Yor, the Hunter from the Future
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Yor, the Hunter from the Future'' ( it, Il mondo di Yor, lit=The World of Yor) is a 1983
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
fantasy film directed by
Antonio Margheriti Antonio Margheriti (19 September 1930 – 4 November 2002), also known under the pseudonyms Anthony M. Dawson and Antony Daisies ("daisies" is "margherite" in Italian), was an Italian filmmaker. Margheriti worked in many different genres in th ...
and starring
Reb Brown Common meanings * Johnny Reb, personification of a Confederate soldier in the American Civil War * Reb (Yiddish), an honorific title for a teacher People * Reb Anderson (born 1943), American Zen Buddhist teacher and writer * Reb Beach (born 1963), ...
,
Corinne Cléry Corinne Cléry (born 23 March 1950), also known as Corinne Piccolo, is a French actress. She is known for the films ''Moonraker'' (1979), '' The Story of O'' (1975), '' Hitch-Hike'' (1977) and '' Yor, the Hunter from the Future'' (1983). Early ...
,
Luciano Pigozzi Luciano Pigozzi, also known professionally as Alan Collins (10 January 1927 – 14 June 2008), was an Italian character actor. A long-time staple of Italian genre cinema, Pigozzi was noted for his resemblance to Peter Lorre and appeared in s ...
, and
John Steiner John Steiner (7 January 1941 – 31 July 2022) was an English actor. Tall, thin and gaunt, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and performed on-stage for the Royal Shakespeare Company, but was best known to audiences for his roles i ...
. The film was an Italian-French-Turkish co-production based on the Argentinian comic '' Yor the Hunter.'' Though the film was one of Margheriti's most financially successful films, it received poor reviews from ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' and ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' and drew three nominations at the
4th Golden Raspberry Awards The 4th Golden Raspberry Awards were held on April 8, 1984, at Third Street Elementary School in Los Angeles, California, to recognize the worst the movie industry had to offer in 1983. Amy Irving, nominated for worst supporting actress for her ...
in 1984.


Plot

Yor, a roving hunter and barbarian, jogs through a seemingly prehistoric desert landscape past the stone towers of
Cappadocia Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Re ...
, Turkey. Kalaa, a seemingly primitive cavewoman, and her mentor and protector Pag are hunting in a nearby village. They were hunting a small
pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...
-like
Polacanthus ''Polacanthus'', deriving its name from the Ancient Greek polys-/πολύς- "many" and akantha/ἄκανθα "thorn" or "prickle", is an early armoured, spiked, plant-eating ankylosaurian dinosaur from the early Cretaceous period of England. In ...
. Suddenly, they are attacked by a "stegoceratops" (a cross-breed of a ''
Stegosaurus ''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been fou ...
'' and a ''
Triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of herbivorous chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 million years ago in what is now North America. It is one ...
''). Yor appears and kills the dinosaur with his axe, drinking some of its blood immediately afterward. The village befriends Yor, and together, the villagers cut the choice meats to be feasted upon in celebration. While Yor rests, a band of cavemen with bluish skin attack the village. Only Yor and Pag escape. Yor immediately swears to get Kalaa back. Yor and Pag track the blue cavemen to their lair, where Yor shoots a giant bat with his bow and arrow. He uses the dead bat like a hang glider to storm the lair and starts flooding sections of the cave, the diversion helping his escape out the back with Kalaa. The flood kills everyone inside the cave, including the other kidnapped villagers (who had been locked in cages) as well as the blue cavemen. Kalaa and Pag decide to follow Yor in his adventure to find his origins. Along the way, they find a mysterious society of sand mummies led by a blonde woman named Roa with an amulet similar to Yor's own. Yor proceeds to kill everyone except Roa, deciding that she will be important for their journey. Kalaa tries to kill Roa at one point, but they are both suddenly attacked by more blue cavemen. Yor and Pag come to the rescue, but a caveman strikes Roa down from behind, and she dies in Yor's arms. Yor, Pag, and Kalaa make friends with another tribe after saving some children from a dimetrodon, but this tribe is killed by (unseen)
flying saucer A flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has g ...
s shooting lasers. Yor and company use a boat to make their way to an island surrounded by storms. There Yor discovers, to his initial disbelief, that his parents were from a small band of
nuclear holocaust A nuclear holocaust, also known as a nuclear apocalypse, nuclear Armageddon, or atomic holocaust, is a theoretical scenario where the mass detonation of nuclear weapons causes globally widespread destruction and radioactive fallout. Such a scenar ...
survivors, thereby revealing that Yor's world is actually post-apocalyptic Earth after a nuclear holocaust. A ruthless tyrant called the Overlord has taken control of the remaining nuclear technology with his android army. He intends to use Yor and Kalaa, who he reveals is a 'genetically perfect' woman, to create a new master race based on his androids in order to rule the entire planet. Yor finds allies in a group of rebels led by the scientist, Ena, and the mysterious blind Elder, who have been plotting to overthrow the Overlord for years. After being rescued by Ena, Yor and the rebels join forces to attack the Overlord and his androids. Ena leads them to the fortress's atomic stockpile, where they plant explosives powerful enough to destroy it and the fortress. The Elder remains behind and slowly deactivates the android army, buying time for the others to escape. The Overlord pursues them in an attempt to stop the stockpile's destruction and briefly engages Yor in combat, overwhelming him temporarily. As the Overlord enters an elevator, Yor grabs a nearby pole and hurls it through the window, impaling the villain. Mortally wounded, the Overlord struggles onward toward the stockpile as Yor and Ena continue to lead the others to safety. Pag orders them to keep going while he fends off the androids, but he loses his weapon and gets cornered by them. Ena and the rebels quickly rush to his aid, but just as the androids are about to kill Pag, the Elder deactivates them. The group quickly boards one of the Overlord's ships just as the Overlord himself reaches the stockpile control room. But before he can stop the bomb, it explodes, and he succumbs to his injuries and slowly dies. At the same moment, the Overlord's spacecraft, carrying Yor, Kalaa, Pag, Ena and the rebels flies out of the hangar to safety while the Overlord's facility explodes behind them. As the movie ends and the ship flies off into the distance, the narrator intones: "...Yor returns to the primitive tribes on the mainland. He is determined to use his superior knowledge to prevent them making the same mistakes as their forefathers. Will he succeed?"


