Ator, the Fighting Eagle

• Italian: Ator l’invincibile; translated: Ator the Invincible
• Directed by Joe D’Amato
• October 7, 1982 (Italy) / January 14, 1983 (US)

A warrior sets out on a journey to rescue his wife after she is taken by the evil Spider Cult. Wait until you hear what he thought about his wife BEFORE they married!

I first encountered Ator, the Fighting Eagle decades ago on some late night showing. It held a place in my brain though I could not recall much about the film itself. On a sidenote up until re-watching this I thought Sid Haig played the villain. The man does bear is striking resemblance to the now deceased great character actor. Anywho…

The story involves a prophecy as many fantasy films do. From this land will come a warrior. Not the first time because he gets defeated. However that guy impregnates some rando woman and his son will succeed where dad failed. Seems like they were just trying to stretch things out to a predetermined runtime.

Maybe it’s a cultural element that did not translate well since this is Italian. Maybe the people that made this have issues. The titular Ator (Miles O’Keeffe) is in love with his (adopted) sister but doesn’t know that they are not actually related until his not first but second adoptive father tells him that. Before that he wanted to marry her even when he thought they were biologically related. His happiness came when there were no overt social taboos blocking marriage. Though he cared more about revenge during the movie than saving his wife. An incest kink? The 80s were a wild time.

Miles O’Keeffe was never a big name. At least outside of B movie circles to the best of my knowledge. Or in them for that matter. And there’s a good reason for that. He has the looks of a movie star, but he doesn’t have the ability. Not here anyway. Calling him stiff and wooden would be a kind of kindness. His Ator is about as two dimensional as they get-incest kink aside.

Ator, the Fighting Eagle looks like it lifts from not only the classic Clash of the Titans but Conan the Barbarian too. Elements of both are blatantly here. And it does so on a shoestring budget with costumes that look like they belong more in some attempt at an avant-garde heavy metal music video than in a fantasy film. I would not be surprised if Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga took inspiration from this for their costumes. The sets are cave leftovers from Star Trek TOS with anything outside being filmed in some nearby park.

The movie just kind of meanders its way along until the final conflict. Although our hero and villain are forced into battle over prophecy they never feel like they must fight. There always seems to be the sensation of an out somewhere along the way. The option for them to call it all off lingers though it should not.

Lots of characters get stabbed and sliced but there is no blood on anything. I don’t need blood squibs bursting like water balloons but maybe a hint of red on one of the very shiny swords. Is that too much?

For a bad movie that maintains an improbable hold, this does get a good plot twist. Ator’s mentor Griba (Edmund Purdom) has been using him to get back lost power from the High Priest of the Spider (Dakar). I thought at most he was a bitter former henchman though that plays basically the same.

I did not expect art but I was hoping for something that managed to be a guilty pleasure. And maybe this did just that. I watched it all and was entertained. It satisfied my itch to watch something terrible yet good. It was poorly done in all the right ways. Conversely this film could have been quality low budget with a smidge more care. Like somebody noticing that whole incest bit. Why did he have the hots for his sister?!

Ator, the Fighting Eagle is a very bad movie. One of those weird ones you can’t stop watching despite not being that good. Proceed at your own risk.