Mock The Slayer!

Hawk the Slayer is not a very good movie overall, but it's not without some charms. First off it's a British film and as such is filled to the gills with competent character actors who bring a real solidity to that aspect of the storytelling. While the script is little more than a assemblage of cliches, the actors at least look interesting and at times even sound the same mouthing some of the lines. 

It's a stupid story that attempts to pull off that Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven gimmick of a stalwart hero who puts together a varied team of canny warriors to fend off a vile villain and his villainous horde of villains. In this one we get in addition to our hero Hawk, a giant named "Gort", a dwarf named "Baldin", an elf named "Crow", and a one-handed human being dubbed "Ranulf". Alongside them there is an oracle and sorceress named merely "Woman" as far as I can tell. 

These hearties battle "Voltan", who is in addition to being Hawk's much much older brother is played to the absolute hilt by Jack Palance. Voltan and Hawk loved the same woman who chose Hawk and was promptly killed by Voltan for doing so. Then Hawk gets his mitts on his father's power and a wacky magic sword called the "Mindsword" which has a pommel that clutches a magic stone and floats into Hawk's hand on command. Voltan mostly just rages around threatening people, some nuns in particular until he gets his chance to kill his brother. 

The movie seemed to have a pretty meager budget as evidenced by the incessant fog which permeates the woods in which much of the story takes place giving the shambles of a forest "atmosphere" and obscuring everything in general. But the biggest stumbling block is Hawk himself who is played by John Prentiss and who apparently was given direction to not change his expression even once throughout the movie. He is as passionless as it's possible for a hero to be, evidently trying to evoke that quiet smolder that Clint Eastwood could pull off, but failing utterly. 

This is a rather dull movie and if  you've seen many of this type you can anticipate most of the plot twists and even the dialogue. There was talk of a sequel but blessedly it never came to pass. 

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