ATOR THE FIGHTING EAGLE (1982)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

ATOR THE FIGHTING EAGLE was a copycat sword-and-sorcery flick designed to ride the coattails of the big-budget CONAN THE BARBARIAN that year. While ATOR is far from being a good movie, even within this particular genre, at least it's not slowed down by time-consuming talking-heads scenes like another such coat-tailer, THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER.

I've no idea if anyone behind the scenes had seen clips of the Schwarzenegger film or read any of the source material, but in the opening scenes at least, ATOR does feel like director Joe D'Amato and writer Jose Maria Sanchez had a little grasp of Conan-style gravitas. The early scenes follow your basic "savior concealed from evil king" template, as Dakkar, head of the evil Spider Cult, eliminates his rivals, but the infant Ator, spawn of one such enemy, is spared destruction. Griba (an unrecognizable Edmond Purdom) steals the infant and coaxes a peasant couple, who have only a daughter, to raise Ator to manhood, where he's played by Miles O'Keeffe in the actor's most well-known role.

Ator is ignorant of his place in the scheme of things, but one can't say he's a slave of convention, for he conceives a passion for Sunya, the young woman he's been raised to think is his sister. She reciprocates his feelings but argues that their romance is forbidden by law. However, being two straightforward young people, they broach their romance to their parents, who cheerily reveal that the two of them aren't related and can be married any time they please. 

The marriage is all planned when the soldiers of Dakkar raid the peasant village and steal away victims for sacrifice, particularly Sunya. Ator plans to go after her, and providentially his benefactor Griba shows up-- having apparently been watching over Ator for twenty years-- gives Ator some quickie sword-fight training, and then disappears from the movie. 

Almost as soon as Griba disappears, Ator gets another helper, a sword-girl named Roon (Sabrina Siani), almost certainly patterned on the Valeria character from CONAN. She's a thief whom Ator rescues from her victims, and at first she rides off as if she has zero interest in the long-haired blonde barbarian. Then Ator strikes off on his own, and he promptly gets trapped by a tribe of Amazons, of which Roon happens to be a member. The Amazon leader declares that they need a man to put a baby in some tribeswoman's belly, and that they will decide the matter according to a melee. Roon wins the contest and gets the barbarian sent to her hut. But when Ator reveals that he's devoted to his stolen bride Sunya, Roon becomes envious of the woman who won the big lug's affections. She discards whatever status she held in her tribe and joins Ator on his quest.

Considering Joe D'Amato's credentials in erotic cinema up to that time, it's surprising that both Ator's relationship to Roon and to his not-sister is so relentlessly G-rated. Even the DEATHSTALKER films play up sexual tension more than ATOR. Ator and Roon go through a couple more episodic adventures until they finally have a showdown with Dakkar and Sunya is rescued.

I won't take shots at the movie's cheapjack costumes and effects (mainly a giant spider-puppet), but the stunt-work is inferior even for a low-budget Italian knockoff. O'Keeffe is one of the dullest actors to play a barbarian out there, so at no time did I feel it credible that he'd entranced Roon just by moaning a little about his lost love. Siani does a credible if not exceptional job as a sassy warrior-woman, though, and provides the only glue holding the movie together. For what it's worth, though the rest of the Ator films are not strongly tied together, the last in the series, QUEST FOR THE MIGHTY SWORD, has a stronger (if still episodic) script and even manages to work in the "forbidden love" thing by cadging elements from the Siegfried Saga. So even though ATOR is no great shakes, at least it led to a slightly better opus down the road.