Tommy Snöberg Söderberg 
Hercules and the Amazon Women is the first of five TV movies made prior to the six season series about the adventures of Hercules. It stars Kevin Sorbo of course and I think he’s an amazing fit for the role. That might be because I grew up watching the series. That might also be why I still love fantasy- adventure movies where mythological stories are the basis. In particular Greek mythology I’d say.
But, of course, this film as well as 99% of all Hercules stories made into film, they get it wrong. Hercules was the Roman name for the Greek Herakles, Hercules’ father was Jupiter, and Zeus, as these movies almost always mention, was the father of Herakles. I guess that the name Hercules is more recognizable but it bothers me when you mix the two separate mythologies together. There’s a lot that is the same of course, much of Roman mythology was borrowed (or stolen) from the Greeks. But it still bothers me that they can’t get their facts together.
So, despite the fact that the main hero’s name is Hercules, Zeus is still the father in this one. He’s portrayed by Anthony Quinn and he does a great job. Not that he has that much screen time. He’s hardly even a side character but turns up once in a while to give advice to his son. Advice that is often from his own point of view. It’s obvious that he doesn’t know how the real world works and that he’s terrified of his wife Hera. Her name was Juno in Roman mythology by the way.
In this first film, Hercules is sought out to face a monster attacking a village a couple of days’ ride away. As the hero he is, he of course accepts the challenge. But if you’re after a real monster fight I must disappoint you. There is a monster fight though, but it’s very brief and it’s basically against the Hydra, you know the dragonlike creature with seven heads and if you cut one of them, two grow out in its place.
What he instead faces is a group of Amazon women and the story more or less turns out to become a moralizing tale about equality and gender roles. This is of course a very important issue that should be addressed. But it may not have a place in a fantasy movie. It becomes far less action and more kind of a relationship drama. Hercules solves the problem of course and perhaps both he and we, the audience learn a thing or two. Oh, and Lucy Lawless, later to be in Xena: The Warrior Princess appears in a minor part.
Certain chores shouldn’t be bound to gender and everybody has the right to equality. And that’s as far as I go as such opinions have a tendency to be very political, especially these days.
I enjoyed the movie, but maybe more out of nostalgia than real quality. The story is pretty lame, the special effects are not very good and the acting is pretty awful all around. Maybe with the exception of Anthony Quinn, but he doesn’t face a great challenge with the lines and motivation given to him.
That the special effects are bad is to be expected though. It’s a mix of CGI from the 90s (and we all know how those looked), and practical constructions. I think it’s kind of charming but if this were something that couldn’t appeal to the nostalgia factor I wouldn’t be as forgiving. All in all a nice film to entertain you for 90 minutes.
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