Score Sample - 80s Forgotten Gems - Lionheart

Jerry Goldsmith worked with director Franklin Schaffner several times over the years, providing him with some of the most memorable scores of his career. Planet of the Apes, Patton and Papillion are are well regarded films and scores. But the two men worked on a couple films that aren't quite as well remembered these days. One of those is the film Lionheart, a medieval adventure that takes place during the Children's Crusade of 1212. It starred Eric Stolz and Gabriel Byrne. The movie ended up getting a very limited theatrical release and was shuffled off to VHS and cable viewing.

These days the only folks that seem to mention the film are the Jerry Goldsmith fans, because DAMN is this an awesome score. Goldsmith goes full medieval adventure mode with this, and while I think he would perfect the sound in First Knight, what you get in Lionheart is top notch material. It has a rousing theme, heroic action, and because it was written in 1987, just a few synthesizer touches that Goldsmith was so fond of during this era. For all that, the score is certainly one of his best during the 1980s, and a double CD edition presents all the music from the film (sadly out of film order). Here is the massive finale piece, King Richard from the score to Lionheart by Jerry Goldsmith.

Score Sample - 80s Forgotten Gems - Young Sherlock Holmes

Taking another look at scores from 80s films that have been forgotten over the years. Today's entry comes from the film Young Sherlock Holmes. The score was composed by Bruce Broughton and is one of the very best adventure scores of the decade. Broughton crafts some wonderful themes for Watson and Holmes, a beautiful love theme, and one of the most diabolical evil chants for the Egyptian death ritual in the film. It is a powerhouse of a score, and in many ways may remind you of a John Williams score.

That said, has anyone else noticed that the schoolyard villain in this film is named Dudley and looks like Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter franchise. I would be willing to bet J.K. had this movie in mind when writing the first Potter books... but I digress.

Here is the end title piece to Young Sherlock Holmes composed by Bruce Broughton.

Score Sample - 80s Forgotten Gems - The Last Starfighter

I continue my look back at wonderful scores from the 1980s attached to movies that have been lost in the mists of time. Now The Last Starfighter did a lot of things right, and it is a very entertaining film all the way around. It also was one of the very first movies to use computer generated visual effects for the starships on screen. For that alone will be logged in history books.

But these days folks don't seem to talk too much about it. That is a shame because the wonderful score by Craig Safan has a very memorable main title. In fact, I've heard this main title played in amusement parks when they are trying to get a heroic vibe going. Safan's score could be at home in space or in a film with knights and dragons. He does some great stuff with it, and also gives us a couple of other themes to play with over the course of the film (along with some minimal electronics as a nod to the role of video games in the plot).

But in all honesty the end credits piece Into the Starscape is what you need to hear. So here you go, from the film The Last Starfighter composed by Craig Safan.

Score Sample - 80s Forgotten Gems - Return to Oz

Here is a little mini series of posts about movie music. Because I love it, and I love sharing it. The 1980s were a great time for fantasy and adventure film scores. The decade was dominated by some of the biggest names in film scores with John Williams giving us the amazing Indiana Jones trilogy as well was two Star Wars films. You had James Horner cranking out both Krull and Willow not to mention two Star Trek scores. And speaking of Star Trek Jerry Goldsmith knocked it out of the park with Star Trek V as well as his immense and amazing score to Legend. At the end of the decade you had Danny Elfman really coming into his own with fantastic scores to Scrooged and Batman.

But I'm not going to talk about any of those, I'm going to focus on the forgotten ones. Scores to movies that most people don't talk about any more, but had amazing scores. First up is David Shire's wonderful work with Return to Oz. Shire did some amazing work with various themes for nearly all the characters and weaving them into one powerful score. Listening to the full album is a treat with a new memorable theme popping up in each track. It is nearly impossible to pick one to sample here. But I think his most charming music is the rag time triumphal march that plays near the end of the film. Using the rag time style fits perfectly with the setting of the film, and gives the score a unique identity among the very much orchestral bombast scores (nothing wrong with that) we got in the decade.

So here is Rag March from Return to Oz by David Shire.

Nostalgia Nugget: Joining the Rebellion

80's Mickey Mouse dressed as Captain
EO back in 1987!

1987 was the tenth anniversary of Star Wars: A New Hope. I don’t remember there being all that much hype surrounding this. For most folks Star Wars was looking long in the tooth and a bit uncool. Most kids I knew were more into Transformers and G.I. Joe at the time. But the big topic of discussion was the Nintendo Entertainment System. I had many lengthy conversations about secrets in The Legend of Zelda during those days.

All that changed for me when my family went to Disneyland that year and rode the newly opened Star Tours. It reminded me of why I loved that film series and started my obsession with the series for the next couple of years. After the ride ended, you walked directly into a gift shop and distinctly remember my dad commenting on the overt commercialism of it all. But I didn’t care. I was in a Star Wars induced dream world. Of all the things that caught my attention, there was a pair of large books all about Star Wars. I flipped through one and was surprised at all the new information about the creatures, droids, spaceships and everything else was contained within. I asked for both, and my parents let me pick one.

