Hercules & The Amazon Women

The prize for the trivia contest has been determined! I will be awarding Xena Fan Club Kit #4 to the winner of the contest... provided, of course, I get enough questions to run the contest in the first place. I realize it's summertime, but this is a chance to prove you're a treasure trove of Hercules and Xena lore!

I have yet to receive any questions. Unless I get some sort of response, I'll take it as a sign that there isn't sufficient interest in the contest. If that happens, I'll shut it down and award the prize to myself, so get those questions in! See the contest description for details (the link is on the welcome page).

And now for our feature this week...

CLASSICS REVISITED
Hercules & The Amazon Women

I decided to go all the way back to where it first started. As you probably know, the phenomenon that set a new standard in television fantasy first appeared as a series of made for TV movies that appeared as part of the Action Pack from Universal Studios.

The story of how Raimi and Tapert's Renaissance Pictures came to be the producer for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is related in Robert Weisbrot's excellent book on the series, so I won't go into it here. The book is published by Doubleday and can be found in most bookstores in the United States. If you prefer, use the image to order it directly from Amazon.com.

(The fact that Bob, like myself, hails from the beautiful state of Maine has nothing to do with my blatant plug of his book. *wink*)

The original Action Pack movies are available on video, either as part of the collected first season, or individually (the tapes are also avaialble from Amazon.com). NBeing the fan that I am, I own them all. I recently watched the first of them -- Hercules and the Amazon Women -- and I was amazed at how much the series had changed over the years. Just as surprising, however, was how many things had remained the same.

The plot of this movie centers on the village of Gargarencia and their problems with the local tribe of Amazons. Indeed, the plot isn't anything special by the standards of the series, but, it does allow for the transformation of Hercules from the "man's man" of Greek myth to the sensitive hero we have come to know over the years.

The film is in many respects blatantly chauvinistic, reflecting the attitudes of the ancient world in its solid line between men and women's roles. For example, a young girl is told she can't play ball with the boys; even Alcmene washes her son's feet when he returns home. This can be a bit shocking to a viewer more familiar with the enlightened times of the regular series.

Go To Page: 1 2 3 4

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic