PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*
A quick classification matter: though FIRE depicts an Ice Age in which cavemen exist alongside weird variations on dinosaurs, I don't consider this type of film to be marvelous, for reasons I explained in my review of THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR. All of the flick's monsters, as the above Italian title shows, originally had no "fiery" context, and the only flaming menace in the movie is an exploding volcano, which actually works against the villains, not the hero.
Said hero was named Maciste in the original, and this seems to be the chronologically earliest adventure of the do-gooder, who as in most other movie-iterations just pops up out of nowhere to help the oppressed. The (very bad) American dub devotes one line to giving the muscleman the name "Maxxus," and claiming that he was the son of Hercules and a goddess, though throughout the film none of his feats of strength are truly "Herculean." So I'll call the hero Maciste instead.
Fleeing the frozen wastes of migrating glaciers, the shaggily-clad Sun Tribe finds its way to an uninhabited valley and decide to build their new home there. There's a tiny bit of badinage between young chieftan Idar and his impending bride Raya, mostly regarding his lack of urgency about their marriage, but then the two are threatened by a big lake-reptile. Maciste (Reg Lewis) appears on the scene and from many miles away hurls a spear that transfixes the nasty beast, thus earning the tribe's gratitude. Then off goes the stalwart fellow, seeking other wrongs to right.
While he's conveniently absent, the equally-shaggy Moon Tribe attacks the Sun Tribe, killing many of the men and absconding with the nubile women. Whereas the noble sun worshipers dwell out in the open, the devious moon worshipers inhabit a series of caves adjacent to a volcano. At first it seems that the bulky Moon chieftain Fuan (Andrea Aureli) wants to enact a Rape of the Cave-Sabines by letting his men ravish the females. But then Fuan relates that the true purpose of the captives is to serve as sacrifices to the moon-god.
Maciste, alerted to the raid, finds his way into the caves via a waterway, but he's wounded by a water-monster. He emerges in one of the caves, where he's found by Moah (Margaret Lee), who is the one maiden whom Chief Fuan most desires. Maciste later moves a big stone to admit the vengeful Sun-People, and a battle breaks out between the tribes. Once the women of the Sun Tribe are freed Maciste again moves the big stone and most of the good primitives escape.
Maciste himself is captured and buried up to his neck in the ground. While the Moon-worshipers sleep, Moah tries to rescue Maciste, but Fuan catches her and subjects her to the same torment. However, as if in sympathy with "rock-born" Maciste, the volcano erupts, shattering the ground that imprisons the hero and his new GF. The Moon-People are forced to flee the caves, but this makes Fuan determined to take over the home of the Sun People after killing them all. Fuan even enlists an even more primitive tribe to help them out, but it avails him nothing against Mighty Maciste. When all the slugging is done, Maciste starts to fade into the sunset, but Moah shows more gumption than some other leading ladies by following her man wherever he chooses to go.
FIRE was Reg Lewis' only entry into boulder-shoulder heroics.
No comments:
Post a Comment