Retro Film Review: Hercules and the Amazon Women (1994)
Just around time his enthusiasm for The X-Files began to disappear, the author of this review has discovered a new interesting and entertaining TV show - Xena: Warrior Princess. Although I never became a huge fan, I was always impressed with the show's quality and even more impressed with its unusual background. It all began with the show that was supposed to be about adventures of Conan the Barbarian. When certain copyright problems left producers with plenty of unusable sets, costumes and props, they found ingenious solution – simple replacement of protagonist and show's fictional universe with Greek mythology. Thus the show Hercules: The Legendary Journeys was created (which would later lead to aforementioned spin-off Xena: Warrior Princess). Before the first regular season, five 90-minute television films were made in 1994. First of them was Hercules and the Amazon Women, directed by Bill N. Norton.
The plot of the film is set in mythical times of ancient Greece. Great hero Hercules (played by Kevin Sorbo) gets summoned by his old friend and faithful companion Iolaus (played by Michael Hurst). Iolaus wants to settle down and get married, but before that happens Hercules receives call from man named Pithus (played by Lloyd Scott). Pithus is the only survivor from the group of peasants who went to long and difficult journey to seek help for their village plagued by mysterious monster. Hercules comes to village only to discover that something is strange in Pithus' story - the only inhabitants happen to men. The whereabouts of women becomes clear when Hercules and Ioalus clash with the group of fierce Amazons led by beautiful and cruel Hippolyta (played by Roma Downey).
Hercules and the Amazon Women represents mostly enjoyable combination of Greek mythology, decent special effects, humour and two men who look more like Californian surfers than ancient heroes. The formula works here just as it would work in subsequent TV films and shows, although there is a little bit more connection with classic myths. The cast is very interesting. Anthony Quinn is convincing as dirty-minded Olympic deity, while Roma Downey, best known for her role in Touched by an Angel, probably enjoyed playing un-angelic character. Fans of Xena are probably going to notice Lucy Lawless playing fierce Amazon warrior Lysia - that role represents something of a rehearsal for her later, much better known incarnation in Hercules/Xena universe. Classic myth purists that object over too much anachronistic feminism in Hercules and the Amazon Women are probably going to be with "deus ex machine" ending that is, in a strange way, quite fitting to this kind of story. All in all, this film represents successful introduction to the successful TV show.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on May 12th 2004)
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