Hawk – Hüter des magischen Schwertes (1980)

Hawk – Hüter des magischen Schwertes: Directed by Terry Marcel. With Jack Palance, John Terry, Bernard Bresslaw, Ray Charleson. With the aid of his companions, a man seeks to defeat his evil brother who has taken a nun hostage.

“Voltan is a u0026quot;bad man™u0026quot; who has sold his soul to the dark forces in exchange for power. With Voltan having killed his father, the only one that may be able to stop him is his own brother – Hawk (aka u0026quot;The Slayeru0026quot;). The Dark Lord knows this and conspires to draw Hawk into a final battle and thus defeat him. To achieve this Voltan kidnaps a nun and demands a ransom – bringing Hawk out to her aid. On his way to his battle with Voltan, Hawk meets with a small, varied group of warriors to help him in his quest.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis film takes us back to a dark time, a time of evil and madness; a time where great changes were occurring as the 1970u0026#39;s turned into the 1980u0026#39;s. It is in this time of great evil that Hawk the Slayer was thrust upon cinema audiences who endured great suffering as a result. Or maybe they didnu0026#39;t – maybe audiences then were a lot less fussy and ate this up but somehow I doubt it. The plot is a simple quest with the usual stuff with a group of men being formed to fight the forces of evil. So far so dull and even those who love this sort of stuff will struggle to care about the very basic plot. Attempts to create relationships and character tensions fall flat at every turn and what should have driven the bigger story just doesnu0026#39;t work.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOf course it doesnu0026#39;t help that the delivery is so very tacky. The synthesised music doesnu0026#39;t help as disco isnu0026#39;t really the music one imagines hearing when watching a swords u0026amp; sorcery film; it is funny rather than atmospheric. The costumes are OK but the sets are basic and the crew are always on hand with lots of dry ice to help make it look like the forest sets have been recently hosting a rock concert. The cats are rubbish and generally wooden, although my pick of the crap goes to Palanceu0026#39;s cry of remorse at the death of his son – it is the least emotional cry I think Iu0026#39;ve ever heard. Of course John Terry is just as bad, with his wooden delivery and regular slow motion horse riding. Bresslaw, Charleson, Ou0026#39;Farrell are all just as poor and it is hard at times to see the actors for the trees. Marcel directs without an idea of what he is trying to achieve – at times he is making a serious epic, others a disco adventure and then others a TV serial. The limits of the budget are obvious but not even that excuses the use of party silly string as a weapon and various other poor effect choices.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall then this is best summed up by the old cliché u0026quot;so bad it is goodu0026quot; although that actually isnu0026#39;t really true in this case for the majority of viewers. The plot is obvious and lacking much in the way of effort or imagination. The acting is wooden and the effects are cheap while director Marcel shows us why the majority of his career since has been in UK television rather than cinema.”