Wednesday, June 26, 2019

By the Gods!

Sabrina Siani, lying on top of Pietro Torrisi, is about to get the point in GUNAN - KING OF THE BARBARIANS (or Invincible Barbarian; 1982)

I finally got a hold of an English copy of this entertainingly trashy 1980s 'Sword & Sorcery' flick starring Pietro Torrisi (as Peter McCoy!). This scene, which is probably the highlight of the entire 90 minutes opus, is anti-climatic. As the device tortures her, the villains leave which prompts our hero to take action and stop it. They didn't go anywhere with it. Just some scene with nudity and blood. Of all the 1980s PEPLUM movies from Italy this is probably my least favourite. I like both Pietro and Sabrina but many scenes are shot in slow motion and it sorta becomes a chore to sit through. Outer space sequences from British science-fi series SPACE: 1999 were used during the opening 'creation' scenes, and dinosaur scenes from ONE MILLION YEARS B.C.. THRONE OF FIRE (1983), with Torrisi and Siani, is much more fun than this. 


1 comment:

Richard Svensson said...

Yes, "Gunan" is surprisingly dull compared to the very lively "Throne of Fire", which is my favorite Pietro Torrisi film. "Gunan" is obviously inspired by "Conan, the Barbarian", but in my mind "Throne" is much closer in style and plot to the Machiste movies of the 1960's.