Hundra

Well hello, gang. Welcome to the first of February! I got an amazing response for Laurene Landon. I knew the lady has fans but didn't expect the love. Not to mention, the demand of a Cult Classic review. So with taking these notes and suggestions in mind, I will be looking at the 1983 Sci-Fi Fantasy with a need to breed. This is Hundra.

Message for you, sir!

Directed by exploitation director Matt Cimber (The Black 6, That Girl from Boston, Butterfly, Fake-Out, Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold and Miriam), this is an Italian film shot in Spain. So you can imagine how interesting this is already. This timeline women are deemed second-class citizens similar to property, cattle and pets. A band of women felt they have had enough, broke away from the male dominant society. Took too many demands of grog and mutton, probably cleaning the keep and thatch roofed huts. This colony's isolation provided them good hunting, crops and fine hunts. Perfectly content with their lives, our warriors/hunters/gatherers know no commands or demands made of them. They chose to stay away from men until they need to increase their numbers. Yes, that bouncy bouncy activity.

All of them except Hundra (Laurene Landon of Hundra, Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold, Maniac Cop, Maniac Cop 2, 1313: Hercules Unbound!, Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance and Syndicate Smasher). A true warrior woman that has no need for a man. They are useless creatures in her mind's eye and well, not sure if I disagree with her. We got some beer chugging jagoffs, sexist butt monkeys and too many abusers with bible quotes floating about.

The SCA attack nearby picnickers!

With her tribe flourishing, Hundra is on the hunt while at the same time; a horde of barbarians cut a bloody swath through the Amazons slaughtering the lot of them. Kind of similar to Conan's village being obliterated in Schwarzenegger's Conan the Barbarian. I sense a vengeance subplot! In minutes she finds the raiders and goes sick house. Hundra is a bad ass. Got to be close to twenty five men and she is gacking them left and right. Red Sonja has nothing on this woman. Time to loot the bodies!!! Um we do that, right? Hell just the horses alone should fetch a decent price.

Was a great little slapstick as a guy with one of her daggers in his belly tried to smack Hundra with a good sized rock.

Hundra: After the Hunt.  Oh, my.

Being the lone survivor of the tribe, Hundra seeks out the wisdom of an ancient elder Chrysula (Tamera of Hundra) who tells her it now falls to her that she must rebuild her tribe. The very duty she never deemed neccessary for herself. She must go south to the land of the bull to get her best breeder stock. Geez Grandma, don't talk to me about sex. Ewwwww!!!

Can Hundra find a man she deems worthy? Will she be with child? Can she rebuild?

It turns out ,a Spanish designed action fantasy game; Zeus Software by Dinamic Software for the 8 bit home computers for the Amstrad CPC, MSX and ZX Spectrum in 1988 also called Hundra, but turns out it is only inspired by the film and not directly related to the plot or character. Confused the crap out of me when I saw it.

Interesting bit of trivia is Laurene did all her own stunts with the exception of the tower jump. Still that's horseback riding, sword-mastery, archery, some hand-to-hand. That is damn impressive. My final thoughts? This is not some Conan knock off. Solid orchestral music by the great composer, Ennio Morricone (Navajo Joe, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Exorcist II: The Heretic, The Thing, The Untouchables and Bugsy) setting the moods of the scenes.

We got the hero's journey, loss of all she knew, a voyage into the unknown, actions and consequences of all such in the path. Landon has an emotional whirlwind throughout this film and shoulders it well. I don't get to see enough films of this caliber and would love my readers to start recommending more. 

Just dig swordplay and hunting. What of it?