabilimenti Cinematagrafici Pontini studios.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Production background 3 Criticism 4 Particulars 4.1 Taglines 4.2 Trivia 4.3 Faults 4.4 Awards 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] Plot

The movie begins with Red Sonja's family being slaughtered by the evil Queen Gedren’s army. Sonja manages to survive and even gives Gedren a little souvenir in the form of a brutal scar on her face. Later that night, Sonja is visited by a spirit who grants her the strength to seek her revenge.

The story then jumps to a large palace full of white robed priestesses. They are getting ready to destroy a big green glowing bowling ball called the Talisman. Apparently, this dangerous artifact grows destructively powerful from exposure to light; they intend to destroy it before it gets out of control. However, Gedren, now wearing a gold mask to cover her scar, and Ikol, her advisor and wizard, crash the party. Her army begins killing the armed priestesses, who actually put up a good fight.

Gedren gets her hands on the Talisman, but not before discovering that the rumor that only women can touch it is true. As Gedren orders the surviving priestesses to be imprisoned in the vault that held the Talisman, one of them, Varna, manages to escape, but is wounded by an arrow in the back. As luck would have it, however, she literally falls into the arms of the mighty Kalidor. She begs him to help find her sister, Red Sonja!

Meanwhile, Sonja has been training with a Chinese sword master. Kalidor comes charging in and informs Sonja about her sister. Sonja arrives just in time for Varna to tell her about what happened in the palace, and recommends finding the Talisman and destroying it or else the world will be plagued with floods and earthquakes. Varna then departs and Sonja starts her journey to find evil Gedren.

Later that night she notices a storm off in the distance and believes that someone is using the Talisman. Kalidor offers to help her, but Sonja tells him that she does not need the help of a man. She rides to the now ruined kingdom of Hablock and joins up with naughty little Prince Tarn and his servant, Falkon. The new little group sets out to find Gedren's fortress, with Kalidor surreptitiously following them.

Soon they encounter a thuggish toll road operator who takes an unhealthy interest in Sonja. She challenges him to fight and kills him, but his men, who greatly outnumber Sonja's group, try to get revenge. Kalidor's sudden arrival, however, saves the day. Sonja and her band make their escape, leaving Kalidor behind to take care of the remaining hoodlums.

Meanwhile, Gedren places the Talisman in a room full of candles to increase its strength. Ikol warns her against this because the light will cause it to grow too powerful to control, but Gedren won't listen to him. On the way back to the main hall, Ikol (who has giant black knife-like fingernails) tells her that there are enemies approaching the castle. He shows her the current location of Sonja’s group in some kind of magic screen. Gedren recognizes Sonja and orders that she be brought back to the fortress unharmed. She and Ikol then use the Talisman to conjure up a storm that forces Sonja’s band to take shelter in a cave.

Gedren and her magician then summon a monster under the water of a pond near the cave. When Sonja and her group try to cross the pond, the monster attacks them. Sonja struggles with the monster, but it unable to find any way to kill it. Kalidor again dramatically appears and is able to hold down the creature while the others escape. He then digs out the monster’s eyes and flees himself.

Sonja now accepts the company of Kalidor, but also gives him a warning--she will never be with any man unless he can defeat her in a swordfight. That night, Kalidor challenges her and they spar, but neither of them is able to defeat the other and eventually they both give up. Kalidor at least wins her heart.

The Talisman is starting to get out of control, but Gedren does not want to hear about it and once again rejects Ikol's counsel to put it in a dark place. Meanwhile, Kalidor, Sonja and Falkon climb over the fortress wall, leaving Tarn outside.

In the final confrontation, Sonja starts settling her score with Gedren, while Kalidor deals with her evil minions, attacking them while they are eating. Ikol tries to sneak away but gets crushed under the front gate, before Sonja finishes him off.

The Talisman breaks the floor of the candle room, opening up a hellish pit of fire.

Gedren flees to the candle room, with Sonja right behind her. After a final fight, Sonja drives her sword through Gedren's heart, sending her plunging into the fiery hell below and then throws the Talisman in after her. The fortress starts to collapse, but the heroes manage to escape (Kalidor at one point having to hold two pillars on his shoulders while the others pass by). The castle finally implodes into the lava pit and is destroyed.

At the end, Sonja and Kalidor kiss, while Prince Tarn and Falkon look on.

[edit] Production background

In Conan the Barbarian, Sandahl Bergman played Valeria, a thief and the love of Conan’s life. Bergman was offered the role of Red Sonja, but turned it down, choosing instead to play the villainous Queen Gedren. It took Dino De Laurentiis almost a year to find an actress "Amazonian" enough to play the title character; in fact, he was still looking eight weeks before the production was due to start, when he saw Brigitte Nielsen on the cover of a fashion magazine. The 21-year-old native of Helsingør, Denmark, who was in Milan on a modeling job, soon found herself on a plane heading for Rome and a successful screen test.

