Movies - Red Sonja

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	Movies - Red Sonja

The film Red Sonja (Theatrical release: 3 July 1985) was shot in Italy, on location in Celano and Abruzzi, near Rome, and at the Stabilimenti Cinematagrafici Pontini studios.

In Conan the Barbarian
, Sandahl Bergman played Valeria, the queen of thieves and the love of Conan’s life. Initially she was offered the role of Red Sonja, but turned it down, choosing instead to play the villainous Queen Gedren. After Bergman turned down the lead role, it took Dino De Laurentiis almost a year to find an actress Amazonian enough to play the title character in Red Sonja. He was still looking eight weeks before the production was due to start, when he saw Brigitte Nielsen on the cover of a fashion magazine. The 21-year-old native of Helsingør, Denmark, who was in Milan on a modeling job, soon found herself on a plane heading for Rome and a successful screen test. Arnold Schwarzenegger had great success in the two Conan movies, but his next film, James Cameron’s The Terminator
, was a real breakthrough. When De Laurentiis approached Schwarzenegger and asked him to appear in an extended cameo and take second billing in Red Sonja, the actor agreed out of a feeling of obligation. He worked on the movie for only three weeks, and was very unhappy with De Laurentiis when he discovered he had been given top billing for what was essentially a supporting role.

Ennio Morricone, who wrote the music for Red Sonja, is one of the most celebrated of film composers. He has written scores for more than 400 movies, including Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
, Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven
, and Roland Joffé’s The Mission.

Plot

The movie kicks off with Red Sonja's family being slaughtered by the evil Queen Gedren’s army. Sonja manages to survive and even gives Gedren a little souvenir in the form of a brutal scar on her face. Later that night, Sonja is visited by a spirit who grants her the strength to seek her revenge.

The story then jumps to a big palace full of white robed priestesses. They are getting ready to destroy a big green glowing bowling ball called the Talisman. Apparently, this dangerous artifact grows destructively powerful from exposure to light, they intend to destroy it before it gets out of control. However, Gedren, now wearing a gold mask to cover her scar, and Ikol, her advisor and wizard, crash the party. Her army begins killing the innocent priestesses, some of whom actually put up a good fight.

Gedren gets her hands on the Talisman, but not before discovering that the rumor that only women can touch it is true. As Gedren imprisons the rest of the surviving priestesses, one of them, Varna, manages to escape, but is wounded by an arrow in the back. As luck would have it, however, she literally falls into the arms of the mighty Kalidor. She begs him to help find her sister, Red Sonja!

Meanwhile, Sonja has been training with a Chinese swordmaster. Kalidor comes charging in and informs Sonja about her sister. Sonja arrives just in time for Varna to tell her about what happened in the palace, and recommends finding the Talisman and destroying it or else the world will be plagued with floods and earthquakes. Varna then departs and Sonja starts her journey to find evil Gedren.

Later that night she notices a storm off in the distance and believes that someone is using the Talisman. Kalidor offers to help her, but Sonja tells him that she doesn't need the help of a man. She rides to the now ruined kingdom of Hablock and joins up with naughty little Prince Tarn and his servant, Falkon. The new little group sets out to find Gedren's fortress, with Kalidor surreptitiously following them.

Soon they encounter a thuggish toll road operator who takes an unhealthy interest in Sonja. She challenges him to fight and kills him, but his men, who greatly outnumber Sonja's group, try to get revenge. Kalidor's sudden arrival, however, saves the day. Sonja and her band make their escape, leaving Kalidor behind to take care of the remaining hoodlums.

Meanwhile, Gedren places the Talisman in a room full of candles to increase its strength. Ikol warns her against this because the light will cause it to grow too powerful to control, but Gedren won't listen to him. On the way back to the main hall, Ikol (who has giant black knife-like fingernails) tells her that there are enemies approaching the castle. He shows her the current location of Sonja’s group in some kind of magic screen. Gedren recognizes Sonja and orders that she be brought back to the fortress unharmed. She and Ikol then use the Talisman to conjure up a storm that forces Sonja’s band to take shelter in a cave.

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Movies - Red Sonja

Plot

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