Search - Ator the Fighting Eagle on DVD

Dungeons & D'Amatos

Stanley Runk | Camp North Pines | 08/16/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The world of 80s sword and sorcery flicks can pretty much be seen in 3 categories. First, you've got the big boys which consist mainly of Conan and The Beastmaster. Then you got the second stringers like Deathstalker and The Sword and the Sorcerer. This category has produced some cult classics as well. But floating around on the bottom of the barrel we have films like Fulci's Conquest and Hawk the Slayer. This is the category Ator seems to fall in. I suppose that's debatable, but that's sure as hell where I'd put it. This film must have been popular somewhere though coz they made 4(that's right) Ator films.
Ator's a patchwork of plot points from almost every other sword and sorcery film. Ator(Miles O'Keefe) is a warrior prophecised to end the reign of the Spider Kingdom, which apparently terrorizes the land. The high priest named Dakkar is played by none other than...Dakkar(he played "Lucas" in Fulci's Zombie)! Dakkar's evil army(which looks like no more than 20 guys) steal Ator's bride and kill his entire village(a requirement for any true badazz barbarian warrior). After a rigorous training program from his mentor, Griba, Ator is all lean, mean, buff and ready to audition for Manowar. He teams up with a cute blonde warrior thief who tags along with him with aspirations of getting her hands on the Spider Kingdom's treasure. On their quest they run into some not terribly exciting adventures and finally confront the final test in the form of a giant spider. When Ator saves the day and destroys the evil kingdom(yes I told you how it ends, but did you honestly think it would end any other way? Do you even care?), he and his bride go running and prancing through the forest while some miserable Carly Simon-esque song plays.
For a sword and sorcery adventure flick, this is terribly unexciting...and this is coming from a guy who enjoyed Conquest! It's just kinda blah and nothing really seems to happen until the end of the film. Even a Laura Gemser cameo doesn't help!
Miles O'Keefe is one of those actors that was given a shot at the big time back in the day, but never rose above being a B list actor in the U.S. With roles in both Tarzan(the Bo Derek version) and Sword of the Valiant with Sean Connery, it's obvious an attempt was made to make a star out of the guy. Oh well, some are lucky and some aren't I suppose. I don't mind him. Sure he's wooden as all hell in this role, but we never expect much depth from these kinds of characters.
The film was directed by Italian sleazemonger, Joe D'Amato, but he uses the alias "David Hills" here(probably the Italian version of "Alan Smithee"). Essentially D'Amato seemed to be trying to make a film that could be viewed by most age groups. There is death by swordplay but no blood. There's insinuated sex, but no sex(besides Ator is a man of morals). So not only is the film dull, but it's quite tame. If D'Amato had brought some of his trademark sex and gore to the film, then we might have had something rather extraordinary.
So, why did I give this movie 3 stars? Two reasons. First, it's got it's funny moments to be sure. Second, it has a giant spider. My rule of thumb is that a giant spider featured in a film earns one star right off the bat.
If you're an avid fan of this genre, you might want to catch Ator to say you did. Same goes for fans of D'Amato who want to view as much of his filmography as possible. Hell, it's cheap too."

Cheese classic marred by shoddy disc release

Jeffrey Leach | Omaha, NE USA | 05/08/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Love him or hate him, Joe D'Amato's contributions to the world of sleaze cinema have attained legendary status. He's the Italian director responsible for unleashing monstrosities like "Anthropophagous," "Erotic Nights of the Living Dead," "Zombie 5: Killing Birds," and "Beyond the Darkness" on an unsuspecting public. He also gave us such classics as "Endgame," "The Arena," and "Black Cobra". I could go on and on, citing example after example from D'Amato's extensive filmography. He made a raft of Emanuelle films, most of them starring exploitation favorite Laura Gemser. Spaghetti Westerns, action films, gorefests--D'Amato easily moved from genre to genre during his long career. By the time he passed away in 1999 from a massive heart attack, the man had moved into making cheap adult films. Despite his popularity amongst b-movie aficionados, most of his films still haven't found their way to DVD. That stinks, but it also means his fans move quickly when they see one of his films on disc. And here I am reviewing a classic D'Amato film, the underwhelming sword and sandal flick "Ator the Fighting Eagle". I actually saw this in the movie theater back in the early 1980s. I'm amazed it received a theatrical run.

