Review of The Beastmaster (1982) by Kai82 — 09 Apr 2022

A great and entertaining fantasy movie. It is the kind of movie that critics hate and fans love. I fully admit it uses a lot of tropes, cliches, stereotypes and can be seen as cheesy but those were used well.

It is enjoyable and fun to watch from start to finish. It is based on the novel “The Beast Master” from Andre Norton. Because it is an old book I do not own I cant say if it is a good or bad adaptation.

The story starts when the high priest Maax from the kingdom of Aruk is given a prophecy that he will be killed in a battle with Dar the son of king Zed. Alarmed by this he send an assassin to get rid of the child.

However things turn out different than expected and the child survives but is separated from his family in a small village. Even more Dar has a unique gift. He can communicate telepathically with animals.

Years later the prophecy takes momentum as his village is raided by the Jun who are a horde of barbarians under Maax control. Here I stop to avoid spoilers. It is an enjoyable ride and a great final battle where a lot from before pays off.

You can already see with the given set up why I said it uses a lot of tropes, stereotypes and cliches. However it is no weakness as the result is an entertaining movie and it has unique features. Because of Dars ability to talk wit animals he has companions in form of an eagle, panther and ferrets.

Those are awesome, great allies for Dar and improve the movie. I think I must warn you too that there are some intense scenes here. The mindless warrior creation process is not for people with weak stomachs.

The characters work well for fantasy standards. Marc Singer as Dar works excellent as protagonist. Rip Torn as Maax is so enjoyable evil. Tanya Roberts as Kiri, Josh Milrad as Tal and John Amos as Seth are great support characters.

Rod Loomis as King Zed is weak but this is because the character (not actor) is a moron. I must point out that the animal companions are the hidden stars here. The sets and costumes give the movie a unique style and I did not see a weakness here.

The soundtrack is sneakingly good. With this I mean you do not recognize how it enhances the movie easily until you look for this. Overall this is one of the best B fantasy movies for me even if critics hate me for the statement.

It is and never wanted to be an intellectual movie so I cant rate it like one. For entertainment purpose it does it well enough. Round it up to a 9/10.