HERCULES AND THE AMAZON WOMEN (1994)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*

Whatever its demerits, the first of the "pilots" for the syndicated series HERCULES THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS is one of  the best of the five TV-movies. The choice was propitious, since in many ways the TV producers rewrote the history of Greece's brawling hero-- who, among other things, tended to butt heads with powerful women-- into something of a 1990s "sensitive man." 

I've not been able to find a "myth of origins" for the ancient Amazons; it sounds as if they were just always there, their myth perhaps inspired by stories of matrilineal tribes. AMAZON is indebted to a particular ancient tale in which the all-female tribe acquired progeny from mating with a neighboring all-male tribe, the Gargareans. The script also takes some inspiration from the Ninth Labor of Hercules, in that the Greek hero is forced to fight the warriors of Queen Hippolyte due to Hercules' mean stepmother Hera fomenting strife between the two parties.

At the onset of AMAZON, Hercules (Kevin Sorbo) has already become renowned as a powerful hero who defends weak mortals against the injustices of the gods and of tyrannical mortals. Hercules visits the village where his mortal mother Alcmene (Jennifer Ludlam) lives, and is surprised to find his father Zeus (Anthony Quinn) hanging around. Oddly the young hero doesn't seem nearly as resentful of his "divine deadbeat dad" as he is in the series proper, though he does urge his mother not to let her former lover move in. 

The hero's main reason to return is that his boyhood friend and fellow warrior Iolaus (Michael Hurst) is getting married, and Hercules is supposed to be his best man. Hercules regrets that the marriage will impinge upon his friendship with Iolaus, so he passes a few remarks about women. The two get a chance to fight together when Hera sends one of her many minions to kill Hercules.

Then a tribesman from the Gargarean tribe shows up in the village, talking about evil beasts who prey upon his people. The demigod agrees to go help the Gargareans, and Iolaus, also missing how he and Hercules used to bond in battle, talks his way into the fracas.

The heroes find themselves fighting not beasts but armed Amazons, and one of them kills Iolaus. Hercules is taken captive and meets the Amazon queen Hippolyta (Roma "Touched by an Angel" Downey). Hippolyta has a laundry list of grievances against men, and though Hercules grieves for his slain friend, he can't help being drawn to the comely queen and conceding that women sometimes get the short end of the stick. However, the Amazons worship Hera, though the queen of the gods doesn't seem to have taken any action to bring Hercules into her domain.

The hero escapes the Amazons and seeks out the Gargareans, who relate their true relationship as "breeding stock" to the Amazons, raising all the male offspring in their village while all the female children are raised as Amazons. The script skims past the implication that the female warriors, having been made as strong as men by Hera, foster their progeny by essentially raping the men. Hercules' solution is a model of 1990s sensitivity: the men conquer the women's hearts by acting more "feminine" and listening to the Amazons' "problems."

Though Hercules and Hippolyta "bury the hatchet" (so to speak), Hera possesses the queen's body and initiates a big fight with the hero. Hippolyta perishes, but Hercules invokes Zeus to provide him with a "Superman turns back time" moment, so all the previous events are undone. Not only do both Iolaus and Hippolyta survive, Hercules is able to pass along his dating advice to the Gargareans, so that there's no need for him to venture into Hera's terrain again and bring about the queen's death. A couple of pilots later, the producers would come up with an even better way to reposition everyone's favorite Hellenic masculinist into a lovelorn crusader who was always polite to the ladies.