The book that sparked dozens of
adventures.

When I got home and started reading the book I was even more excited. Not only was it a wealth of new information, but the book described how to create your own adventures in the Star Wars world, and play these adventures with your friends. That’s right I had picked up West End Games Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game (or just SWRPG from now on). Both it and the Sourcebook were published that year in time for the anniversary.

I had played a tiny bit of the basic ruleset of Dungeons and Dragons at that point. I understood how the game was played, but the few times I tried to get a few friends to play it just didn’t go well. The great thing about SWRPG is that is seemed a lot less complex.

Eventually I got my hands on The Sourcebook, which included even more information about all kinds of Star Wars related things. The writers not only provided game stats and rules, but provided full-blown descriptions and histories for each entry as well. This was well before we had regularly published books in the Star Wars universe. So for the fan in the 80s this was a treasure trove of information. The book covered Starship systems, nearly every starship featured in the films and a few from the 80s novels. It had info on droids, alien species, and creatures. It also provided in depth explorations of weapons, standard bases layouts for rebels and imperials and then a full exploration of key heroes and villains from the series. Most of these are fun to read now, because things have changed so much with the prequels and expanded universe material. But back in 1987, West End Games let their imaginations go (I’m sure with Lucasfilm’s blessing) and crafted some really interesting stories.

So many secrets packed into this book!

Both books are packed with stills from the films of course. But they also used concept art that I had never seen before. The Sourcebook especially was imagination fuel. I actually started working on my first bit of fan fiction because of the material in these books and all the information and images they provided.

The RPG book had 12 color plates that were awesome. Most were color stills from the film. But the others were creative and very amusing ads directly from the Star Wars universe. One was a recruitment poster for the Imperial Army. One was an ad for the new X-Wing starfighter, touting all its advanced weapons and speed. There was another ad for the R2 series of droids extolling their versatility. The last was my favorite, a travel ad for a Star Cruise to all your favorite planets from the Star Wars universe. Visiting Bespin on a cruise starship sounds like a blast.

Time went by and I enjoyed reading and rereading the books, but I never got to actually play a full-fledged roleplaying campaign. Then in college I somehow managed to sucker my girlfriend, my sister and a friend from down the street to play a session or two. I had created a couple adventures over the years. So I dusted those off, revamped them a bit and helped them create characters.

Micro Machines released a bunch of small Star Wars
figurines and vehicles. We used these during the
game to figure out battle tactics.

My girlfriend created a specialized character (because I gave her preferential treatment and let her be the most powerful character of the three… yeah I broke all the tabletop gaming rules. I was young and in love… and I had convinced her to play an RPG based on STAR WARS with me. I was going to do anything I could to keep her playing). She was a rebel special agent, kind of like a galactic James Bond character. She used to be part of a smuggling organization, so they had a bounty out on her, but now she was one of the rebellions top field agents. My sister played an outlaw whose family had been massacred by the Empire, and now she was on a vendetta to kill the Colonel in charge of the massacre. She was a sharpshooter and bad ass. My pal from down the street wanted to be a Jedi. The only problem was that this game takes place after the events of A New Hope, so the Jedi order was destroyed. You could pick from a couple of force adept characters. He selected the best Minor Jedi. Essentially the character was trained by an old Jedi Knight who died before the training go too far along. So the Minor Jedi has some powers, but they are on the weak side. He does have a lightsaber so that is always fun.

Just look at these guys... our crew never
got this motley. 

So these three characters started their journey. Along the way they created a couple of other characters they would play instead or along with the ones they normally played. There was a little kid named Beatrice who tagged along sometimes. I remember a scout that helped them out on a few of the far-flung missions. He died in a dramatic moment and that fueled the other players to avenge him – especially my sister’s outlaw character who had a crush on him.

If this all sounds elaborate, that is because it was. We played nearly every week for two years. What started out as something to try, exploded into a full blown campaign that stretched from the end of the Battle of Yavin to the final shots fired on Hoth. By that point my sister and my girlfriend were still playing, and their characters were presumed dead by the rebels and left behind during the evacuation. The next adventure was going to be them attempting to steal an Imperial transport of some kind and escaping the frozen wasteland. But my sister was starting college and my girlfriend and I were getting more battered by our own workload at university. I just didn’t have time to craft the adventures. We stopped playing and those two characters were left on Hoth. We’ll never forget you Zendra and Sara. I’m sure they made it to the rebel alliance and were there celebrating on Endor.

The blank character sheet just
waiting to craft a new hero.

So yeah, two years worth of adventures, and I have to say it was some of the most fun I ever had writing and creating stories. Once we had a set group of characters I started to tailor the missions to their strengths and weaknesses. We actually played two campaigns. The first revolved around the search for an ancient storehouse of Jedi knowledge. I combined Raiders of the Lost Ark with Star Wars for that one, and it was a blast. The players didn’t want Darth Vader to find this before they did, so they were racing against the Empire trying to put the clues together. They had to interact with all kinds of characters who had pieces of the puzzle. They even went to Ben Kenobi’s old hovel on Tatooine to find out if he had anything hidden away about this lost storehouse. It was a ton of fun, and the finale sessions were intense and difficult as the Empire arrived right after our heroes and they had to decide if they would destroy the storehouse or try to fight off the enemies. They got what they could and destroyed the place, killing a Imperial General that had been dogging them the whole campaign and escaping before Vader arrived on the scene.

