Ironmaster (1983)

Director: Umberto Lenzi

Starring: Sam Pasco, Elvire Audray, George Eastman, Pamela Prati, Jacques Herlin, Danilo Mattei, William Berger

More info: IMDb

Plot: A tale that takes place at the dawn of history. The movie tells the story of a tribe that discovers how to fashion weapons out of iron and use them for their own survival. However, the creation of iron also causes the tribe to battle for possession of the new weapons.

My rating: 5/10

Will I watch it again? Ugh. No.

#45 on 42nd Street Forever Vol. 1 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)

Unlike the previous movie I watched, this has got a GREAT poster. The only print I could find of this was a shitty fullscreen VHS copy with Dutch subs burned in with an English dub. After sitting through 90 minutes I go to YouTube and find a good looking widescreen version in Italian with English subs. Oh well. I might actually watch this again someday in widescreen. Judging by the some of the shots it looks a hell of a lot better.

VERSUS

IRONMASTER is OK. I'm sure a better print will improve my experience but it's just a bunch of people running around in loin cloths (sadly, no nudity) with names like Ela, Isa, Vood and so on, killing each other wearing necklaces made of teeth and bones. It's hard to look macho dressed like that. Anyway, it's remarkable how quickly Vood is making swords after he discovers iron by accident. He's got the whole process down pat, advancing weapon-making techniques by tens of thousands of years. The face off between the two leads during the final few minutes is pretty good thanks to the good music cue by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis (although the rest of the score didn't do anything for me). Other than that, it's just a picture that mixes the caveman genre and sword & sorcery (but without the sorcery).