Books Recommend some good pulp fantasy for Blitzen (Read 270 times)

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Lately I have been into the idea of fantasy filmmaking in the realist style. These kind of productions were pretty much dropped after the introduction of CGI in the early nineties. Before that, from about 1965 to 1990, there was a vast and thriving B-Movie industry, of which "low fantasy" films played a large part. Low budgets and pulp material meant movies would try to suffice with some of the most basic elements and tropes of fantasy with as little flash and dazzle as possible. Oftentimes this lead to great creative works of delightful pulp adventure, and others it meant horribly produced tripe you wouldn't watch for free.

That having been said, I want to expand my palette of mid-late 20th Century fantasy films, to examine their style and design, and of course for the swords-and-sorcery and pulp adventure. So please, if you could list me some of the b-list fantasy films you've seen (Red Sonja or Conan the Barbarian for example) from this period, and just a little something about it so that I know what to keep an eye out for next time I am at the video store, that would be swell.
Last Edit: July 17, 2008, 04:07:16 am by Blitzen
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Try these movies (all are B/C-grade sword and sorcery flicks):

Amazons (1986)
Ator 1/2/3/4 (1982/1984/1987/1990)
Barbarian Queen 1/2 (1985/????)
Beastmaster (1982)
Conquest (1983)
Deathstalker 1/2/3/4 (1983/1987/????/1990)
Dragonslayer (1981)
Gor 1/2 (1988/1989)
Hawk the Slayer (1980)
Invincible Barbarian (1982)
Kull the Conqueror (1997)
Magic Sword (????)
Sorceress (1982)
Sword and the Sorcerer (1982)
Thor the Conqueror (1983)
Warrior and the Sorceress (1984)
Wizards of the Lost Kingdom 1/2 (????)

(for the release dates marked with ????, check IMDB)

Overall most of the fantasy movies from the eighties are crap, but some do have a specific kind of atmosphere that may make them worth watching. I recommend you to watch at lkeast the following movies from the list:

Conquest (Lucio Fulci's only fantasy movie; a blend of horror and fantasy; has much gore and a bow firing homing arrows  :)
Deathstalker 2 (one of my favorite movies of all time; a kind of parody of sword and sorcery flicks; has boobies)
Hawk the Slayer (very minimalistic, but has a great atmosphere; has a rapid firing elf archer - a proto-Legolas, but better)
Sword and the Sorcerer (one of the more competent unknown fantasy movies I've ever seen; has two kickass magic swords in it)

The rest are pretty much too derivative and forgettable to bother with. Unless you're a hardcore B-movie fan :) I guess you could also watch the ator series (1 and 2 are the most generic s&s movies ever, the third one is very dreamlike, the fourth one I have yet to watch).

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Add Krull, Willow, and The Legend to that list abd tiy;d gave nt oucjs^^^
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Thanks for the awsome post, DE. I should go into town right now because I have to buy a copy of Full Metal Jacket but I will see if I can find some of those movies too. I've heard of Sword and the Sorcerer though, so I think I'll see if I can dig that one up.
Last Edit: July 17, 2008, 05:33:53 pm by Blitzen
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I can recommend this page:
http://www.badmovies.org/movies/
Of course it has all genres but if you want to find those gems, they might be reviewed on this page. I want to recommend Zardoz with Sean Connery.
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