Swords & Sorcery Films of the 1980's: PART I

The SWORDS & SORCERY genre experienced a huge boom in the 1980's!
Join Helen Mirren, Liam Neeson, Arnold Schwarzenegger & more as Dan delves into the magical and mythical worlds that hit the big screens between 1980 & 1982. Don't miss PART II, coming soon!

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FILMS USED:
"Black Angel" ©1980
"Hawk the Slayer" ©1980
"Excalibur" ©1981
"Clash of the Titans" ©1981
"Dragonslayer" ©1981
"The Sword & the Sorcerer" ©1982
"Conan the Barbarian" ©1982
"The Beastmaster" ©1982

#80semporium #eightiesemporium

00:00 Welcome
01:05 D&D
01:36 Star Wars
02:13 Black Angel
02:32 Themes
03:08 Hawk the Slayer
03:41 Excalibur
04:22 Clash of the Titans
05:02 Dragonslayer
05:50 The Sword & the Sorcerer
06:47 Conan the Barbarian
07:38 The Beastmaster
08:47 Next Up...

[boyscout]

Excalibur was so well made. That movie still holds up til this day.

[cliffdixon]

If yo haven't seen it, one of the best of the genre was Ladyhawke from 1985 starring Rutger Hauer, Michelle Pfeiffer and Matthew Broderick. Absolutely loved that film in my late teens and still holds up well today

[Briansgate]

Excalibur is still one of my favorite movies of all time.

[himonightbreeze]

I have a deep need to say that Conan wasn't originally a comic book character. Robert E. Howard's short stories were featured in Weird Tales magazine which was a pulp magazine for sci-fi nerds in the 20s & 30s, and was just a collection of short stories with a few illustrations.
The first Conan panel-to-panel comic as we know them now was published in Mexico in 1952, 20 years after his first story was published in Weird Tales. It was an adaptation of "Queen of the Black Coast, " and was featured in a pocket-sized anthology magazine. The first Marvel run of Conan comics didn't come until 1970, almost 50 years after that first short story. Then of course Dark horse was putting them out from 2003-2018, and in that time we got the so-so Jason Mamao flick heavily based on that run, and it's....a movie.

[pspboy]

Conan, Dragonslayer, and Excalibur are my favorite films in this genre.

[jasonsaenz]

Thulsa Doom from Conan the Barbarian is most certainly an evil wizard.

[redjacc]

Excaliber is simply the best representation of armoured combat.

[stevesetzer]

I watched Beastmaster and Krull 10, 000 times. Dragonslayer was fun.

[tripbreaker]

Yes, folks, that’s Helen Mirren. I was 13 when I fist saw her play Morgana and have been in love with gothy pagan chicks ever since. In one scene with Merlin she actually f*cking hisses at him. Classic.

[fredlandry]

These were great times to be a teenager.

[davyboy]

Excalibur is my favorite of the Arthurian films but second is definitely the 1998 mini series "Merlin" with Sam Neill playing the part of the legendary Wizard. If you haven't seen it yet check it out! It's so good, vastly underrated and overlooked

[johnglue]

Man I remember being almost a teen in the early 80s and it was such a great time for S&S films, I loved it.

[newsmith]

I loved Hawk the Slayer. The ridiculous action sequences with the repeating crossbow and the Elf shooting 30 arrows a second was beyond cheesy but I still loved it.

[CarnorJast]

Two of my favorite "S&S" movies are definitely Excalibur and DragonSlayer. DragonSlayer still, to this day, has the greatest on-screen dragon ever made. Vermithrax Pejorative has no equal, and is the quintessential dragon that is copied, but never duplicated, ever since.

[justme-tirh]

All those movies are a lot more enjoyable to watch than anything in the past 10 years.

[lewucf]

Man oh man, just going over these movies sure brings back tons of memories as a kid.

Remember watching these a multitude of times throughout the 80’s on cable where eventually with VHS tapes, we would record off of & pause when a commercial came on.

Miss those days……..

[mrkengage]

Glad to see The Sword & the Sorcerer covered here. That movie saturated cable TV back in the day and, despite it's flaws and slow pacing, is fondly remembered by us nerds. :D

[yegenek]

Hawk the Slayer is like a D&D LARP with actors but it is incredibly fun and entertaining. Also the soundtrack is great.

[billlonee]

Don't blame me for Dragonslayer's dismal BO, I saw it in the theater and loved it. Also, The Sword and the Sorcerer, with the amazing scenery known as Kathleen Beller... Oh, yeah, and that triple-bladed sword.

[redbunnytail]

'Excalibur' and 'Conan the Barbarian.' HBO had both of those movies on, multiple times a month in early 80's. I got 2 dollars a month for the arcades, so HBO absorbed all my time in the summers. Same thing every time, when I see Nigel Terry. How he look so young, as young, squire aged Arthur. Then evolve into this sage, warrior, King, with the greying hair and different sound to his voice. That one of the best 'transformations' I ever seen. Armor was as cool to see as it was to see the armor in 'Gladiator, ' a few decades ago. It was just visually awesome for 'fantasy' sword sorcery people.