Why? Because Joe D'Amato's "Ator the Fighting Eagle" stinks. Big time. The fact that a few sequels exist doesn't remove the stain this initial effort left in my DVD player. They'd leave a stain, too. Since I'm a fan, though, I waded right in and watched the adventures of Ator unfold in especially inept fashion. Ator (Miles O'Keefe) is born into a frightening world presided over by some evil dude that likes to play with spiders. His birth heralds the countdown to some sort of prophecy that calls for Ator to grow up and destroy spider dude, so a mysterious man spirits the child away to another village where anonymity will presumably protect the waif from evil soldiers. Our hero grows up not knowing anything about the prophecy. He just likes to play with bear cubs and make eyes at his sister Sunya (Ritza Brown). Beefy Ator doesn't understand that brother and sister shouldn't marry (!), but fortunately he learns from his adopted father, Griba (Edmund Purdom), that Sunya isn't his real sister. Whew! Before the marriage unfolds, soldiers sweep into the village and slaughter most of the inhabitants. Poor Sunya disappears in the melee. Now Ator must go forth and fulfill his destiny.

Remember that mysterious man who intervened to save Ator. He pops up again just in time to give our hero a quickie five minute lesson on swordsmanship and spout off some cryptic mumbo jumbo about the prophecy. Fun. Then Ator hooks up with a sexy, Amazon-type warrior chick named Roon (Sabrina Siani) for further adventures. For example, they wander into the lair of the treacherous sorceress Indun (Laura Gemser) and must defeat her with an object incredibly found just two feet away from Indun. Then Ator and Roon head off to find a magical shield. It won't be easy to discover this item--it'll cost all of five dollars in special effects work to make it happen. This part of the quest (I was also on a quest during this film. Just call me "Seeker of the Credit Sequence".) sees the dynamic duo sneaking past a bunch of blind guards so Ator can pick up the shield and battle his own shadow. Now we're ready for the final showdown, which involves Ator rescuing his beloved from a huge spider web (you won't believe what they used for the web), killing spider dude, and battling a giant arachnid made out of vacuum cleaner hoses and cardboard.

"Ator the Fighting Eagle" is a laugh a minute classic, a movie that falls squarely in the "It's so bad I'll have to drink all night to make it good" category. The dialogue achieves heights of stupidity on a scale so titanic that human reason cannot fathom its dimensions. The costumes elicit snorts of derision. The performances, well, let's just say I've seen better acting from a bag of hammers. What else? Oh yeah--for some reason the movie ends with stock footage of a volcanic eruption that looks interesting but has nothing to do with the plot whatsoever. I suspect someone, probably D'Amato, threw it in to pad out the runtime. It's the only explanation I can think of at this point. The only positives in the film are Ritza Brown and Sabrina Siani. Both are really hot, and it's nice to see them running around in skimpy outfits showing off those toned bodies. The bear cub, a major character in the film and the only one who should ever make another movie, is cute but overdone. Yep, babes and a bear cub are the only elements that move this movie closer to the conclusion. Gawd help us all!

A few notes on the DVD version of D'Amato's sword and sandal epic. Just like the movie, the DVD version stinketh greatly. The unpleasant odor wafting into your nostrils is the realization that the distribution company responsible for bringing this classic out on disc refused to spend a cent on bringing the flick up to presentable audio and visual standards. Since I own a copy of this movie on VHS (I freely admit it), I realized quite quickly that the DVD version resembles the grainy and washed out videotape version. Yes sir, it looks like someone pulled a quick one in order to make a buck; they simply burned the VHS version on a disc and called it a day. I can't really blame them, but I'd rather see restored versions of all the Ator films in a box set. What can I say? I've fond memories of this junk film and like reliving my childhood from time to time. I'm also a D'Amato fan. If you like crud like I like crud, you'll want to give this one a watch soon. Have fun!"