The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984)

"I am alone." - Kain

A mighty warrior gets caught in the middle of two rival tyrants trying to control a town.
Starring: David Carradine, Maria Socas, Luke Askew, Anthony De Longis

Link to IMDB

Kain, the Dark One, is a tough warrior traveling the desert and looking for a place to use his skills and make some gold. He finds a village where two powerful men each have an army of hired swords at their disposal, as they constantly battle over who controls the limited water supply at the center of town. The poor civilians are used for labour, and face constant abuse at the hands of the brutes. Kain decides to get involved and beats down some of the men guarding the water, attracting the attention of both leaders, the tactical Zeg and the cunning Bal Caz. He goes to Bal Caz first, offering his sword skills for a high price of gold. When it comes time to fight, Kain just steps aside, letting the two tribes argue among themselves. We start to see he has a plan to work the two men against each other, while he keeps collecting piles of gold from both of them as they attempt to buy his loyalty. Kain is so skilled at manipulation that they don't realize he's pulling their strings to bring them down and free the town of their control.


Does any of this sound familiar? Almost the entire plot is directly from Yojimbo and/or A Fistful of Dollars. But hey, if you're going to rip something off, you might as well steal from the classics.

A third tyrant gets introduced, the savage Burgo, but he spends most of the time out in the desert. More importantly is that Zeg has a captive sorceress in his castle, and he's forcing her to make a magical sword which will ensure his victory. Kain rescues her, but she ends up getting traded back and forth a few times as a bargaining piece. More fighting occurs and even a tentacle monster shows up, but Kain stays in control, working only for himself.

Naja, the topless sorceress

Zeg vs. Bal Caz

Some of the fighting looks good, while at other times it looks pretty clumsy. Since the story is based on some great films and is kept dark and gritty, it's what kept me invested even in the slow parts. Carradine acting machiavellian is also quite fun and he gets a lot to do here, playing both a sly trickster and a trained killer.

Eventually, Kain's schemes begin to collapse, and the town is thrown into complete chaos when Burgo decides to join the conflict. Will Kain's skills be enough for him to survive what he started, and what sort of mystical help can Naja provide?
There may not be much originality to find here, but it's still an effective story with interesting characters, and ultimately becomes a decent yet cheap fantasy flick.



Be sure not to miss:
- The little lizard puppet was pretty cool. He should get his own movie.
- Zeg has quite an impressive Pog collection.
- One girl, four breasts. Now I've seen everything!

Internet review:
"Kurosawa on bad acid." - breakfastmanager

Should I watch it?
It's worth seeing, even just as the most bizarre Yojimbo remake ever.

Where can I find it?
Here on YouTube

Warrior and Sorceress gets...