Battle of the Amazons

Battle of the Amazons

Aieeeaaa! Yes, it's the familiar cry of the lovely ladies of the Amazon tribe as they battle their way on DVD with Eurovista's release of Alfonso Brecia's rollicking retro gem 'Battle of the Amazons'.

The plot here is both very basic and familiar (but wholly entertaining) with a tribe of ruthless Amazon women enslaving men to use for sexual and reproductive gratification as well as any other work chores they need doing. Their 'man stock' is gathered from occasional attacks on local villages, one of which (in true Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven style) have had enough and enlist the help of square-jawed stubble faced good guy bandit Zeno and his horny rough-house men to train the villagers in combat to help defend them from the Amazon women when they attack again.

This vintage Italian/Spanish co-production by Brescia is a splendid slice of exploitation fun that had me grinning from end to end. Very much similar to the sort of movie that used to screen here in the UK on television on Saturday afternoons, except here laden with lots of nudity and violence that moves along at a great pace and should thrill fans of vintage exploitation genre no end. The script by Amendola and Corbucci though somewhat a common theme is well handled and Brescia's direction at times is splendid (in that welcome old Italian way) with some very impressive set pieces. Also, Lincoln Tate is great in the lead role of Zeno and supported well by his motley team of bandits bringing more than a smile to my face throughout.

The film is presented here in a tasty widescreen print (though again like Eurovista's 'The Dead are Alive' looking just ever so slightly at times over matted) and the image throughout is very impressive considering the age and obscurity of the film. Whilst not pin sharp the image is very nice and the colours are strong throughout, with only minimal print damage showing on the odd occasion which you can happily live with.

The disc also contains some nice informative (and again crammed) bio pages and a great still gallery, that show Eurovista are big fans of these titles and like to dig deep in finding some great material to include on their discs. There's also two trailers for the film, the theatrical trailer is somewhat grainy (due to its VHS source no doubt) but the TV trailer looks considerably better and is an enjoyable addition also. And to top the package off, Eurovista have included a cool mini Press booklet that has some hilarious suggestions for publicity for Theatre owners of the time including getting local girls to participate in 'Amazon Tournaments' and 'Amazon Beauty Contests', and for the men folk to picket the theatre as the Amazons are 'Unfair to Men'. You gotta love it!

'Battle of the Amazons' is an excellent exploitation movie and more than worthy of your attention if you're even half-interested in this type of fun flick. I honestly wasn't expecting much from this one and ended up loving it - kudos to Eurovista! Brilliant - check it out!

Review by Alan Simpson

The Eurovista line can be ordered direct from Luminous Film & Video Wurks by clicking here.


 
Directed by Alfonso Brecia
Released by Eurovista
Region '0' NTSC - Not Rated
Ratio - 2.35:1 Widescreen
Audio - 2.0 Mono
Running time : approx 92 mins
Extras :
Gallerys, Trailers, Press Book
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