Barbarian (film)

Barbarian, also known as Kane the Barbarian, is an American sword and sorcery action direct-to-video film released in 2003. It can almost be considered a remake from the 1983 film Deathstalker. It stars the American bodybuilder, wrestler and actor Michael O'Hearn and Martin Kove, and also R&B singer Cassie Ventura had a bit part in the film.

Plot

In a fictitious land, the evil sorcerer Munkar (Martin Kove) oppressively rules. Some warriors, King Kandor's forces, escaped into the forest, in order to continue to make a stand against the dark lord, but they're finally defeated. Now the fate of that land rests in the hand of Kane (Michael O'Hearn), a strong and lonesome barbarian. One day, he saves a damsel (Ekaterina Drobish) and Wooby (Yuri Danilchenko), a small, bear like creature, resembling an Ewok from Star Wars, from some brigands.

In his sleep, a witch tells him of Munkar and his reign of terror, and about three powerful artefacts, the Amulet of Life, possessed by Princess Gretchen, King Kandor's daughter who was being held on Munkar's castle, the Sword of Justice and the Chalice of Magic. Unfortunately, the Chalice of Magic was already under the possession of Munkar, and he used it to raise his dark army and to watch Kane, and if finds the other two artefacts, he'd become invincible and enslave mankind. The witch tells him the Sword of Justice is located in the Martak Ruins. He goes there with Wooby, only to be ambushed by Munkar's soldiers, but he is aided in the fight by Gilda, the last of Amazon warriors. She tells Kane that her clan kept the sword safe for 50 generations, in the Cave of Last Echoes, where Amazons by tradition are not allowed. Gilda joins the quest and they ride for the cave, unaware of the Dark Prince, Munkar's enforcer, who was sneaking on them. Kane enters the cave with Wooby, they find the Sword of Justice plunged in a pool of saltwater.

The Dark Prince knocks out Wooby and confronts Kane, and the outcome is Kane's victory, as he wounds the Dark Prince with the Sword of Justice and the latter flees. Kane and the others meet King Kandor, the true sovereign of those lands, dethroned by Munkar. Kandor offers the help of Zigrid, who joins them. Zigrid tells them of his plan to infiltrate Munkar's fortress, find the Amulet of Life and put an end to the malign sorcerer's reign. There would be a tournament in his castle, and the victor would become Munkar's general and be granted immortality through his powers. They head for the fortress, passing through a village under attack by Munkar's forces. Gilda and Wooby are taken away, and Kane slays the Dark Prince. Wooby frees himself and sneaks around the palace, hiding from the guards, while Gilda meets Gretchen in Munkar's harem, and also Ilsa and Sevra, two arrogant slaves who thought they were Munkar's favourites. One night yester to the tournament there's a great orgy for the fighters, and Munkar himself salutes them. Kane is masked to avoid detection, and Zigrid tells he has a bounty on his head.

The next day, the tournament begins. Kane, (identified as "The Barbarian"), wins several fights. Zigrid also proves to be a fighter of worth, making his way into the finals of the tournament. After the tournament, Kane orders Wooby to supply the harem girls with kitchen utensils that could be used as weapons. Munkar requests Zigrid's attention. He tempts Zigrid to kill Kane and bring him his sword, in exchange for the love of Gretchen, taking advantage of his feelings of envy of Kane, who was also in love with Gretchen and vice versa. Zigrid then goes to Kane's chamber and gives him poisoned food. Wooby returns to Kane to find him possibly dead. He then takes a long journey back to a desert, and comes back with a healing flower that restores his health.

The next day, Zigrid wins the tournament and gives Munkar the sword and takes Gretchen as his maiden of choice, meanwhile the harem girls make their breakout, and Kane learns of the Amulet of Life hidden by Gretchen inside the mouth of a dragon statue, and he grabs it. Zigrid lies to Gretchen that Munkar killed Kane and they must run away, but Gretchen declines such plans. But then she finds Kane alive and well, and discovers Zigrid's betrayal. Kane fights Zigrid and defeats him, but Munkar appears and takes the Amulet of Life, finally reuniting the three artifacts, and he is turned into a monstrous and powerful himself, with superhuman strength and speed, and fights Kane. There are two interventions in the fight: one from the witch, who is presumably killed by Munkar; and from Gretchen that kills him with the Sword of Justice he dropped. At the end, King Kandor takes back the throne and Kane and Gretchen become lovers.

Cast

• Michael O'Hearn - Kane
• Irina Grigoryeva - Princess Gretchen
• Martin Kove - Munkar
• Svetlana Metkina - Gilda
• Yuri Danilchenko - Wooby
• Aleksandr Dyachenko - Zigrid
• Dmitri Shevchenko - Kristo
• Irina Karra - Ilsa
• Evelina Bledans - Sevra
• Yevdokiya Germanova - Witch
• Yuri Dumchev/Gary Kasper - Dark Prince
• Yuri Petrov - King Kandor
• Cassie Ventura - Harem #4

Reception

The movie scored mostly negative critics, and it was classified by many as mediocre or "average" at best, very few found it a good film.^[1] It was as much a low-budget film as Deathstalker, but the latter raised better reviews.

Trivia

• Scenes were filmed in historic castles in remote areas of the Crimea in southern Ukraine. Most of the cast is of Ukrainian/Russian nationality.
• Child actor Yuri Danilchenko (who plays Wooby) can be seen undisguised in the kitchen scene, as the chef's assistant who tries to eat the cake.
• The producers fired the first two directors after principal photography. Henry Crum was hired months later to re-edit, re-write and direct 45 pages of new material in seven days on location in the Crimea.
• Most of the footage from Munkar's orgy is actually footage taken from the film Deathstalker (1983). This includes all sequences including the chained girl and the pig-faced warrior.

Deathstalker similarities

Barbarian is nearly a remake of the Deathstalker film, a fact that made it a target to many negative critics. The plot, the villain's name, and the tagline were taken from that movie, and there is even footage scenes taken from it. (In the cauldron of the witch, various scenes from it are showed, and also there is the staff acrobat scene (tournament) and some orgy shots, entirely taken from it.) There are little differences between both films, like the presence of Wooby in Barbarian and the transformation of Gargit and a different orgy scene in Deathstalker.

References

External links

• Barbarian at the Internet Movie Database