What was the real draw of this film?

I agree this movie is very cool. I actually grew up watching it. I was 2 when it first came out, but i can remember watching it on TV whenever it came on. As for dark...I think this movie is very dark. Between the force-fed psychotic spiked gorilla men that destroyed everything in sight, those freaky bat people that turned you into goo, and the towering pyramid of fire for sacrificing children this can be a pretty dark movie.

"Today's a good day to die" ~Keifer FLATLINERS

I have to admit this movie is one of my very favorites. I saw it in the theater, it was my first VHS recording off of HBO, and I can practically quote it from beginning to end. The acting is hideous, and there are so many continuity problems that I can't begin to name them all - but no one looked as good as Marc Singer did in that loincloth, with those muscles! And the music is fantastic. Long live the Beastmaster!


*You are doomed - the Unborn has arrived.*

i normally wouldn't throw my 2 cents in, but this is a damn fine movie... it's a fantasy, who cares if the acting isn't Gone With the Wind... all of the characters in Beastmaster are good, they feel right... and the movie spins a good tale, it's an enjoyable story from beginning to end... dark? hell yes... any story that begins with savage butchery of innocent people isn't gonna be a dance party...

the user comment said "I get the feeling that those behind the making of this film were interested mainly in providing the audience with an entertaining escape for the length of the film"

and what's wrong with that? we call it "telling a story" -- it's an ancient art form that too many in Hollywood seem to screw up... i'd name names, but i'd never work in this town again lol...

compared with the really bad movies produced in the last 40 or 50 years, even if we only count the SciFi or fantasy flicks, Beastmaster is a good solid "good movie" in my opinion... is it great? does it offer cosmic significance, or the key to life, or deep insights into anything? nope on all counts...
but i'll take it anyday over the pretentious crap that Hollywood squeezes out on a regular basis... you know, the stuff with great effects, high concepts and higher budgets, big name stars, total lack of imagination, predictability up the ying-yang, and boring boring stupid stories put together by "professionals" who think they're the "big big storytellers" -- but who are often just high-priced rip-off artists

Beastmaster delivers

(and the fact that Tanya Roberts isn't hard on the eyes ain't bad either :)

This movie was a 80's movie, you watch it now and it screams 80's. Now that said, we can move on. The Beastmaster hasn't held up as well as it could. The sequels and that horrible series show that enough people loved the orignal for Hollywood to squeeze every dime from it they can. I wonder though what happened to Marc Singer? With a cult following from this and the sucess of V I though I would see more of him since this. Also does any one know if the DVD is available? I can't find it.

I think the real draw is the incredibly nasty, sadistic villains! Maax says right to King Zed's face about Zed's unborn son, "It must be CUT from its mother! Branded with the sign of Ar! And sacrificed!" while he has this twisted grin on his face. Later on he burns children alive in public! The Witch-Women are gross-looking old hags that magically rip the unborn son out of his mother's concious body and transfer it into a cow, they later kill the cow to slice the son out of it, and then brand the baby! The Jun Hoarde kill everyone in their path and then stick the bodies on spikes like Vlad the Impaler. Slipping weird green leeches into prisoners ears looked horrifically painful with the poor SOB screaming and thrashing around on the slab. The "bat people" are not villains per say, but they are frightening with their feeding method.

i remember my brother and i watching this movie a lot as a kid. its not the best movie in the world but we loved it!



beastmaster 2 was also good in that really cheesy kinda way. :)

I think it was Tanya Roberts & Marc Singer. They both looked great in their outfits. I am partial to Tanya Roberts. After Charlie's Angels ended she starred in a great line of B movies. This was the first. I can't think of another PG movie that showed tits(wonderful waterfall scene!) and a beatiful bodies for the whole movie. It was also a good movie and there was good action. Marc Singer was also a favorite of mine ever since I saw him in "V". The ladies like his body and the guys like Tanya's body. Also the animals in the film were cool.

when I look back at it, the movie is pretty good.

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