She [DVD]

I thought I’d better make it clear that the film I’m reviewing here is "She", but not the 1965 Hammer film with Ursula Andress, based on a Rider Haggard novel, but the 1982 (1984 according to IMDB) "She" staring Sandahl Bergman. I saw this on VHS rental in the 80s and many years later thought; "What was that really weird film where the villains wore American Football uniforms with Swastikas on them, the barbarian goddess had to fight something a bit like Frankenstein's monster, where there was a immortal guardian on a bridge who kept doing movie impersonations, and where there were really strange bits of graffiti in the background throughout? I’ve now seen it again and this film really is as weird as I remember it being, perhaps even more so!The film starts with an animation, and when the live action begins the audio is very low quality at first - I thought “I don’t remember it being like this on the VHS!” and wondered if the transfer to DVD was a duff one. But I think the reason I didn’t remember it from the VHS (apart from the fact that it was probably about 36 years ago) is that the audio quality is only low for a very short time, and you’re soon past it and enjoying the film.Maybe the budget for this film wasn’t particularly lavish, but they still managed to make it look amazing, and there’s no shortage of imagination! The story is Homeric in its scope, as the characters journey from one danger to the next, even stranger and more perilous than the one before.I don't know - were the people who made this film at a level of genius and artistic inspiration where the complexity and volume of everything that they wanted to express in it will take years (and much greater intellects than mine) to unravel, or did they just think: "I know, we'll use some old props, old costumes, put some weird stuff in as detail, and after all, it has Sandahl Bergman in the nude in a few scenes!" I don't know, I feel it might be an overlooked work of incredible depth and scope, an incandescent beacon of visionary genius that holds all the answers to today's woes, could we but understand it. Post apocalyptic barbarian films with 80s heavy metal sound tracks may not be your thing, but if they are, you may enjoy this, a very unusual film even by the standards of post apocalyptic barbarian films - which are usually pretty odd anyway.

TO MAKE IT CLEAR AT ONCE THE BASIC REASON FOR BUYING THIS DVD WAS SANDAHL BERGMAN.SHE,AS THE FILM SAYS,IS STRIKINGLY BEAUTIFUL AND ATTRACTIVE WHILE HER ACTING IS NOT BAD AT ALL.THE FILM ITSELF HAS ITS MOMENTS,LIKE THE MULTIPLYING SAILOR WHICH I THOUGHT WAS A BRILLIANT PART,THE INTERESTING SPECIAL EFFECTS AND THE HERETIC WHO THINKS HE IS A GOD.GENERALLY THOUGH THE PERFORMANCES ARE SCRAPPY AND QUALITY IS A QUESTION MARK.THE CONCLUSION THEN IS THAT THIS IS A MUST EXCLUSIVELY FOR BERGMAN FANS LIKE MYSELF!

This is a very bad film, but I do not regret I bought and watched it, as it has also a little element of "so bad that almost good".Except for the title and the fact that the main character is a woman, this film has NOTHING to do with the "She" novel by H. Rider Haggard. The "story" - if one can use this word - occurs in some near future, after some mysterious disaster ("The Cancellation"), on the ruins of our civilization. In principle it is the story of a young blond hunk, travelling in company of his dark haired friend, looking for his abducted sister. But the whole film is mostly the pretext to show very generously the amazing bodies of two main female protagonists - the Queen Goddess She (Sandahl Bergman) and her female bodyguard Shandra (Quin Kessler). The whole film has actually the kind of scenario and acting of a soft porn film, which just doesn't dare to show full intercourse...)))Other than the two girls (who are indeed absolutely amazing beauties, both clothed and unclothed) the other reasons for which I give it two stars are the incredible costumes and weapons. The "bad guys" (the Norks, who according to some were supposed to be the degenerate descendants of New Yorkers...) look indeed as if they were dressed by somebody on an acid trip. Also, one must admire the sheer courage of introducing at one moment a very male giant with a bushy beard and dressing him as a ballerina - make up included... And then there is one very original, clever and funny scene with Xenon the sailor, the lone guard watching the bridge leading to the "bad guys" (Norks) domain. Well, he hardly needs any reinforcements at his post as he is a kind of "an army of one"...)))Now, this film being considered by some as a "cult" movie, I am glad that I finally saw it (not without some fast forwarding here or there) - but I do not think I will see it another time. Ever. As for you, well, you may want to try to find it on the internet rather than buying the DVD, as this is, in my opinion, a "see once and never more" thing.

This is a surprisingly good example of the 80s post-Mad Max, barbarian queen type entries. It's similar to the earlier 'Logan's Run' in that it is essentially a road movie - the McGuffin being the rescue of the hero's sister from the Nazi-style Norks who kidnap her in the first scene.What makes the film a cut above the rest is not the acting (atrocious) or the soundtrack (overly intrusive) or the sound editing (variable) but the imagination for the different 'tribes' that are visited - they are all completely different from each other as we progress through the film - making it more like a series of short stories where you never know what to expect next. It's even possible that it may have been conceived as a short TV series - who knows?Some kind of twist in the plot might have been good but overall a decent couple of hours entertainment.

Okay now, we all have enjoyed a different or awful movie at least once in our life! This movie is just that, different! However, one does need to know that this movie is set after a nuclear war so of course there are very strange encounters with different kinds of people. I'll leave it at that; however, I thoroughly enjoy this movie and was so glad to finally get it on DVD!