ABC Film Challenge – 80s Films – Q – Red Sonja (1985)

By Newguy

This is being used for Q because of he evil Queen Gedren.

 

Director: Richard Fleischer

Writer: Clive Exton, George MacDonald Fraser (Screenplay) Robert E Howard (Characters)

Starring: Brigitte Nielsen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sandahl Bergman, Paul L Smith, Ernie Reyer Jr, Ronald Lacey

Plot: A female Redhead sets out on a killing spree to avenge her family’s murder.


Tagline – A woman and a warrior that became a legend.

Runtime: 1 Hour 29 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Pure 80s Cheese

Story: Red Sonja starts in a wasteland of a world, Red Sonja (Nielsen) has seen her family butchered and been left for dead by the evil Queen Gedren (Bergman), who has gone onto rule the land with terror including take a relic which will be able to control the land.

With Queen Gedren’s rule continuing to grow, Red Sonja joins forces with fearless warrior Kalidor (Schwarzenegger) and abandoned Prince Tarn (Reyes Jr) to fight back and free the land from her terror.

Thoughts on Red Sonja

Characters – Red Sonja is a fearless warrior, her rebellious nature has seen the Queen turn on her, murdering her family, seeing her left brutally attacked. She rides the land in search of the Queen, where she leads a small group in battle to show how tough she is in battle. Kalidor follows before helping Sonja on her quest, he too in a fierce warrior roaming the lands fighting for the good of the people. Queen Gedren is the evil ruler that kills anybody that doesn’t follow her beliefs, using her newly acquired relic that can bring destruction unlike anything seen before.

PerformancesBrigitte Nielsen is the star of the movie bring us a strong action heavy female character, sadly this movie is overly marketed on Arnold Schwarzenegger who is nothing more than just a strong support character in the film, it was an early role that showed just what we were going to be getting from him. Sandahl Bergman in the villainous queen role does everything needing to make her feel in control and not like her character.

StoryThe story brings us to a world of warriors where one woman warrior is going on a revenge quest against the evil ruler that killed her family. This is one of the easiest styles of stories to tell, we just need a lead character we support, a villain we hate and a series of quests which will become more challenging the closer they get to their target. This does everything right without being a complete edge of your seat film because we focus on moments of comedy that don’t always work, as well as looking to show off the muscles involved from both the leads. This is easy to watch and can be enjoyed by the fans of the 80s action fantasy genre.

Action/Adventure/Fantasy The action involved in the film comes with the sword wielding fights which are watchable without being edge of the seat, which become bigger as the adventure continues on, going hand in hand together in the genre side of things, with the fantasy world showing how the different creatures can come from the world.

SettingsThe world feels big and baron like it would be completely under control by an evil ruler, with candle room look beautiful for the closing fight.


Scene of the Movie –
Candle room.

That Moment That Annoyed Me It isn’t the most standout in the genre.

Final ThoughtsThis is an 80s movie you can easily watch and enjoy, everything is basic, so just enjoy it without expecting anything ground breaking.

Overall: Enjoyable 80s film.

Rating