Schwarzenegger had great success in the two Conan movies, but his next film, James Cameron’s The Terminator, was a real breakthrough. When De Laurentiis approached Schwarzenegger and asked him to appear in an extended cameo and take second billing in Red Sonja, the actor agreed out of a feeling of obligation. He worked on the movie for only three weeks, and was very unhappy with De Laurentiis when he discovered he had been given top billing for what was essentially a supporting role.

Ennio Morricone, who wrote the music for Red Sonja, is one of the most celebrated of film composers. He has written scores for more than 400 movies, including Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven, and Roland Joffé’s The Mission.

[edit] Criticism

The Encyclopedia of Fantasy gave Red Sonja a scathing entry. The main criticism was that it was a "B-movie" with bad characterization, bad acting and an entirely cliché display of swords and sorcery. Schwarzenegger himself even said "It's the worst film I have ever made." And he joked "Now, when my kids get out of line, they're sent to their room and forced to watch Red Sonja ten times. I never have too much trouble with them."

In particular, the Encyclopedia accuses the movie of being homophobic and for purposely portraying homosexuality as a negative, evil trait. Gedren is portrayed as a lesbian whose rivalry with Sonja is based partly on the fact that Sonja once rejected her sexual advances. Likewise, the wizard is depicted as gay; one scene involves him accidentally conjuring up a homoerotic image.

In contrast to the negative critism, a dedicated cult following has grown up around the 'Red Sonja' film. At the time acclaimed film critic Pauline Kael was to say, "Though it has all the trappings of a B-movie (hammy acting, cheap production values), it also sports a quasi-sexual tone, coming over like something of a pre-history 'Barbarella'. Fleischer creates a vivid atmosphere, using the romantic light of Italy to great effect....one comes out of the cinema feeling that, they probably shouldn't have become as wrapped up in this tosh as they did".^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Particulars

[edit] Taglines

• A woman and a warrior that became a legend.

[edit] Trivia

• Red Sonja shares many plot elements with Ator l'invincibile 2, also more popularly known as Cave Dwellers due to its lampooning on Mystery Science Theatre 3000. For instance, in Ator 2, a scientist/wizard guards the Geometric Nucleus (a similar item to the Talisman) when his castle is attacked by the villain. A messenger attempts to warn Ator, who is training with a Chinese sword master, Thong, but is shot by an arrow on the way before falling into Ator's arms. Similarities abound throughout the two films. The director of the Ator series of films, Joe d'Amato, created the Ator character as an almost direct copy of Conan the Barbarian, and used the Ator movies to cash in on release timing of the Conan movies; the similarities of the second Ator movie and Red Sonja are no doubt related.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger was originally to have reprised the role of Conan in this film, as the Red Sonja character was a spin-off of the original Conan novels. Ultimately, a new character was created so as not to violate continuity with the Conan movies.^{[citation needed]} (Or was it a licencing/copyright matter ?)
• The original theatrical trailer of this movie contains cutting room floor footage of scenes glimpsed only briefly in the film's prologue: Sonja, left to perish in her burning home, is saved by her dying brother, Barlok; Gedren, prior to her disfigurement, addresses her soldiers and slaves.
• The name of Ronald Lacey's character, "Ikol," spelled backwards is "Loki." Loki is the god of mischief in Norse mythology. He is described as the "contriver of all fraud".
• Sandahl Bergman was initially cast as the title character, but decided on portraying "Queen Gedren" instead to help avoid typecasting.
• Brigitte Nielsen asked Pumkin on the first season of Flavor of Love if she had seen this movie as part of a lie detector test. Pumkin answered yes; she was lying.
• It is commonly believed that Robert E. Howard created the character of Red Sonja in one of his Conan stories. In reality, he created a character with a slightly different name — Red Sonya — that appeared in The Shadow of the Vulture, a non-fantasy work of historical fiction, and inspired "Red Sonja," the character popularized by the 1985 movie, who actually first appeared in a Conan comic book written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Barry Smith in the early 1970s.
• Sound samples from the movie were later used in the 1987 computer game Barbarian by Palace Software
• Comic book writer and artist Wendy Pini, who frequently performed as Red Sonja at conventions and other venues, was considered for the role.
• This movie is said to have been the starting point of a steamy affair that occurred between Schwarzenegger and Nielsen.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Faults

• Miscellany: When Kalidor lifts Prince Tarn into the air with one arm, the wire attached to Tarn's back is visible.
• Continuity: When the surviving girl approaches to the rope over the canyon, there are two meshes. She clutches one mesh and slides down the rope. When her pursuers get to the rope, there are three or four meshes.

[edit] Awards

• 1986 Razzie Award for worst new star (Brigitte Nielsen)

[edit] See also

• Conan the Barbarian
• Conan the Destroyer
• Kull the Conqueror

[edit] External links

• Red Sonja at the Internet Movie Database
• [1] More info on Red Sonja can be found at the new http://www.redsonja.com website