The Beastmaster

Like most I missed the theatrical run on this film, who didn't? I caught it on cable. I believe Dennis Miller had a running joke about HBO meaning "Hey Beastmaster' on!" This isn't agreat film, there are a lot of very obvious red herrings, but it's a lot of fun and certainly has earned it's cult status.

This sword and sorcery plot is well handled by Don Coscarelli and he directs his good looking leads, Marc Singer & Tanya Roberts, well. The photography on John Alcott is excellent and one of the highlights of the film. Lee Holdrigde's original score and Alf Clausens orchestrations are absolutely superb. Truly I thought the music was excellent. It's epic, memorable and so suited to the scenes!

For a film called the Beastmaster, its smart enough not to ignore the animals. The ferrets are cute, and yes ferrets are like that!, the Tiger (black panther) is fierce and the Hawk is mysterious, yet so graceful. I thought Marc Singer (Dar's) rapport with the animals was just great. The final fight with the Juns is fantastic in it's use of lighting and movement.

This film really should appeal to teenage boys and on that level it succeeds beautifully.