Cast

*
Reb Brown Common meanings * Johnny Reb, personification of a Confederate soldier in the American Civil War * Reb (Yiddish), an honorific title for a teacher People * Reb Anderson (born 1943), American Zen Buddhist teacher and writer * Reb Beach (born 1963), ...
as Yor *
Corinne Cléry Corinne Cléry (born 23 March 1950), also known as Corinne Piccolo, is a French actress. She is known for the films ''Moonraker'' (1979), '' The Story of O'' (1975), '' Hitch-Hike'' (1977) and '' Yor, the Hunter from the Future'' (1983). Early ...
as Kalaa *
Luciano Pigozzi Luciano Pigozzi, also known professionally as Alan Collins (10 January 1927 – 14 June 2008), was an Italian character actor. A long-time staple of Italian genre cinema, Pigozzi was noted for his resemblance to Peter Lorre and appeared in s ...
as Pag (as Alan Collins) *
Carole André Carole André-Smith (born 11 March 1953) is a French-Italian former actress. Her best known role was Kabir Bedi's love interest Lady Marianna, nicknamed "", in the successful RAI series ''Sandokan'' (1976). Since retiring from acting, she has b ...
as Ena *
John Steiner John Steiner (7 January 1941 – 31 July 2022) was an English actor. Tall, thin and gaunt, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and performed on-stage for the Royal Shakespeare Company, but was best known to audiences for his roles i ...
as Overlord * Ayşegül Ünsal as Roa of the Sand-People (as Ayshe Gul) * Aytekin Akkaya as Leader of the Sand-People * Sergio Nicolai as Kay


