Hawk The Slayer

Amazon.com

Among its many dubious distinctions, Hawk the Slayer is the only sword-and-sorcery movie to feature Silly-String® as a medieval weapon! This splendidly wretched British fantasy also boasts such magical wonders as an automatic fast-action crossbow and an archer who shoots instantly replenished arrows in rapid succession, never missing his target! At the lowest ebb of his career, Jack Palance is gleefully hammy as Voltan, the disfigured (i.e., irredeemably evil) elder brother of Hawk (John Terry), who swears vengeance after Voltan kills their father, kidnaps a virginal abbess (Annette Crosbie), and threatens a nunnery for ransom. Add an ultracheesy '80s soundtrack (imagine Rick Wakeman playing roller disco) and some respectable British thespians (Patrick Magee, Roy Kinnear, Harry Andrews), and you've got a poor man's Willow with a dash of Krull, laughably awful and surprisingly entertaining. Fully aware of its own low-budget absurdity, Hawk the Slayer is a Bad Movie classic, guaranteed to satisfy connoisseurs of garbage. (Trivia note: Terry survived his titular heroics and was guest-starring on the popular TV series 24 when this DVD was released in late 2002.) --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

80's fantasy with cheese!.......2007-08-18

Description
Two brothers vie for the possession of a magical sword. Hawk (John Terry) is the younger brother, known for his duty, honour and courage. Voltan (Jack Palance) is the older brother who is known for his villainous ways. The lethal weapon bestows upon its owner incredible powers of destruction and Hawk, along with his comrades, the Elf and the Dwarf, must combat the forces of evil. *I still love this film even though it is dated badly.
a "B" flick at its best and high speed arrow shooting still looks cool *see LOTR* Sadly only a Trailer as a dvd extra

High fantasy, low,low budget.......2007-06-17

I saw this film in fifth grade and absolutely loved it. Recently on a nostalgic whim I picked up a copy and was pleasantly surprised. Though it is extremely low-budget, campy as leisure suits, and has a script any ten year old could have written, I still enjoyed it. Now I have to warn you if your expecting epic, Peter Jacksonesk film making here you will be very disappointed. Do not purchase or view this film if you are the highly critical, earnest, deeply intellectual sort. This is pure fun. The three supporting characters (the elf, the dwarf, and the giant) are the highlight of the film. The comradery between the dwarf and giant is especially enjoyable. Palance's Voltan is so overwraught he makes Ricardo Montolban's (I'm pretty sure I misspelled that,sorry) portrayal of Khan look subtle and nuanced. You're looking for the fishing line on most of the special effects shots, and I'm pretty sure the elf is wearing penny loafers. The soundtrack is phenominal, in a bad way of coarse, think of a fifth rate Rick Wakeman knock-off doing a disco/fantasy album. Yet inspite of all its weaknesses I have watched this film not once, but half a dozen times. It's a blast. It's got guilty pleasure written all over it.

HAWK THE SLAYER Review.......2007-06-08

I sought this movie out from seeing it many years back. The film is somewhat low-budget, the plot is simple, but the characters in the film really hold your interest. Jack Palance has some unforgetable one-liners.
Some friends and I have fun quoting his lines.
In some ways it is similar to "KRULL" and "EXCALIBER", but not as scenic. It was neat to watch it again and I am happy to have this movie in my collection.

Amazingly bad.......2007-05-06

It took me a while to figure out how many stars to give this movie. If I were giving stars based on quality, it would get one. I decided instead to give stars based on my enjoyment of the film (which would have been 5), but could not bring myself to give this horrible film a 5.

If you like terrible movies, this is a gold mine. It has an elf in a cammo suit who apparently does not know how to use complete sentences, it uses silly string and glowing bouncy balls and hula hoops as special effects, it has the cheesiest dialoge I've heard in ages, and to top it off, it is the only medieval film I've heard of to use disco music. The villian is a complete ham, and the good characters are delightfully cheesy. Only through its sheer badness did this film ever make it to DVD.

Overall grade: F for quality, A for enjoyment.

Way before many Sword and Sorcery movies.......2007-03-24

Somebody needs to inform the official Amazon reviewer that this movie came out about 8 years BEFORE Willow and 3 years BEFORE Krull. Willow and Krull would have to be big budget reflections of Hawk the Slayer, not the other away around. Hawk came out even before the Conan movies.

It's a shame that B-budget films don't get the credit they deserve. Hammy acted Hawk the Slayer set a lot of standards for the 80's sword and sorcery genre. The idea of an assorted group of D & D like characters getting together under the guidance of a mysterious magical woman became an 80's cliche. But coming out in 1980 it's literally impossible that Hawk copied the others.

To any teenage kid, that machine gun crossbow was a fascinating toy. The movie was a vehicle for showing fantasy elements that later became trite, and often seen, but were interesting at the time.

Average customer rating:

80's fantasy with cheese!
High fantasy, low,low budget
HAWK THE SLAYER Review
Amazingly bad
Way before many Sword and Sorcery movies

Hawk the Slayer [Region 2]
Starring: Jack Palance , John Terry , Bernard Bresslaw , Ray Charleson , and Peter O'Farrell
Director: Terry Marcel
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B00009W35J