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The Warrior


"The Warrior". It’s a title that opens many fantasies about great heroes. Relentless humans, with on one side strongness, honour and glory and on the other a great heart too. How many Warriors in the cinema we met and how many great stories we had saw!.

Sorry to tell you that this "warrior" is not one of those. Or better yet, is not among those destined to be remembered for years. You might think to a bad luck or an hapless distribution (never mind the boycott), but no, seeing this movie one understands everything, understands why "The Warrior" of 1981 has been a phenomenon at home for some unknown reason and not to 'abroad.


In any case we are dealing with a film that plays on Indonesian nationalism and anti-imperialism, mixing horror, black magic and martial arts. The director is Sisworo Gautama Putra known for his horror especially for "Sundelbolong" (story of a ghost of a prostitute). He  takes too the burden of history and that from the Dutch rule in Indonesia since the nineteenth. In fact, on the island of Java, the Dutch overwhelm the population in a violent manner, while giving the command to a certain Van Shramm that seems to come out of the "Magical Mystery Tour" by the Beatles.


Fortunately, there is the ," Warrior " an handsome and brave man named Jaka Sembung or Parmin that relentless struggle for the freedom of its people. Political enemy number one he ha to face the best warriors and magicians that occupants find around and hires. Parmin collapses. They take out his eyes and later transformed him into a pig (for his fortune he is in a country with a Muslim majority). But of course our hero is not defeated.

Many, many events and bloody battles with jumps and fights that end in a very bloody way. But it is no shocking although there are rivers of blood, because the special effects are so craft that even the most sensible human wouldn’t feel touched. Surely the best among these is the transformation into a swine of Parmin which among other things, like everyone else, act with poor intensity.

In "The Warrior" there is also a sentimental vein, worthy of all action movies, with Jaka who fall in love with two women, to which he brings bad luck!

Star of the movie is Barry Prima, needless to say, he is half Indonesian and half Dutch. He was a big star in the eighties in the Indonesian cinema and he starred in several action movies in which he shows his skills in taekwondo. Next to him there is Eva Arnaz interpreter of fifty films and briefly his wife.

"The Warrior" is a reliable "B Movie" with which to pass carefree adventures at home and that was a huge hit that spawned a beautiful series of sequels.