ATOR THE FIGHTING EAGLE was evidently rushed into production to cash-in on the success of CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982); versatile (if not exactly talented) and multi-purpose “Euro-Cult” figure D’Amato shrewdly (but, perhaps, unwisely since the result is just as dire) acquired the services of the actor who had just incarnated another highly popular pulp character \u2013 namely Miles O’Keefe from TARZAN THE APE MAN (1981). By the way, Laura Gemser \u2013 star of several EMANUELLE films by D’Amato (and others) \u2013 appears here as a witch who seduces (and perishes at the hands of) Ator. While the script (by the director himself, with the reported assistance of Michele Soavi) managed to come up with a reasonable mythic background for the storyline (complete with portentous narration) \u2013 this and the presence of an amiable bear cub for Ator’s inseparable companion are the only things that spare the film the dreaded BOMB rating \u2013 it all goes for naught in the face of exceedingly dull treatment and lifeless performances! <\/p>\n
As was the case with the John Milius\/Arnold Schwarzenegger semi-classic, the hero has to defeat a bloodthirsty ruler (the Snake Cult in CONAN being replaced by one worshipping spiders with, again, a massive specimen to which sacrifices are often made), rescue a virginal damsel (whom he loves even while believing she’s his sister \u2013 though, of course, she isn’t really), and is himself aided in his exploits by a brawny female (who has feelings for him but eventually expires to ease the path to his true love). Besides, the man who saved his own life as a child, then, played by Edmund Purdom (a Hollywood star who got stuck all-too-soon in lowbrow “Euro-Cult” fare such as this) turns out to harbor designs of his own on the kingdom! <\/p>\n
Like I said, the film ends up being nothing more than a time-waster \u2013 and, actually, far closer in spirit to the two contemporaneous Luigi Cozzi\/Lou Ferrigno HERCULES adventures (both of which I also caught as a child and got to watch again recently) than CONAN itself\u2026<\/p>\n
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ATOR THE FIGHTING EAGLE was evidently rushed into production to cash-in on the success of CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982); versatile (if not exactly talented) and multi-purpose “Euro-Cult” figure D’Amato shrewdly (but, perhaps, unwisely since the result is just as dire) acquired the services of the actor who had just incarnated another highly popular pulp character…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","mf2_syndication":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movie-news","wpcat-1-id"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1982-ator-the-invincible.jpg",400,600,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1982-ator-the-invincible-145x145.jpg",145,145,true],"medium":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1982-ator-the-invincible-200x300.jpg",200,300,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1982-ator-the-invincible.jpg",400,600,false],"large":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1982-ator-the-invincible.jpg",400,600,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1982-ator-the-invincible.jpg",400,600,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1982-ator-the-invincible.jpg",400,600,false],"gridflex-1422w-autoh-image":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1982-ator-the-invincible.jpg",400,600,false],"gridflex-1074w-autoh-image":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1982-ator-the-invincible.jpg",400,600,false],"gridflex-360w-300h-image":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1982-ator-the-invincible.jpg",200,300,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"admin1","author_link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?author=1"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"ATOR THE FIGHTING EAGLE was evidently rushed into production to cash-in on the success of CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982); versatile (if not exactly talented) and multi-purpose “Euro-Cult” figure D’Amato shrewdly (but, perhaps, unwisely since the result is just as dire) acquired the services of the actor who had just incarnated another highly popular pulp character...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}