The second campaign was a bit looser in structure. My buddy wanted to seek out a Jedi mentor, so that was part of it. I also had them discover that the Empire was working on a new Star Destroyer for Lord Vader. They traced the location of that and committed some sabotage to slow the construction process on the Executor. They ran into a couple of Jedi who offered to train them, and turned out to be Vader’s protégés. That was a lot of fun. Then I had the past come back for all the characters in some form or the other. My girlfriend’s character ran into some of her old smuggling buddies and then bounty hunters just started appearing in nearly every session gunning for her. Word on the street was that Boba Fett himself was considering hunting her down. She decided to end this and take on her old boss herself. By this time she was starting on the Jedi path because of the information they extracted from the storehouse. My friend down the street moved, so his Minor Jedi character was killed, and so the agent picked up his lightsaber and went from there.

Hunting down the right pack for the ships we needed
in an upcoming adventure was always fun.

Together we made some great stories, and by this time I was able to pull characters and situations from the expanded universe books as well. So while this was all still happening before The Empire Strikes Back in the timeline, I kept it feeling new and exciting as this small group of rebels accomplished impossible missions. And boy did they keep me guessing. They came up with some amazing solutions to problems, talked their way out of trouble more than once and would often take the story in directions I never considered. One time in particular always stands out.

At one point they landed on a planet and made some real trouble for the Empire. But they had difficulties getting out of the entanglement and Imperial forces were able to mobilize and lock down the spaceport. At this point it was just the two player characters, Sara the jedi/agent and Zendra the sharpshooting outlaw. Against them was a whole battalion of stormtroopers just waiting for them to show up. They had set up heavy gun emplacements, they had a couple AT-STs on patrol. It was going to be a hard fight. As they snuck forward Zendra managed to kill a stormtrooper on patrol with a single well-placed shot and do it quietly. Then my girlfriend got an idea, she took off the trooper’s helmet, put it on and then sent out a emergency notification that the rebels were attacking at the opposite end of the port. She had to roll pretty high to con the commander who was already on alert. She rolled very high indeed. Not only did he believe her, but he sent most of his forces in that direction. They two pretty much waltzed right into the port hopped on the ship before the Empire even knew what was going on. I had planned out this huge battle for this finale to the session, and was ready for it to really test them. But when they attempted that trick, I had to let them have it, because it was so clever and my girlfriend rolled so high.

What do you mean someone made a movie of
the Star Wars RPG?!?

So I created a whole bunch of fan fiction with my friends, creating this set of interesting characters, filling it with all kinds of adventures and not really involving the main characters form the series all that often. It was a lot of fun and something that created a lot of memories that my sister and my wife (who pulled that stunt with the stormtrooper helmet all those years ago) will still bring up from time to time.

These days Star Wars has a completely different roleplaying system that is enjoyed by lots of folks. The old West End Games is remembered fondly by a lot of people because of how easy it was t explain and play and how entertaining the rulebooks were. Seriously the writing had a great sense of humor and plenty of good advice for new players. It was one of the most enjoyable bits of fiction writing and tabletop gaming I’ve experienced. There is really something neat about crafting a story with other people, building and exploring characters and diving into a fantasy world where the only limit is your imagination.

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Nostalgia Nugget: The Barbarian Age

"Don't blame me for 'Red Sonja'!"

What happens when you combine Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons? You get Conan the Barbarian of course. Ok, so that was kind of a trick question, but there is a method to my madness.

I like to think of the early 80s as the Barbarian Age of Fantasy. Within the years of 1982 and 1985 or so, we got a ton of fantasy films that featured muscular tunic-less guys wielding swords, fighting wizards, saving the (usually topless) girl from some evil creature (who may or may not be a puppet). Some of these films were backed by big budgets and major studios.  Others were made outside of Hollywood for a pittance and forged a name for themselves in the burgeoning world of direct to VHS releases. I’ll readily admit that I have a nostalgic place in my heart for these fun and often silly films. But I always wondered what caused this sudden explosion of fantasy films that hit hard and then faded away by the time 1989 rolled around.

The 70s were rough, even for Sinbad.

Like many things that occurred around this time in film history, I think it all starts with the astounding popularity of Star Wars in 1977. Prior to that film science fiction was seen as a low profit genre for major studios. There were some hits over the years, but they were few and far between. 20th Century Fox was hoping Star Wars would bring in a quarter of what Planet of the Apes made for them in merchandising and spin offs. But I don’t think they were holding their collective breath. Instead the film exploded in popularity, and a whole new group of filmgoers were exposed as a new target audience. Make a film packed with fun adventure, exotic visuals and a rollicking sense of fun and you had something.

D&D: 80s style!

