Let's list the reasons why this movie made it into my DVD player:
Joe D'Amoto directed it. Where do we even start with his filmography? Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals? Antropophagus? Endgame?
It's an Italian ripoff of Conan the Barbarian, which means it's going to be at the same time better, worse and more inventive than the movie that inspired it.
It's written by Michele Soavi (Stagefright, The Church, The Sect, Cemetery Man)!
Once, Ator was just a baby, born with the birthmark that prophesied that he'd grow up to destroy the Spider Cult, whose leader Dakar (a pro wrestler who appeared in Titanes en el Ring against Martín Karadagian) tries to kill before he even gets out of his chainmail diapers.
Luckily, Ator is saved and grows up big, strong and weirdly in love with his sister, Sunya. It turns out that luckily, he's adopted, so this is only morally and not biologically upsetting. His father allows them to be married, but the Spider Cult attacks the village and takes her, along with several other women.
Ator trains with Griba, the warrior who saved him as a child (he's played by Edmund Purdom, the dean from Pieces!). What follows are pure shenanigans - Ator is kidnapped by Amazons, almost sleeps with a witch, undertakes a quest to find a shield and meets up with Roon (Sabrina Siani, Ocron from Fulci's barbarian opus Conquest), a sexy blonde thief who is in love with him.
Oh yeah! Laura Gemser, Black Emanuelle herself, shows up here too.
Ator succeeds in defeating Dakkar, only to learn that the only reason that Griba mentored him was to use him to destroy his enemy. That said, Ator defeats him too, leaving him to be eaten by the Lovecraftian-named Ancient One, a monstrous spider. But hey, Ator isn't done yet. He kills that beast too!
Finally, learning that Roon has died, Ator and Sunya go back to their village, ready to make their incestual union a reality. Or maybe not, as she doesn't show up in the three sequels, The Blade Master, Iron Warrior and Quest for the Magic Sword.
Ator is played by Miles O'Keefe, who started his Hollywood career in the Bo Derek vehicle Tarzan the Ape Man, a movie that Richard Harris would nearly fist fight people over if they dared to bring it up. He's in all but the last of these films and while D'Amoto praised his physique and attitude, he felt that his fighting and acting skills left something to be desired.
Ator the Fighting Eagle pretty much flies by. It does what it's supposed to do - present magic, boobs, sorcery and swordfights - albeit in a PG-rated film. It's anything except boring.
Joe D'Amoto directed it. Where do we even start with his filmography? Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals? Antropophagus? Endgame?
It's an Italian ripoff of Conan the Barbarian, which means it's going to be at the same time better, worse and more inventive than the movie that inspired it.
It's written by Michele Soavi (Stagefright, The Church, The Sect, Cemetery Man)!
Once, Ator was just a baby, born with the birthmark that prophesied that he'd grow up to destroy the Spider Cult, whose leader Dakar (a pro wrestler who appeared in Titanes en el Ring against Martín Karadagian) tries to kill before he even gets out of his chainmail diapers.
Luckily, Ator is saved and grows up big, strong and weirdly in love with his sister, Sunya. It turns out that luckily, he's adopted, so this is only morally and not biologically upsetting. His father allows them to be married, but the Spider Cult attacks the village and takes her, along with several other women.
Ator trains with Griba, the warrior who saved him as a child (he's played by Edmund Purdom, the dean from Pieces!). What follows are pure shenanigans - Ator is kidnapped by Amazons, almost sleeps with a witch, undertakes a quest to find a shield and meets up with Roon (Sabrina Siani, Ocron from Fulci's barbarian opus Conquest), a sexy blonde thief who is in love with him.
Oh yeah! Laura Gemser, Black Emanuelle herself, shows up here too.
Ator succeeds in defeating Dakkar, only to learn that the only reason that Griba mentored him was to use him to destroy his enemy. That said, Ator defeats him too, leaving him to be eaten by the Lovecraftian-named Ancient One, a monstrous spider. But hey, Ator isn't done yet. He kills that beast too!
Finally, learning that Roon has died, Ator and Sunya go back to their village, ready to make their incestual union a reality. Or maybe not, as she doesn't show up in the three sequels, The Blade Master, Iron Warrior and Quest for the Magic Sword.
Ator is played by Miles O'Keefe, who started his Hollywood career in the Bo Derek vehicle Tarzan the Ape Man, a movie that Richard Harris would nearly fist fight people over if they dared to bring it up. He's in all but the last of these films and while D'Amoto praised his physique and attitude, he felt that his fighting and acting skills left something to be desired.
Ator the Fighting Eagle pretty much flies by. It does what it's supposed to do - present magic, boobs, sorcery and swordfights - albeit in a PG-rated film. It's anything except boring.