Subject: Retrospective: The Sword And The Sorcerer (1982)

From: [email-masked] (Jon Turner)
Date: 23 May 1999 20:13:17 GMT

THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER
Review by Jon Turner
Reviewed 3/99
Posted May 23, 1999

Rating:  *1/2 out of *****

At first glance, I thought that The Sword And The Sorceror had
promise.  Its plotline goes like this: The evil King Cromwell,
desiring to take over the world, resurrects an evil, ancient sorceror,
Xusia for power.  He attacks the kingdom of Eh-Dan and kills young
Prince Talon's parents.  Given a triple-bladed sword (which can
shoot bad guys, like a gun) by his dying father, Talon vows for
revenge.  Eleven years later, when he's established his own army, the
Mercaneries, he vows to take back his kingdom.  Along the way, he
meets up with Alana, whose village is attacked by drunken guards and
her brother is kidnapped by Cromwell.  Talon vows to help, and, after
a series of minor escapades, eventually ends up rescuing Alana's
brother (and several other prisoners), only to be captured himself (in
other words, put on a Cross to be crucified!).  Fortunately he frees
himself, rescues Alana from marrying Cromwell, defeats Xusia, and then
Cromwell, all with his triple bladed sword (During the final battle,
the blade breaks, but Talon finishes Cromwell off by using a hidden
dagger in the blade).  Then, everything ends happily.

Unfortunately, The Sword And The Sorcerer is not even half as good as
it sounds.  What would have been a great film is completely destroyed
by uneven plot jumping, bad acting, and gruesomely gory, bloody
scenes.  Never once does the story seem to connect together, it just
jumps around repeatedly.

This problem is extremely noticeable in the opening scene where
Cromwell resurrects Xusia.  After telling him that he needs his help,
he leads the warlock out into daylight, but then stabs him and sends
him careening off a cliff afterwards.  Wait a minute, didn't the
plotline say that he needs the help of Xusia in order to invade
Eh-Dan, which he cannot do by military force?  If that is the case,
why does he dispose of Xusia after resurrecting him?  And why does he
manage to take over Eh-Dan anyway?  These questions are just NEVER -
no, NEVER - answered in the film.

Another example is that one moment we see Talon fighting for his life,
another moment we see him just about to be crucified during Alana's
wedding to Cromwell(!), and finally at the end, instead of settling
down with Alana, he just tells her to "wait", and then he just rides
off!  In addition to the extremely bloody scenes, this uneven plot
jumping completely destroys what would have been a great fantasy
adventure.  Even some attempts to make it exciting, a few fire scenes,
battle scenes, don't work.  It just completely fails altogether
miserably.

The only good thing about this film is its musical score, contributed
by David Whittaker, who had an (extremely) short music composing
career.  The score is boomy and adventurous, powerful, and a billion
times better than this film is.  My suggestion: steer the hell away
from this bloody mess and buy the soundtrack album instead (if you can
find it).

Ironically, though, before the film's credits roll, there is a message
indicating that a sequel, Tales Of The Ancient Empire, would follow.
To my relief (and delight), it never got into production, because The
Sword And The Sorcerer laid an egg at the box office, grossing only
$39 million.

Critics were right on in slamming The Sword And The Sorcerer, all
right.  Leonard Maltin rightfully called it "second rate in scripting,
and acting" and At-A-Glance Film Reviews called it "a confusing,
stupid, unimaginative, unengaging, bloodfilled bore".  I totally agree
with these reviews, all right, and I hope that this piece of #$%! will
be forgotten about.  There are FAR better fantasy movies than The
Sword And The Sorcerer.  I hope you get a good laugh out of this
review, but I am not laughing.  In fact, my insults don't even come
close to the gruesome sickness that this film gave me throughout its
100 minute running time.