The Sword and the Sorcerer

[Iressivor]

This is my all-time favorite bad movie.  While I'm sure that everyone has seen it at least once in their lifetime, does anyone else remember the toy line that launched with this movie's release?  I can distinctly remember walking into K-Mart in the early 1980's and picking a plastic sword off the rack which read "...as seen in the motion picture...."

It was just a single-bladed sword with a plastic sheath, one of the lesser swords seen in the film.  It's almost scary to think what might have happened if this film had really taken off at the box office.  We might have seen plastic triple-bladed swords on the market, complete with detachable parts!  

Man, how I yearned for one of those things as a kid!

[Redjack]

Heh you arent alone.  I wanted one of those too.  

I have to get a copy of this film, its been years since i've seen it but i enjoyed it a great deal.  yeah, its cheesy, campy, and has some truly horrific acting in it, but i love it just the same.  Kathleen Beller looks fantastic and I love Richard Moll's Zusa character..

[Iressivor]

Yeah, me too.  It's just a really fun movie, plain and simple.  I'm hoping to get the DVD pretty soon, though I hear it isn't of the highest quality.  Oh well, it's better than my old VHS copy.

[John]

Pay attention to the scenes at the banquet, first Horsley's arms are out straight on the X, then his arms are out to the sides with his elbows bent and then back again. Ever time the shot switches from closeup to far away, he's in a different position.

[Iressivor]

Yep, I've noticed that.  There's an incredible number of goofs in this movie.  As a matter of fact, if you look at the clip that Andrew has uploaded on The Sword and the Sorcerer page, you can see that Talon's sword has only one spring-loaded blade attached to it.  But when he turns to fire at the second soldier, another blade streaks out and kills him.

A lot of folks tend to excuse this one because they think the sword magically regenerates itself, but according to the movie script, the sword is mechanical, not magical.  So it would have been impossible for Talon to have fired that second blade.

As far as I can tell, the missing blade was actually part of a deleted scene, in which Talon must have taken a shot at Cromwell from the ridge overlooking his mother's death.  It does seem like that scene was abruptly cut off, before Talon went off riding into the ambush.

I wish Anchor Bay had included a few more extras in the DVD.  I would have loved to see some of the deleted scenes.

[Andrew]

I have watched the "reappearing blade" scene a number of times and am darn certain of my conclusion.  Spoke about it in the review, but the problem with the scene is the editing.  When they shot it, the intent was for him to kill the bad guys in the opposite order.  A hack editing job is to blame.

[Iressivor]

Ahh, thanks for clarifying that, Andrew.  I had always assumed that there was a scene they had cut out in between; I hadn't even considered an error in the editing.  Very interesting.

[John]

>they think the sword magically regenerates itself, but according to the movie
>script, the sword is mechanical, not magical.

 Every time I've watched this movie, I can't help wondering where Talon went to get refills for his sword. Did he just walk in to the local Swords 'R' Us and ask for a carton of refill blades for a Zorcon #5, spring-loaded sword? Would that be a special order item or would the shops keep a supply of them in the back for the hero types?

[Fearless Freep]

A hack editing job is to blame.

As I watched "Forever Evil" the other night, I noticed a continuity error.  As Reggie walks outside, she just has a blue sweat shirt on, when the switch to the outside shot, she has her brown jacket on over the sweatshirt.  My first thought was 'bad continuity, didn't anyone notice when they were filiming?' Then I realized that maybe they had actually filmed the two scenes in a different order.  In the 'later' scene, filmed first, it would make sense for her to have the jacket on.  Later on, when filiming the 'earlier' scene, they forgot to have her put a jacket on sometime before going out.  I don't really know if that's the case, but I sometimes wonder how many scene contuinity errors like that are the result of filming scenes out of order, to the point that it may be impossible to match continuity sometimes

[Iressivor]

LOL!  Good question.  The only way I can explain it is that he must have retrieved at least one of his blades after launching them, before taking it to a swordsmith in order to forge a second blade.  It would have been relatively easy for a smith to forge such a blade, given an example to go by.

There are some other reasons why I believe the sword cannot be magical.  First, let's just say, for argument's sake, that the "reappearing blade" scene wasn't just an editing goof.  The blade seemed to reappear right after it was launched, right?

Fast-forward to the final duel with Cromwell.  Talon fired one blade at Xusia, then shot the second blade into the wall before he engaged Cromwell.  Now, if the sword could regenerate itself, why didn't the blades immediately reappear on Talon's sword during the duel?

Furthermore, if you will recall, Talon's sword broke during the fight.  According to all known laws of magic (D&D-style), the magical sword, if indeed it was such, should have been dispelled.  Yet when we see the sword again in the final scene, it is clearly all together again.  Now I'm not a D&D guru, but I'm fairly certain that an "evergrowing sword" goes far beyond the boundaries of magic.  But if such a mage could make a sword that can regenerate itself, surely he could invoke a spell that would render all blades unbreakable.  Why then, does every single sword in the movie (aside from Cromwell's own) break?

I could go on, but I think you get the point already.  It's confounding to think about, but it's practically impossible to think that Talon's sword could be anything but spring-loaded.

[Dano]

Now, if the sword could regenerate itself, why didn't the blades immediately reappear on Talon's sword during the duel?
*****  He had it switched to "don't regenerate."  Didn't you catch the closeup with the switch that said: "Regenerate - Don't Regenerate - Safety - Automatic"?  Try the DVD and pause when he's in that tavern.
: )

[Fearless Freep]

Yeah, next to the switch that says "Espresso - Light/Dark"