The Beastmaster poster & wallpaper

Billy Jayne, John Amos, Josh Milrad

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53% liked it

7,744 ratings

PG, 1 hr. 58 min.

Directed by: Don Coscarelli

Release Date: August 20, 1982

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DVD Release Date: October 23, 2001

Stats: 761 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (761)

  • bradwest
    December 3, 2008
    bradwest
    I know everybody rags on this now, but I have a soft spot for it. Back when I thought Sword & Sorcery movies would make a durable genre. This has just enough of everything needed for a good story in that category.
  • phubbs1
    November 17, 2008
    phubbs1
    Yet another strangely addictive and well made fantasy film close on the heels of Conan. Singer is a much leaner barbarian and his animal abilities actually work well and dont stink of cheese like the crappy sequels.
    The good thing about BM is its very much a rip of Conan but actu...( read more)ally much darker and quite sick in places, there are children burnt alive, drilling into peoples heads and some excellent monster creations in the bat like creatures that wrap their wings around you and reduce you to a pile of bones n goo haha brilliant imagination there.
    The creatures in the gimp style masks that have green eye are also quite eerie and send a shiver down yr spine as they roar and run after their victims, cheesey yes but at the time it was cool stuff, and it does still work today.
    Nice cast, well trained animals and a rough n sexy look make BM a worthy Conan adversary.
  • FangsFirst
    March 17, 2008
    FangsFirst
    A film notorious for its showings on TBS, which is, I imagine where I believed I had caught it, but it seems that I was mistaken--certainly I remember Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time, but apparently not this one. At the least, I know I had not seen the unedited v...( read more)ersion before.

    As a film I watched--or so I thought--numerous times on TV, it sat on a fine edge as to whether I would pursue ownership or further viewings of it. Some of those movies I bought almost instantly upon beginning my DVD collecting, others I waited or ignored completely, knowing I had watched them simply because they were on and on constantly. However, I later learned that in fact this movie was written and directed by Don Coscarelli, who is, of course, responsible for the Phantasm films, which I dearly love. The fact that Anchor Bay saw fit to bestow a special edition upon it sealed the deal for me. It seems, though, that I was completely mistaken and really had never seen this before. I was not expecting to find Rip Torn as a villain in the piece, amongst other things, nor so much nudity, supernatural/magic stuff, violence (to a degree) and the rather darker elements that appeared in dialogue and some scenes.

    Dar (Marc Singer) is the firstborn of King Zed (Rod Loomis), stolen from his mother's womb and planted in an ox (!) by evil sorceror Maax (Torn), after being prophesied as the source of Maax's downfall. As with most sword and sorcery, yes, he is a solo hero with some background sidekicks who raises himself up from nothing to reclaim the kingdom for its rightful ruler. The vague twist here is that Dar is the "Beastmaster," and he is not an ass-kicking mercenary so much as a relatively strong guy who has been trained decently with a sword, but who communicates with animals. He walks with his "eyes"--a wedge-tailed eagle, his "thieves"--Kodo and Podo the ferrets, and his "strength"--Ruh, the (dyed-black) tiger. He meets up with a slinky slave (of course) played by Tanya Roberts, who is cousin to Tal, a young boy and son of King Zed that Dar runs across, guarded by Seth (good ol' John Amos--see Good Times, etc.) who we saw earlier as the guard of King Zed.

    Sword and sorcery flicks (unlike their more "realistic" brethren, the sword and sandal) never get much in the way of budgets, and with a name like Coscarelli behind it (instead of, say, Milius?) there's even less to go around. Despite this, the effects, costuming and especially the set design are quite good. The make-up for the less-than-human elements (such as Maax's prophetic witches) is quite good and doesn't show its seams easily. Marc is enjoyable as Dar, with a bit of arrogance, some humour and a little pinch of pathos. This is not Milius' Conan, he speaks regularly and has a heart (so he's sure as heck not Howard's Conan either). Naturally that film is the one most often compared to this one, but that's a bit ridiculous, as the script is, while not unbelievably stellar, far too well put together to have been hastily written, filmed, edited and released in a mere three months after the classic Conan the Barbarian. This is a relative at best, not a rip-off. There's a gentler sense of humour about it, and an awful lot more heart to it. Torn, of course, is pretty darn evil, with some dialogue that's actually reaching further than I expected, especially when he discusses his plans for the unborn Dar.

    In all, very much one of the better put together movies of this genre (and there was indeed a mass of them in the 1980s, but it was one of the earliest, after all) and it does not suffer near the cheese level of, say, Krull as Coscarelli and friends tend to know how to hide the seams, at least so that you can go "Ah, good thing we didn't see a close-up from that other angle!" and the bemused approach to the whole thing helps to accept it as an epic fantasy that is just damn good fun.
  • AgentLexi2132
    February 3, 2008
    AgentLexi2132
    Pending Review...

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  • puffchunk
    October 25, 2007
    puffchunk
    eh
  • jos7as
    September 23, 2009
    jos7as
    De niņo adoraba esta pelicula por la fantasia que tenia de controlar a los animales y esta pelicula se volvio de mis favoritas, incluso me hizo llorar cuando los urones se sacrifican
  • glomer4
    September 17, 2009
    glomer4
    A classic story! I like it very much!
  • CHILIcheeseDONUTSwithTUNAonTOP
    September 5, 2009
    CHILIcheeseDONUTSwithTUNAonTOP
    A man who can communicate with animals is hunted by an evil priest in this sword and sorcery fantasy flick. One of the better ones that came out during this time period. Great watch alongside Conan the Barbarian, Ladyhawke, Willow, or Krull. Oh, and PG-rated despite full-on boobs...( read more) several times!
  • samanthaseaotter
    August 21, 2009
    samanthaseaotter
    The animals are cute and Marc Singer is hot. Not my kind of movie but my mother loves it.
  • OCButterfly99
    August 9, 2009
    OCButterfly99
    Yes..I love these like old movies like these..so kinda corny but so cool..lol..I just dig them..

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  • Which one of television's "Charlie's Angels" played the female lead in the 1982 film "Beastmaster?"  Answer »
  • In the movie The Beastmaster what were the names of the ferrets?  Answer »
  • Who directed the cult classics "Phantasm", "The Beastmaster", and "Bubba Ho-Tep"?  Answer »
  • what 1982 movie starred RIP TORN as a high priest who tried to kill the kings unborn child. this movie spawned a fairly recent t.v. series as well  Answer »
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