Production

''Yor, the Hunter from the Future'' is an adaptation of the Argentinian comic book ''Yor,'' created in 1974 by writer Eugenio Juan Zappietro and artist
Juan Zanotto Juan Zanotto (Giovanni Zanotto, September 26, 1935 – April 13, 2005) was an Italy, Italian-born Argentina, Argentine comic book artist who worked both in Europe and Argentina. Biography Born in Cuceglio, in the province of Turin (Piedmont), ...
. The comic appeared in the Italian magazine '' Lanciostory'' in 1975. Director
Antonio Margheriti Antonio Margheriti (19 September 1930 – 4 November 2002), also known under the pseudonyms Anthony M. Dawson and Antony Daisies ("daisies" is "margherite" in Italian), was an Italian filmmaker. Margheriti worked in many different genres in th ...
later told an interviewer that the comic was fascinating to him. The film was part of a wave of sword-and-sorcery themed films that appeared after the success of John Milius's 1982 film version 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'') ...
.'' Other Italian productions that appeared in 1983 in its wake along with ''Yor,'' including
Lucio Fulci Lucio Fulci (; 17 June 1927 – 13 March 1996) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Although he worked in a wide array of genres through a career spanning nearly five decades, including comedies and Spaghetti Westerns, he ga ...
's ''
Conquest Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...
'' and
Franco Prosperi Franco Prosperi (2 September 1926 – 17 October 2004) was an Italian film director and screenwriter, active between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s. Born Francesco Prosperi in Rome, Prosperi began his career as an assistant director with ...
's ''
The Throne of Fire ''The Throne of Fire'' is a 2011 fantasy adventure novel written by American author Rick Riordan. It is the second novel in '' The Kane Chronicles'' series, which tells of the adventures of modern-day fourteen-year-old Carter Kane and his twelve- ...
'' (both 1983). The film differs from the comics where the second part of the film begins to resemble '' Star Wars.'' ''Yor, the Hunter from the Future'' was shot in Turkey, including scenes shot in
Cappadocia Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Re ...
. Along with co-writing and directing the film, Margheriti supervised the films special effects with his son Edoardo. The film was originally made as a four part miniseries, with four 50-minute segments that were broadcast on Italy's
RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...
television in 1983 and throughout the 1990s in reruns.


Release

''Yor, the Hunter from the Future'' was released in Italy on February 10, 1983. Running time of the Italian feature version of the film was 98 minutes, while the version released August 19, 1983 in American theaters ran 89 minutes. The film was distributed in the United States by
Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
. Margheriti stated that Columbia distributed 1400 prints of the film and that it was "one of the most successful pictures of my life." ''Yor, the Hunter from the Future'' grossed a total of $2,810,199 in the United States. The film was released on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
as part of Sony's on-demand manufacturing service on September 6, 2011. A
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
of the film was released by Mill Creek Entertainment in January 2018 with an audio commentary with actor Reb Brown. The Blu-ray features the American theatrical cut, not the longer Italian version.


Reception

In contemporary reviews, ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' referred to the film as "one of the cheesiest pics to bear a major studio imprimatur recently, and will have to grab the under-12 crowd on opening weekend or two to pay off. Nobody older than that will buy it."
Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' admitted to not having finished watching the film for her review, noting that she could not imagine who would want to finish the film. The film was nominated for three
Golden Raspberry Awards The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
in 1984, for Worst New Star (
Reb Brown Common meanings * Johnny Reb, personification of a Confederate soldier in the American Civil War * Reb (Yiddish), an honorific title for a teacher People * Reb Anderson (born 1943), American Zen Buddhist teacher and writer * Reb Beach (born 1963), ...
), Worst Musical Score, and Worst Original Song ("Yor's World"). ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' opined, "Even gluttons for dumbness may find it easy to refrain from second helpings". ''
The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'' described it as "even worse than you think" and suggested that it was a rip-off of '' Star Wars'' and ''
Quest for Fire ''Quest for Fire'' may refer to: * '' The Quest for Fire'', a 1911 novel by J. H. Rosny * ''Quest for Fire'' (film), a 1981 film adaptation of the 1911 novel * "Quest for Fire", a song by Iron Maiden from 1983's ''Piece of Mind ''Piece of Min ...
.'' In ''
Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide ''Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'' was a book-format collection of movie capsule reviews that began in 1969, was updated biannually after 1978, and then annually after 1986. The final edition was published in September 2014. It was originally calle ...
'' a review commented that the film was "Humorously tacky at first, then just plain boring." The film's director Margheriti commented on the film years after its release that the extended television version of the film was "even more hilarious" and that the film was "a fun project made with almost zero budget. It was a party film and I sometimes enjoy looking at it again."


See also

*
List of Italian films of 1983 A list of films produced in Italy in 1983 (see 1983 in film): References Sources * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Italian films 1983 1983 Films Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a ...
*
List of films based on comics This is a list based on comics. It includes films that are adaptations of comics, and those films whose characters originated in those comics. English, French, Japanese As some languages and forms have been extensively adapted into films, they ...


References


Footnotes


Sources

* * *


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yor, The Hunter From The Future 1983 films 1980s science fiction films Columbia Pictures films Films about dinosaurs Films about cloning Films based on Argentine comics Films directed by Antonio Margheriti Films scored by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis Films scored by John Scott (composer) Films shot in Turkey French fantasy adventure films French science fiction films Italian fantasy adventure films Italian science fiction films Live-action films based on comics French post-apocalyptic films Sword and planet films Turkish fantasy adventure films Turkish science fiction films Italian post-apocalyptic films 1980s Italian films 1980s French films