Hundra

Released by: Subversive Cinema
Released on: March 27, 2007.
Director: Matt Cimber
Cast: Laurene Landon, Cihangir Gaffari, María Casal, Ramiro Oliveros, Luis Lorenzo
Year: 1983
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The Movie:

When Conan The Barbarian proved to be a box office hit in 1982, countless imitators (many of which came out of Italy) followed and a bit of a 'barbarian movie' fad hit theaters. Most of these films were pretty dire, made very cheaply to cash in on the success of the Conan film and its sequel but Matt Cimber's 1983 Hundra is actually considerably better than most of the knock offs thanks to some nice cinematography and decent action set pieces.

When the film begins we learn of an all female tribe who only deal with men when they need to breed and all male children who are born to them are cast out from the tribe. One of these tribeswomen, Hundra (Laurene Landon of Maniac Cop) leaves the camp to hunt for food and shortly after she splits, a group of barbarian men descend upon the camp and slaughter ever last one of the ladies. Hundra and her dog, Beast, return and find the after effects of the massacre. From there they go to visit an elder woman who lives in a cave where Hundra is told that it is her destiny to mate with a man and rebuild the tribe.

Hundra leaves the cave and battles a midget for a minute or two and then beats up an unusually gassy man she initially considers a prospective mate, eventually finding her way south to where the Bull tribe lives. After a chase, she falls through the roof of the town healer, Pateray (Ramiro Oliveros of The Pyjama Girl Case) and takes an instant liking to him. She tells him that he'll mate with her, but he's not into it. He apparently has more refined tastes. Hundra decides to go to the palace where a prince and unusually misogynist pal groom ladies to be used as concubines for the elite townsmen. Hear she falls under the care of Cradema (Maria Casal) who teaches her how to be a proper lady. Hundra, in return, keeps Cradema's secret: that she's had a child outside the castle. If the prince were to find out he would surely kill the boy. Eventually, Hundra makes her way to Pataray's house and now that she's all spiffed up, he decides to get it on with her. Soon she's pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl but the prince still considers Hundra his property and he wants her back at the palace to work as a love slave for his temple buddies.

Filled with surprisingly decent fight scenes, Hundra is a fairly fast paced barbarian movie with some nice scenery and a good score from the one and only Ennio Morricone. While Landon is fairly wooden in her role, she certainly look the part with her very chiseled features and if her delivery is dry, well, so is everyone else's in this film so it sort of fits. Hundra's got some interesting speeches and rants in the film that, like Cimber's earlier The Witch Who Came From The Sea, takes a normally somewhat misogynist sub-genre and gives it a feminist twist. Hundra is quite vocal about her dislike or men, though she grows to appreciate Pateray over time, and it's understandable when they're portrayed to be as despicable as they are here. She even argues with the elder at one point, telling her that no man will penetrate her with a sword or with himself. In fact, early on in the film she claims to be able to get more pleasure out of riding a horse than from lying with a man. Interesting then that around the half way mark, for no apparent reason, Hundra completely disrobes and rides her horse around in the surf while her faithful dog keeps watch over her fur bikini, sword and bow.

There are also a few truly random moments in the film that might leave you scratching your head - the small army of midget warriors who show up are never heard from again; the fact that Beast shows up and then disappears for long stretches of time; the birth scene where Hundra asks for her daughter only to be met with uneasy glances from Pateray and Cradema who seem to infer she's had a son and who then do produce a daughter after all. Odd little moments like this give the film some unintentionally funny spots but they don't hurt the film, as it's fairly difficult to take any of it seriously in the first place. When the end credits roll, Hundra stands as a decent Conan knock off with some unusually strong feminist over tones and some good fight scenes. You can't take the film as seriously as the writers maybe wanted you to, but it's still an entertaining and well-shot action movie with some fun set pieces and great scenery.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Hundra thunders onto DVD in a very nice 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that presents the film in its original theatrical aspect ratio. Aside from some mild line shimmering in some spots, there's very little to complain about here. Colors look nice if a little flat in some scenes and black levels stay strong throughout. There's plenty of both foreground and background detail present in the image and there are no problems with mpeg compression artifacts. Print damage is almost non-existent and while there is a bit of grain here and there it's never overpowering. Flesh tones look lifelike and natural while brightness and sharpness look to be spot on.

The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is decent with only one or two faint instances of mild distortion in the mix. There are no problems with hiss and the performers are always easy enough to understand. Morricone's score sounds really good on this disc, with some power behind. Levels are properly balanced and overall things sound just fine.


Subversive have given this fringe title a true special edition release starting with a full-length commentary track featuring director Matt Cimber and actress Laurene Landon moderated by Norm Hill. Up next is an extensive forty-seven minute long featurette entitled Hunting Hundra with Landon and Cimber, which serves as both a making of piece and a look back at Landon's career. Amusingly enough, it starts off with Landon saying to the camera that she hopes people will buy the DVD, at which point Cimber interrupts her and says that if anyone is watching this then they've already bought the DVD.

Also included on the disc are some well written cast and crew biographies, trailers for Hundra and a few other Subversive DVD releases, animated menus and chapter stops.

Included inside the keepcase for the first five thousand copies of this release is a bonus CD featuring Ennio Morricone's original score. An all-new Hundra comic book is also contained inside the packaging. Dig the cover art.

The Final Word:

Hundra is good, goofy fun that should find a place with those who enjoy barbarian movies. It's a nice mix of sex and violence with an odd feminist message, some nice cinematography and a solid Morricone score. Subversive has done their typically strong job on this release and the extras add a whole lot of value to this package.