Iron Warrior

• Italian: Ator il guerriero di ferro
• Directed by Alfonso Brescia
• January 1, 1987 (Italy)

Ator and a beautiful princess confront an evil witch who is trying to take over a kingdom with the aid of a masked warrior who may be Ator’s long lost brother. Ator has a brother?

As an Ator film, Iron Warrior comes off as detached from the first two. And I am not talking about them not putting Miles O’Keeffe’s amazing hair on full display here. Ator, the Fighting Eagle established him as the only son of a failed savior for the people of an area who was raised by some rando with a daughter that Ator wanted to marry BEFORE he knew they were not related. No hints of a biological family. Not here. It comes off as a reboot of the whole thing.

And that is a bit of a benefit for Iron Warrior. Though derivative and done cheaply to the point of creating unintentional humor (they even filmed on the live action Popeye set), Iron Warrior is often different. I give it points for trying to be stylized and overcome limitations of budget with aesthetic. But it’s also just so very weird that it becomes almost indescribable. I can do my best but words just might fail me.

I would go as far to say that it was influenced strongly by music videos. Back in the heyday when such things were common music videos often played with reality and focused on style and presentation. This does that. Odd angles or perhaps even the occasional fisheye lens along with unusual lighting and the liberal use of wind machines. Unfortunately, it does so to the point of being almost nonsensical yet it is somehow highly watchable. It’s like the people that made this were on drugs and they were able to communicate their experience to the viewer.

This movie whole movie is surreal. It’s strange and different unlike the first one which ventured into so bad it’s good territory and the second one which was so bad you had to keep watching. This one is so weird that you can’t stop working. It may not be sophisticated art but it’s a worthy attempt at such. 

Costuming is fantastic in this-especially the warrior with the silver skull. Quite imaginative. And by fantastic or imaginative I mean in comparison to the first two movies. It is even derivative of other fantasy films or other movies in general. This also feels like it’s taking a page or three from Masters of the Universe. Iron Warrior opens with a bargain version of the opening of Superman the Movie and later contains a seductress scene reminiscent of Conan the Barbarian.

Ator no longer exists in a pure fantasyland. There’s an implication of technology. I think they were definitely trying to make something more artful-maybe even intellectual-than the last film. That is juxtaposed with random, casual nudity meant to attract horny boys. I think if the first film had been more like this the series as a whole might be better known.

Despite tangentially being a third Ator movie Iron Warrior was different enough you will be left wondering how it exact connects to the others. There was no mention of a brother of any sort previously. He only had a sister who he wanted to marry. His father was a hero that he never met. Did they think the first two films were popular enough they could simply kinda attach the character to something else? This came out of the 80s when videocassettes were readily available and I want to bet it was available somewhere to be watched.

Iron Warrior shouldn’t have been good, but it is. Not great, but good. It is strange and hypnotic. And worth a watch.