Many studios took the most obvious route here, mimicking Star Wars as best they could with their own science fiction films. Disney unleashed The Black Hole. Paramount resurrected their television series into Star Trek:The Motion Picture and even Roger Corman’s production company got into the act with Starcrash and Battle Beyond the Stars. But a few other studios decided to expand their sights outside of science fiction and target another genre that had been forgotten: fantasy films.

Fantasy was always around in some form in filmmaking. But by the time the 1970s rolled around, audiences were demanding gritty and less glitzy. Fantasy films reminded them old Hollywood. It’s not hard to see why, when you watch the films like The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad or all the sword and sandal films from the 1960s. They feel a bit stagey even if there is plenty of fun to be had with them. Not that the 70s were devoid of fantasy films. You still had movies like TheGolden Voyage of Sinbad, The Land Time Forgot and a handful of others. But they never brought in the money like other films did.

The other element that may have played a part in this was rise in popularity (infamy in some cases) of Dungeons and Dragons. The tabletop role playing game had been around for a while, but more and more folks were picking it up. Who could resist dungeon delving with your friends and slaying goblins by the dozen with fireballs? This same crowd was part of the group that made Star Wars the huge success it was. A fantasy film of the same caliber could also be a moneymaker.

Hawk's party is ready for dungeon delving.

One of the first of these new waves of fantasy films actually feels like a Dungeons and Dragons adventure brought to life. It is called Hawk the Slayer (1980) and hits all the requirements. You have a band of adventurers including a Hobbit sized thief, a towering giant, and an elf who can shoot rapid-fire arrows. Our hero, Hawk swings a sword with skill, and leads his band into a castle to face a deadly overlord played by Jack Palance. The movie is played pretty straight, but ends up being amusing because of the over the top acting, low budget special effects and wobbly sets. All in all it is one of my favorite fantasy films of the era, and I’m very sad I didn’t discover it until the 2000s. I’m not the only one who missed out on this flick, because it didn’t’ do well enough to deliver on a much hinted at sequel.

There was a breakdown in communication.

Right behind it was a bigger budget and much more impressive film, even if it did feel like a throwback to the 1950s style of filmmaking: Clash of the Titans (1981). Ray Harryhausen’s swansong features his amazing blend of stop motion animation and other visual effects that compete for screen time with Harry Hamlin’s hair and Laurence Olivier as Zeus. The movie is sluggish at times, but hits all the fantasy/mythological sweet spots. That Medusa scene manages a wonderful blend of suspense with the lighting, the effects and spine tingling music making it all work. As a kid, this movie was one of my absolute favorites, and I watched it over and over again. I wasn’t the only one, because I’ve seen quite a few writers, directors and artists talk about this movie being their gateway drug to all things Harryhausen and Greek mythology. That said, the film did Ok in its theatrical run, but not enough to convince other studios to jump on the bandwagon.

It wasn’t until the one-two punch of 1982 that we saw fantasy really take off. We got The Beastmaster and Conan the Barbarian in the same year. Both films were more entrenched in the sword and sorcery feel of pulp fiction by masters likes Robert E Howard and Fritz Leiber. The two films featured physically strong characters seeking out revenge against tyrants who slaughtered their families. Both include magic, monsters and scantily clad women aplenty. Both films avoided the stodgy feeling of the earlier Hollywood fantasy style and went for a healthy dose of blood and nudity. The two films shared many stylistic similarities, and were successful in different ways.

"Ok, which one of you stole her fur bikini?"

The Beastmaster did moderately well in theaters, but really boomed in on home video and cable reruns. It has quite a bit of humor woven into the story and while it can get violent the film never gets too dark. It didn’t have the budget for stop motion effects, so it used animal actors and creative costume and makeup to delve into the magical aspects of the story. I think there were just as many fans of Tanya Robert’s bathing scene as there were for the cute ferret companions in the film. The Beastmaster stays fun all the way through, but also keeps a pretty solid tone of adventure.

He just had to wear the helmet for tribe picture day.

Where Conan the Barbarian exceeds is in the way it makes the world feel real. The film has a darker, more serious tone, and the violence is brutal at times. It captures the untamed savagery of the original stories, even if it isn’t based on any one of them. Director Milius keeps the dialogue to a minimum, focusing on visual storytelling and avoiding some of the poor acting that would infuse later fantasy films. Let’s not forget the wonderfully primal and powerful score by composer Basil Poledouris. Conan the Barbarian would be much less effective without tracks like Anvil of Crom and Riders of Doom. This film was a big success in theaters and on home video and cable. It was this film that brought about a boom in fantasy films in the early 1980s.

"If I don't make eye contact, maybe he'll go away."

Both films did eventually have sequels and spin offs. The Beastmaster didn’t see its sequels till the 1990s, well after the fantasy boom had ended. But there were enough fans to make The Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time a success on home video and get the sequel The Eye of Braxus five years later. Conan the Destroyer managed to arrive only two years after its original film, but suffered in a major shift in tone. Going for more of a mix between Hawk the Slayer and The Beastmaster, you end up with a film that ups the humor and tones down the brutality and sensuality of the previous film. It wasn’t received well, and plans for the third film were scuttled in favor of the spin off Red Sonja a year later. Sadly that film was even worse. This is one of those films that so much potential but a weak script, a jumbled tone and bizarre performances just keep the whole thing from coming together. It’s not even that riffable.

I couldn't make this up if I tried.

But many of the films that flooded the market afterwards are very riffable indeed. It seemed like every few months a new muscular hero exploded onto screens to fight monsters and save half naked women. Some films like Ator the Fighting Eagle (1982) featuring Miles O’Keefe were lower budget retellings of Conan the Barbarian. Others went to other sources, like Corman’s The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984) which is based on Akira Kuroasawa’s Yojimbo, but with evil puppets and a four breasted witch. Sometime we got women warriors swinging swords like Hundra (1983) or Barbarian Queen (1985). In fact Corman's production company made quite a few of these films. Most popular were the Deathstalker movies, which started out as blatant Conan retells, but turned into more lighthearted films, with Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell even making it to MST3K. Speaking of the riffing puppet show, they also tackled Outlaw a sequel to the movie Gor which was based on a sword and planet series written by John Norman.Other times we got a film that managed to balance everything just about right, even on a low budget. The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982) is a lot of fun, and manages to keep things moving and amusing for most of the running time. There were oddities like the ultra-dark Dragonslayer in 1981, where baby dragons devour a helpless princess. Then there were the odd fusions of robots, and lasers with fantasy that lead to movies like Krull (1983) and the Lou Ferrigno Hercules (1983). You also had movies that were more inspired by fairy tales like Ladyhawke (1985) and of course the wonderful Princess Bride (1987). Even Arthurian legends got a new coat of paint with the dreamlike Excalibur (1981) and Sean Connery as the sparkly Green Knight in Sword of the Valiant (1984).

"I know I dropped my eight sided dice somewhere."

A few fantasy films of the era dropped the muscly barbarian archetype and went for more Dungeons and Dragons inspired fantasy. You have a movie like Wizards of the Lost Kingdom (1985) which is aimed at a younger crowd, but filled with magic and action (as well as hilariously bad dialogue, goofy costumes and some wonderfully ripe acting). The animated film The Flight of Dragons (1982) actually includes a character who loves D&D and gets pulled into a fantasy world to fight wizards and monsters. The movie The Dungeonmaster (1984) fuses arcade games (inspired by Tron) and D&D into a weird anthology-kinda film with Richard Moll chewing scenery as the titular villain. And then there is the ridiculous television movie Mazes and Monsters in which a young Tom Hanks plays a teenager whose obsession with D&D drives him insane. Hilarious for all the wrong reasons.

Eventually the interest in fantasy films died down. While many of the low budget ones did all right on home video and cable, big studios were losing money. Films like Willow (1988) necessitated a lot of money for visual effects, costumes, location shooting and even with big names behind the camera (Ron Howard directing a story conceived of by George Lucas) they movie just didn’t make as much money as they wanted. This was really the last hurrah for the fantasy boom of the 1980s, and the genre once again sunk into the mists of time outshone by cheaper to make action flicks.

Hard to say which one is making the goofier face.

In the early 90s fantasy fans had to get their fix from anime like The Heroic Legend of Arislan (1991) and my favorite of the era The Record of Lodoss War (1990) (which wore its D&D roots on its cloak). But then a funny thing happened, a little movie called Jurassic Park (1993) showed that visual effects could be made to bring a whole new dimension of realism to fantasy films. Creators didn’t have to rely on puppets or stop motion any more – CG could bring dragons to life! Sure enough we got Dragonheart in 1996 And while the film wasn’t all that good, the dragon was fairly impressive for the time (and voiced by Sean Connery no less). But it was the Lord of the Rings trilogy helmed by Peter Jackson that brought fantasy films and television to the mainstream in a big way. And while I love where we are going visually with these fantasy films, I will always enjoy taking a trip back to the Barbarian Age of fantasy.

Don't mess with the Barbarian Queen!

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)

Introduction:

I didn’t ever make the connection, but after watching this documentary I came to realize that Cannon Films was a part of my life, whether I liked it or not. Growing up in the 1980s, how could I avoid some of their classics like Masters of the Universe or Breakin’ or Revenge of the Ninja and of course Hercules. But it turns out that the story behind this studio is just as entertaining as some of their cheesiest movies.

Summary:

This documentary explores the rise and fall of Cannon Films. Menaham Golan and Yoram Globus came to Hollywood with a dream to create films – lots and lots of films. They started out small with quicky skin flicks and silly action films. But every once in a while one of their films would become a hit and they would have enough money to make 20 more B flicks.

They rushed production, cut costs, wheeled and dealed. They started the ninja craze of the 80s, rode the breakdancing fad, employed Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson and even managed to make a couple of Shakespeare films (seriously)! But in the end they went too fast, reached too high and everything came crashing down. Filled with interviews with cast, crew and business acquaintances, you’ll hear from Franco Zeffirelli, Marina Sirtis, Molly Ringwald, Dolph Lundgren, Tobe Hooper, Elliot Gould, Michael Dudikoff, Bo Derek, Sybil Danning, Richard Chamberlain and a whole host of others. The stories will have you laughing, shaking your head and wondering if Electric Boogaloo was really as goofy as you remembered.

Good Points:

• Filled to bursting with great stories about making some of these infamous movies
• Manages to hit all the key high and low points of the studio and its creators
• Sure to cause flashbacks to anyone who was a movie fan in the 80s and 90s 

Bad Points:

• Sorely missing is any input from Golan, Globus, Stallone and Norris
• Feels like there were even more great stories cut for time
• Sure to cause unpleasant flashbacks for anyone who was a movie fan in the 80s and 90s (didn’t want to remember The Apple and God help me if I see any more footage from Going Bananas)

Overall:

Oh yeah this movie was right up my alley. I love cheesy movies of the 1980s and Cannon made some of the cheesiest. So many great stories in this, and some of them had my jaw dropping. It both praises and questions the men who made this studio. They did some really innovative things and some really questionable things. While I wish Golan and Globus had participated in this (they quickly got their own documentary produced and released before this one!) what you do get is a hell of an entertaining look at a dark horse studio and the very unique world of 1980s Hollywood.

Scores (out of 5)

Visuals: 3

Sound: 3

Acting: 3

Script: 4

Music: 3

Direction: 4

Entertainment: 4

Total:  4

Curious about a full review, sent me an email and I’ll make additional thoughts to this review.

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Full Invasion Part 2 - Robotech: The New Generation

Just look at this crew. Does it get any more rag tag?

In Part 1 of this blog I went in depth into The Masters saga of Robotech and how it falls flat in the overall scheme of the story. There is a reason not many people mention it when talking about this anime hybrid. Most folks are talking about The Macross Saga instead. But what about the third series - The New Generation?

One of the big advantages the third series has over the previous one is the fact that its narrative is much clearer. It focuses on getting Scott Bernard to Earth and then getting him and his team to Reflex Point to stop the Invid. This gives the whole series a forward thrust that The Masters series was lacking.

I feel that the characters in The New Generation are a bit better defined and more interesting overall. The fact that you have this group cobbled together with mismatched personalities creates natural drama. Scott's hard headed determination clashes with Rand's devil may care attitude. Rook is surly and aloof at first and it is really hard to like her. Lunk seems like a nice enough guy, but you get the feeling that he's hiding something. Annie is just a kid and she feels like a tag along. Then there is Lancer/Yellow Dancer who just seems like a complete outsider of the group.

Rook may have her gun ready to take on some Invid,
or Rand may have ticked her off again.

But The New Generation builds on all these characters. They all change to various degrees because of the adventures they face together and what they learn from each other. For example, Rook mellows a bit and starts to learn to trust the team. Her survival instinct is very strong, and as we learn more about her past we understand why. But we also see her bond with the rest of the team, especially Rand.  So when she considers leaving the group near the end of the series because of the increasing likelihood that they are all going to die, we are not surprised. But it says a lot about her that she stays to fight the final battle. I appreciated that almost everyone in the group had some kind of character arc that developed over the course of the series.

One of the places where The New Generation falters is in the details. Because this turns into a road trip type story, it hits on many over familiar tropes. It starts to feel a little too scripted in places where events and locales are set up just to have our characters interact with them. Thankfully the big events seem to impact our characters and they don't reset for the next episode (compared to something like Cowboy Bebop). But at the same time it feels a little bit stale the longer it goes on. Especially with the endless Invid pursuit that just keeps pushing the team forward. I can't help but feel that Robotech is cribbing from The Fugitive.

I really like the design of the crab-like Invid mecha.

But this mid series slog isn't unique to the New Generation, it happens in all three series. But one big missed opportunity is the use of resources in this series. It comes up a few times, but it never really seems to impact the action. Our heroes are using proto-culture powered mecha and vehicles. They are constantly firing missiles and energy weapons. But there are only a couple episodes dealing with them attempting to wrest the necessary resources from the occupied cities or the Invid.

By the tenth episode I just had to wonder why the heck they were still using the pistol and rifle energy weapons against the Invid. The aliens have very thick and resilient armor. The energy weapons do nothing to them. Only a shot directly into the single eye seems to have any effect. But many episodes have our heroes blazing away against the Invid with energy weapons for no reason I can figure out. I mean if it slowed them down or something I could see it, but they do nothing but waste precious resources the team needs. But the series never addresses this.

They are still making toys from the "New Generation"
for collectors. 

It is the constant stream of missiles that gets me. Scott has no problem launching wave after wave of missile against the Invid. I can't blame him since those are the only weapons that seem to do any damage to the creatures. But man, I can't imagine them trucking all those missile around in Lunk's truck.

I know I'm picking nits here, but I will admit that it did take me a bit out of the story, especially during those more routine road trip style episodes. But when we got good solid character episodes, I was able to forgive The New Generation its faults and enjoy the ride.

But lets take a look at the Invid themselves. I find them to be the least interesting of the antagonists in all three series of Robotech. Their leader is essentially a commanding female voice for about 80% of the series. The Regis spends most of the episodes telling her soldiers to find and kill Scott and his team. A few episodes hint at the Invid attempting to use proto-culture for some master plan, but it takes quite a while for that to be revealed. I do like the concept of the Invid creating all kinds of life forms to determine which one they will put their consciousness into. It creates a ticking clock for our heroes, because the Invid feel that once they find the perfect life form they will be unstoppable.

Her green blood confirms the truth, both for Ariel
and her companions.

Of course they decide that human life forms are the most adaptable they've encountered so far and that leads to the creation of Ariel/Marlene. So the drama of human meeting alien and falling in love is repeated. Is it any different from the Miriya/Max, Dana/Zor or even Bowie/Musica relationships from the previous series? Well a little bit. It mirrors the Dana/Zor relationship the most. But in many ways Ariel is a more interesting character. She is vulnerable and confused for a lot of the series. She seems very fragile and her companions want to help her. You understand why Rook looks after her, why Scott starts falling for her and why Lancer doesn't say anything when he begins to suspect that she isn't human. Zor always came across as aloof and stubborn. I never really feared for him or what the revelation that he was clone would do to him. But with Ariel, you know she won't be able to handle a revelation of her origin, or the fact that some of her companions may turn on her when they find out. There is more tension in her character's story and it plays really well into the finale of the series - because of course she finds out what she is and yes some of her friends can't deal with it.

Rand is a jolly guy, even if he is trying to survive
an apocalypse.

But Ariel is the exception to the rule. Mostly the Invid are a huge hulking menace, and yes they are very destructive and powerful. But they don't really do much more than chase our heroes around and cause some trouble. It seems like they are mostly around to provide an action scene each episode. A few episodes do use them effectively, especially when the two human/hybrid pilots arrive the on the scene. But I think some better planning of the scripts could have really helped build the Invid and their culture into something as fascinating as the Robotech Masters from the previous series.

In a lot of ways I think the writing team for Robotech had better source material to use in The New Generation than they did for The Masters. The focus on the mismatched characters and their interaction with this war torn world and its people made for some very memorable storylines and events. Even if the villains were a little lackluster, it didn't hurt the finale too much. But once again, I feel like we are missing the punch to the gut that landed so well with The Macross Saga. It is a bit like the too pat ending of Return of the Jedi in that way. None of our heroes die, no one is even really hurt. The earth goes back to its old self and everyone rocks out to Yellow Dancer Live and in Concert. Even the Invid survive to fly off into the cosmos to find a new world to torment. It is celebratory but it feels like the costs to get there weren't all that high, or at least not as high as I would have imagined.

"Are you really ready to Robotech Rock?"

I'm picking a bit on Robotech because of my adult tastes. I fully realize that a kid back in 1985 isn't going to really care too much about same old road trip plot lines, bland enemies or endless ammo. I sure didn't. But I'm not sure I can recommend Robotech to a new viewer in this day an age. Anime and science fiction shows in general have gotten more sophisticated and better plotted out (for the most part). The messiness of The Masters Saga and The New Generation will cause viewers to lose interest.

What it all boils down to is that Robotech was a great series for its time. It was an interesting experiment that really clicked with a lot of young viewers back in the day. But I think the nostalgia goggles can blind some old time fans to the faults of the show. But the truth is pretty plain: The Macross Saga is the best of the series and that is why everyone always talks about it.

But if someone wants to reboot the series, I think there is a lot of room to build something bigger, more impactful and intense. The Robotech concept has a lot of potential to it, and maybe we'll see something that give us a sprawling generational adventure that was inspired by this unique animated saga.

They aren't panicking because of Invid. They just
realized Annie has a loaded plasma cannon
in the cockpit with them!

Full Invasion Part 1 - Robotech: The Masters

Dana and her tank were the largest toy
released for the Robotech series in the 80s.

They say you can't go home again. Not sure who "they" are, or why they said it in the first place. But the sentiment often applies to nostalgia. All too often we have fond memories of a film, television series, or bit of music. But when you go back and actually revisit these things, well the experience is not the same. It can even sour the fondness you may have for the thing.

I know this, and yet it never seems to stop me.

Back in 1985 I experienced Robotech, a series that destroyed my conventional expectations of what a cartoon could be. I blogged a bit about the series and it's initial impact on me. But I also mentioned that I was never able to see the entire run of the show straight through. That changed when Netflix download made the entire series available to viewing.

One of the things I notice is that whenever I see anyone mention Robotech they usually talk about the following: Veritech Fighters, the SDF -1, the love triangle between Rick, Minmei and Lisa, the Zentraedi, Max and Miriya's relationship and the impressive action scenes in the series. Except for that last bit, nearly all the conversation revolves around The Macross saga.

After watching the full show, I understand why.

Cool bit of fan art for a DVD
collection of the original series.

