Hundra

Hundra
Directed by Matt Cimber
Produced by John Gaffari
Cihangir Gaffari
José Truchado
Eric Bruckner
Written by José Truchado
John F. Goff
Matt Cimber
Starring Laurene Landon
John Ghaffari
Marisa Casel
Music by Ennio Morricone
Cinematography John Cabrera
Edited by Claudio M. Cutry
Juan Serra
Distributed by Cinema Epoch (DVD Reissue)
Release dates
  • 1 August 1983 (1983-08-01)
Running time
 109 minutes (DVD version)
90 minutes
Country Italy
Spain
Language Spanish

Hundra is a 1983 Italian-Spanish fantasy film directed by Matt Cimber and starring Laurene Landon.

Plot

Hundra belongs to a tribe of Amazons. She is the only tribe member of her age who has never been with a man. She declares she would keep it like that. One day when she goes hunting, her tribe is outnumbered and slaughtered by barbarians. As the only survivor she travels to an old wise woman and asks her for advice. To her surprise she is told she ought to become a mother in order to prevent the final extinction of the Amazons. Subsequently Hundra seeks a father for her child. The first candidate has bad manners and it turns out that he is suffering with a sadistic personality disorder. While she continues her search she is confronted by a murderous robber baron who only wants to kill her. Later she encounters an effeminate pimp. Eventually she gets to know a gentleman who works as healer. She asks him to become the father of her child but she is told that a man won't get in the right mood if he is approached in an all too blunt way. Hundra asks other women to help her to live up to his expectations. Consequently she succeeds in seducing him, gets pregnant and delivers a child. Unfortunately now an evil pagan priest kidnaps Hundra's daughter. Thus Hundra is coerced into joining a sinister ritual where the priest's followers humiliate her. During this session she is informed that her new friends have freed the child. She fights back and returns to her home lands. The female narrator explains there was proof that Hundra's spirit kept on living in all women ever since.

Cast

Reception

Paul Mavis of Dvdtalk.com described Hundra as a "genial, rollicking, comic book sword and sandals fantasy" and argued for the film's cult status.[1] "Monster Pictures" stated "Hundra" was "one of the great underrated films of the era".[2] Mondo-Digital categorised Hundra as one of the better contemporary copies of Conan the Barbarian and pointed out that Hundra preceded the film adaptation of Red Sonja.[3] Richard Scheib of Moria.co.nz called Hundra a "better incarnation of the spirit of the Red Sonja stories than the Red Sonja (1985) film ever was".[4] John Shatzer of BloodTypeOnline.com wrote a negative review but gave Hundra credit by saying a few action scenes were exciting.[5] Judge David Johnson of DvdVerdict.com instead regarded the action scenes and Landon's general performance as "stilted,"[6] only allowing the film's "camp" value. Keith Breese of Filmcritic.com praised Laurene Landon as "a striking action lead" and compared Hundra to "Xena".[7]

DVD release

In 2007 the DVD label Subversive published "Hundra" with a commentary by Matt Cimber and Laurene Landon and a making-of. The edition also includes a comic book and moreover Ennio Morricone's soundtrack on a CD. Andrew Borntreger of www.badmovies.org complained about missing subtitles and closing credits being hard to read.[8] Jonathan Doyle of www.media-party.com criticised the anamorphic transfer and the sound quality of what he called a "cult oddity".[9]

References

  1. ↑ "1983's Hundra, the genial, rollicking, comic book sword and sandals fantasy, has generated a minor cult". Retrieved 2007-03-25.
  2. ↑ "HUNDRA is one of the great underrated films of the era". Retrieved 2012-12-29.
  3. ↑ "Hundra, is one of many, many Conan copies which flooded theaters around the world, though in this case it also predates another Schwarzenegger film as well, Red Sonja. One of the more accomplished of its ilk". Retrieved 2012-12-29.
  4. ↑ "the film is in fact a far better incarnation of the spirit of the Red Sonja stories than the Red Sonja (1985) film ever was.". Retrieved 2012-12-29.
  5. ↑ "I will give credit and say that a few of the fights are effective and even exciting.". Retrieved 2012-12-29.
  6. ↑ "Landon's stitled performance combined with the stilted action sequences lend the entire film a camp value". Retrieved 2007-04-06.
  7. ↑ "While Hundra practically vanished after a short theatrical run (studio troubles), 'Xena' ran with the same theme and made mint more than a decade later". Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  8. ↑ "the end credits are difficult to read, and the DVD lacks subtitles". Retrieved 2007-04-20.
  9. ↑ "anamorphic transfer on this disc is flawed and the sound is quite poor (most of the thickly-accented voice-over is indecipherable unless you crank the volume to dangerous levels), but it is currently the best way to see this forgotten cult oddity.". Retrieved 2007-04-03.

External links

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