''Hundra'' is a 1983 Italian-American-Spanish

fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fic ...

co-written and directed by Matt Cimber and starring

Laurene Landon Laurene Landon Coughlin (born March 17, 1957) is a Canadian film and television actress. She first began appearing in movies in the 1980s. She is best known for her roles in '' Maniac Cop'' and '' Maniac Cop 2'', '' I, the Jury'', '' Hundra'', ...

Plot

Hundra belongs to a tribe of

Amazons In Greek mythology, the Amazons (Ancient Greek: Ἀμαζόνες ''Amazónes'', singular Ἀμαζών ''Amazōn'', via Latin ''Amāzon, -ŏnis'') are portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as the Labours of Hercu ...

. She is the only tribe member of her age who has never been with a man. She declares she will keep it like that. One day when she goes hunting, her tribe is outnumbered and slaughtered by barbarians. As the only survivor she travels to an old wise woman and asks her for advice, but to her surprise she is told she ought to become a mother in order to prevent the final

extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds ( taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed ...

of the Amazons. Hundra seeks a father for her child. The first candidate has bad manners and it turns out that he is suffering from a sadistic personality disorder. While she continues her search she is confronted by a murderous robber baron who only wants to kill her. Later she encounters an effeminate

pimp Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still ...

. Eventually she gets to know a

gentleman A gentleman (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man) is any man of good and courteous conduct. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire and above a yeoman; by definition, the ra ...

who works as a healer. She asks him to become the father of her child but she is told that a man won't get in the right mood if he is approached too bluntly. Hundra asks other women to help her to live up to his expectations. She succeeds in seducing him, gets pregnant and delivers a child. An evil pagan priest kidnaps Hundra's daughter. Thus Hundra is coerced into joining a sinister ritual where the priest's followers humiliate her. During this session she is informed that her new friends have freed the child. She fights back and returns to her home lands. The female narrator explains there was proof that Hundra's spirit kept on living in all women ever since.

Cast

... Hundra * John Ghaffari ... Napatkin *

María Casal María Consuelo Casal Mínguez (born 26 February 1958) is a Spanish actress. The daughter of actor Antonio Casal, she is perhaps the best known as secretary in '' Un, dos, tres... responda otra vez'' and for her roles in television series ''Hos ...

... Drachima * Ramiro Oliveros ... Pateray * Luis Lorenzo ... Rotahar * Tamara ... Chrysula * Victor Gans ... Landrazza * Cristina Torres ... Shandrom * Bettina Brenner ... Hundra's mother * Maria Vico ... The midwife * Fernando Bilbao ... Torente * Jorge Bosso Gordoza * Azucena Hernández * Frank Braña ... Chieftain

Production

There was a stunt double for the nude scene, which

originally wasn't going to do, but she was short and heavy. "They had her in the water because I wasn't going to show my boobs. She was maybe five-feet-five. I think Matt Cimber did that on purpose to get me to do that nude scene in the water. I saw the footage of that and said, 'That's not me. My ass isn't that big. I'll do it myself'," Landon said.

Reception

Paul Mavis of Dvdtalk.com described ''Hundra'' as a "genial, rollicking, comic book sword and sandals fantasy" and argued for the film's

cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...

status. "Monster Pictures" stated "Hundra" was "one of the great underrated films of the era". John Shatzer of BloodTypeOnline.com wrote a negative review but gave ''Hundra'' credit by saying a few action scenes were exciting. Judge David Johnson of

DVD Verdict DVD Verdict was a judicial-themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. The editor-in-chief was Michael Stailey, who owned the website between 2004 and 2016, and the site employed a large editorial staff of critics, whose reviews ...

instead regarded the action scenes and Landon's general performance as "stilted," only allowing the film's " camp" value. Keith Breese of Filmcritic.com praised Laurene Landon as "a striking action lead" and compared Hundra to " Xena".

Comparison to contemporary genre films

Mondo-Digital categorised ''Hundra'' as one of the better contemporary copies of '' Conan the Barbarian'' and pointed out that ''Hundra'' preceded the film adaptation of '' Red Sonja''. Richard Scheib of Moria.co.nz called ''Hundra'' a "better incarnation of the spirit of the Red Sonja stories than the Red Sonja (1985) film ever was". Landon herself called the film "a female version of ''Conan the Barbarian''".

DVD release

In 2007 the DVD label ''Subversive'' published "Hundra" with a commentary by Matt Cimber and Laurene Landon and a making-of. The edition also includes a

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. ...

and Ennio Morricone's soundtrack on a CD. Andrew Borntreger of badmovies.org complained about missing

subtitles Subtitles and captions are lines of dialogue or other text displayed at the bottom of the screen in films, television programs, video games or other visual media. They can be transcriptions of the screenplay, translations of it, or informati ...

and closing credits being hard to read. Jonathan Doyle of media-party.com criticised the anamorphic transfer and the sound quality of what he called a "cult oddity".

References

External links

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Trailer
{{Matt Cimber 1983 films 1980s action adventure films 1980s fantasy action films 1980s fantasy adventure films Films set in a fictional country Films directed by Matt Cimber Films scored by Ennio Morricone 1980s English-language films English-language Italian films English-language Spanish films 1980s Spanish-language films Films shot in Almería American fantasy action films Peplum films American sword and sorcery films Sword and sandal films American multilingual films Spanish multilingual films 1983 multilingual films Spanish fantasy adventure films American fantasy adventure films 1980s American films 1980s Italian films