''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 fiction f ...

co-written and directed by

Matt Cimber Matt Cimber (born Thomas Vitale Ottaviano; 1936) is an American producer, director, writer, and occasional actor in films, television, and theatre. He is known for directing genre films including '' The Candy Tangerine Man, The Witch Who Ca ...

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'', '' A ...

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 Hercules, ...

. 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 and ...

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 Sadistic personality disorder was a personality disorder defined by a pervasive pattern of sadistic and cruel behavior. People with this disorder were thought to have desired to control others. It was believed they accomplish this through the us ...

. 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 In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/ asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the ...

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 ... 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 Azucena Hernández IglesiasLa Vanguardia 4 August 1977, page 30. (21 March 1960 – 4 December 2019) was a Spanish actress known for her work in cinema, stage and television. Her artistic career began in the late 1970s and flourished during earl ...

Frank Braña Frank Braña (born Francisco Braña Pérez; 24 February 1934 – 13 February 2012) was a Spanish character actor. Biography He was born Francisco Braña Pérez in Pola de Allande, Asturias, Spain on 24 February 1934. Also credited as Frank Bla ...

... 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

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 Camp may refer to: Outdoor accommodation and recreation * Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site * a temporary settlement for nomads * Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...

" value. Keith Breese of Filmcritic.com praised Laurene Landon as "a striking action lead" and compared Hundra to "

Xena Xena is a fictional character from Robert Tapert's '' Xena: Warrior Princess'' franchise. Co-created by Tapert and John Schulian, she first appeared in the 1995–1999 television series ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'', before going on to ...

Comparison to contemporary genre films

Mondo-Digital categorised ''Hundra'' as one of the better contemporary copies of ''

Conan the Barbarian Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero who originated in pulp magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, films (including '' Conan the Barbarian'' and '' Conan the Destroyer'') ...

'' and pointed out that ''Hundra'' preceded the film adaptation of ''

Red Sonja Red Sonja is a fictional sword and sorcery comic-book superheroine created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith for Marvel Comics in 1973, partially inspired by Robert E. Howard's character Red Sonya of Rogatino. Marvel Comics ...

''. 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 In cinema, behind-the-scenes (BTS), also known as the making-of, the set, or on the set, is a type of documentary film that features the production of a film or television program. This is often referred to as the EPK (electronic press kit) vid ...

. 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 panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

and Ennio Morricone's

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

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 Closing credits or end credits are a list of the Cast member, cast and Film crew, crew of a particular Film, motion picture, television program, or video game. Where opening credits appear at the beginning of a work, closing credits appear clos ...

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