Ator
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1982-1990 |
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366 minutes |
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Ator is a film series of four Italian movies made in the 1980s created by director Joe D'Amato, under the pseudonym David Hills. D'Amato wrote and directed the first, second, and fourth films in the series, himself disregarding the existence of the third. Ator was played in the first three films by Miles O'Keeffe, while Eric Allan Kramer played the Son of Ator in the fourth.
Ator is a swordsman, alchemist, scientist, magician, scholar, and engineer, with the ability to sometimes produce objects out of thin air (see Ator 4). The series seems to emulate the main character of the popular Conan the Barbarian movies. The first Conan film, Conan the Barbarian, was released May 14, 1982; the first Ator movie was filmed shortly thereafter and came out later the same year, premiering October 7, 1982. Controversy has existed for some time that D'Amato created Ator purely as an attempt to make money from the success of the Conan films.
The first film in the series is 1982's Ator l'invincibile, translated into English as Ator the Invincible. It was released in America as Ator, The Fighting Eagle. As the film opens Ator asks his father for permission to marry his sister. Ator's father tells Ator that he is adopted and so he can marry his sister if he likes. The rest of the film deals with Ator's sister being kidnapped by the high priest of the Spider Kingdom and Ator having to go on an epic quest to save her.
1984's Ator 2 - L'invincibile Orion, released in America as The Blademaster (and in a re-edited TV version years later as Cave Dwellers) lends credence to the argument that Joe D'Amato was using Ator as a ploy to make money from the Conan franchise. Like its predecessor, it went into production shortly after the theatrical release of the second Conan movie, Conan the Destroyer, and was released later the same year.
In this film, Ator and his sidekick Thong travel from the mythic "Ends of the Earth" to save Ator's mentor from an evil warlord. The film ends with Ator destroying an ancient object of power (called in the film the "Geometric Nucleus") that his mentor was guarding to protect it from falling into the hands of evil men.
Unintentionally comic moments sometimes arise when writer/director Joe D'Amato has Ator use modern-day technology in the film. For example, Ator storms a castle using a 1980s style hang glider, and later destroys the "Geometric Nucleus" in a nuclear bomb explosion, complete with mushroom cloud, at the end of the film.
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