| “No man’s whore. No man can touch her naked steel.” |
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Barbarian Queen
DVD/APPROX. 70 MINS/1985/USA MA15+
DVD/APPROX. 70 MINS/1985/USA MA15+
1.5
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Female gladiatorial spectacles in the arenas of Ancient Rome were the subject of a Roger Corman produced women-in-prison film from the mid
1970s, The Arena, starring Pam Grier and Margaret Markov. Over a decade later, Corman revisited this variation of the WIP formula with
Barbarian Queen, a swords and sandal epic in the proudest Corman B-movie tradition. Lana Clarkson stars as one of three “warrior women” from
a barbarian tribe conquered by the Romans who survive the rape, massacre and enslavement of their people to seek revenge and liberate their
people.
Beginning with a rape, Barbarian Queen is director Hector Olivera’s jovially violent piece of sexploitation fantasy. It’s a capable programmer with
the requisite fights, naked women and human brutality expected of this trash-level adolescent titillation. Scantily clad women sword-fighting or
removing their little clothing is the order of the day in this no-brainer of a film. Poorly scripted, acted and dubbed it is fun only on the level of junk
culture cinema, one of the refuse of disreputable genre cinema. It’s perhaps more misogynistic in its mean-spirited brutality than most of these
films.
Revenge and female empowerment through forceful self-assertion (violent retribution) is again the agenda in a film which offers nothing new,
except perhaps for a new generation of disposable actresses willing to appear topless in togas and leather. Women in nature, in captivity and,
most of all, in revolt against the authority of the rapist Romans: this is the usual material of Corman’s statuesque women fantasies – thin gender
empowerment pretexts for exploitative and often leering or sadistic sex scenes. There’s more of that here: plus the kind of set and costume
design that speaks both to the Roman Gladiatorial fantasies of The Arena and the sword and sorcery fantasies of Red Sonja.
Xena: Warrior Princess popularized this kind of material for mainstream television, though ditched the nudity and sexual violence. Male slave
epics have been popular since Spartacus, and beloved in Italy in the 1950s and 1960s, but are today nostalgia. For those who find the dregs of
this type of material fun, Barbarian Queen is notable mostly for the way its women both display and manipulate their sexuality, so that the nude,
violent scenes are never completely exploitative. Still, much of the erotic content of this film is in terms of female bondage fantasy and torture. On
that level, perhaps the attention to female empowerment is a bogus excuse for nubile displays in genre set-pieces: formula.
1970s, The Arena, starring Pam Grier and Margaret Markov. Over a decade later, Corman revisited this variation of the WIP formula with
Barbarian Queen, a swords and sandal epic in the proudest Corman B-movie tradition. Lana Clarkson stars as one of three “warrior women” from
a barbarian tribe conquered by the Romans who survive the rape, massacre and enslavement of their people to seek revenge and liberate their
people.
Beginning with a rape, Barbarian Queen is director Hector Olivera’s jovially violent piece of sexploitation fantasy. It’s a capable programmer with
the requisite fights, naked women and human brutality expected of this trash-level adolescent titillation. Scantily clad women sword-fighting or
removing their little clothing is the order of the day in this no-brainer of a film. Poorly scripted, acted and dubbed it is fun only on the level of junk
culture cinema, one of the refuse of disreputable genre cinema. It’s perhaps more misogynistic in its mean-spirited brutality than most of these
films.
Revenge and female empowerment through forceful self-assertion (violent retribution) is again the agenda in a film which offers nothing new,
except perhaps for a new generation of disposable actresses willing to appear topless in togas and leather. Women in nature, in captivity and,
most of all, in revolt against the authority of the rapist Romans: this is the usual material of Corman’s statuesque women fantasies – thin gender
empowerment pretexts for exploitative and often leering or sadistic sex scenes. There’s more of that here: plus the kind of set and costume
design that speaks both to the Roman Gladiatorial fantasies of The Arena and the sword and sorcery fantasies of Red Sonja.
Xena: Warrior Princess popularized this kind of material for mainstream television, though ditched the nudity and sexual violence. Male slave
epics have been popular since Spartacus, and beloved in Italy in the 1950s and 1960s, but are today nostalgia. For those who find the dregs of
this type of material fun, Barbarian Queen is notable mostly for the way its women both display and manipulate their sexuality, so that the nude,
violent scenes are never completely exploitative. Still, much of the erotic content of this film is in terms of female bondage fantasy and torture. On
that level, perhaps the attention to female empowerment is a bogus excuse for nubile displays in genre set-pieces: formula.
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