In Japan, the Macross series became a franchise by itself. It had movies, Original Animated Video (OAV) series and radio drama spin offs. I already reviewed Macross Plus, but that is just one example. The other two series that comprised Robotech didn't have the same kind of fame. In fact Super Dimension Calvary Southern Cross was cut short with a rushed ending because it wasn't as popular as Macross.

I don't want to say that The Macross Saga is perfect. It slogs a bit in the middle and some of the soapier aspects of the series start to weigh down the story. But it still has a very clear narrative line. It has well developed and interesting characters who have clear motivations. It has antagonists that start out rather two dimensional, but evolve over the course of the series. It feels like it has real stakes tied to it. The drama is there. The action is impressive and overall it delivered a well told story with memorable characters.

But the following two storylines of Robotech are missing key elements. They end up falling well short at times. This is only compounded by the narrative problems of trying to tie the three very different series into one cohesive whole.

So many clones. So little time.

The Masters Saga is the most frustrating for me. I see so much potential for great storytelling in this series. But it never comes together in a way that works. The best part of the second series are the antagonists. The Robotech Masters are a really intriguing concept. I love that they are desperate people. It gives them a drive that continues to push them forward even when it becomes obvious that they are only making things worse with constant war against the defenders of earth. You really get the feeling that they have been fighting for so long that they really have no other concept of how to approach their goals.

There are hints that several of the people in charge on earth would be willing to help the Robotech Masters if they just ceased hostilities and asked for help. But the Masters refuse to even consider it. Their interaction with the Invid have soured their view on all other species. It is hinted that this acceptance of war is tied into the fact that they are essentially clones, and their hive mentality keeps them from seeing other options. The cloning aspect and civilization built on trios is also fascinating, and something that was fleshed out early in the series. Unfortunately the rushed ending doesn't give us a substantial payoff for these antagonists.

Resistance is futile!

To me, the Robotech Masters are the most interesting antagonists in the series. What we see of their civilization and reasoning was always engaging and I wanted to learn more. The Zentraedi were very good antagonists too, but they were a bit one note with the exception of a few personalities such as Miriya. The Invid of the third series end up being pretty flat with the only 2D characterization coming from tropes that seemed to be templates from the previous two series (even though it is probably safe to say that Zor's amnesia alien trope was borrowed from Ariel's amnesia alien character. Remember in Japan Mospeada came out before Southern Cross).

Bowie and Musica facing a group of clone soldiers.

As I mentioned in my nostalgic musings, I appreciate now that the lead hero in The Masters Saga was a female tank commander. It was also cool that there was a young black man as the other main protagonist. Of all the heroic leads they are most interesting. Bowie's journey is very real. He starts out as rudderless in this war torn world. He loves playing the piano and writing music, but joins the army so he can please his godfather (who is his adopted father) and his best friend. But he has no stomach for fighting, and doesn't seem too good at it. As the series progresses we see him regretting his actions and becoming his own person. By the end of the series he has pretty much rebelled against the army, and even against Dana to an extent. He doesn't' want to fight people who he feels are very smilier to humans and just want to live in peace. We don't get to spend as much time as I we could have with Bowie, but I found his character to have the most interesting arc.

No, we get to spend more time with Dana and Zor. I think this was supposed to mirror the Max and Miriya relationship from the Macross Saga, but it feels like a stale retread of sorts. Dana comes across like a school girl infatuated with Zor.  His memory loss makes him a less appealing character compared to the fiery Miriya and the cool, confident, but genuine Max. Zor's big secret isn't really too much a secret - he's a clone created by the Robotech Masters. This is pretty much given away within the first few episodes of the series. So the whole time you are waiting for the other shoe to drop, and when it finally does it doesn't deliver a gut punch but more of a ho-hum.

Dana doesn't like me talking smack about her.

Part of the problem is the portrayal of Dana. I'm not sure what the creators were going for, but she comes across as too mercurial and too hot tempered to be a value on the battlefield. I don't care how great she is behind the controls of her tank, she often gives orders based on a whim instead of warrior instinct. She gets angry over petty things. She fusses about frivolities in the middle of war. It's like they took the school girl trope and the warrior women trope and tried to slap them together to make a very bizarre and nonsensical character. But the bottom line is, she isn't all that appealing. And the voice actress in English is actually kind of grating.

I think a real great character could be made with Dana Sterling. Here is a young woman who has famous parents. Her father was THE ace pilot of the SDF-1 and saved countless lives on a number of occasions. Her mother is a Zentraedi ace pilot who killed many humans before joining in the fight against her own people. The relationship must have loomed like a large shadow over Dana as a kid and would surely influence her as she pursued her own path in the military.

Nova and Marie wonder if Dana can really pull off
that outfit.

Speaking of that, Dana grew up on an Earth deviated by war. Even when the Zentraedi were defeated, there was expectation that the Robotech Masters would eventually come. So the people of earth have been waiting for the attack. Dana's joined a military that is in a constant state of alert. I can imagine she didn't have a lot of time to just be a girl. I can see the appeal of wanting to just do normal things like date boys, wear dresses and just have fun - without all the expectations of a famous family and constant war looming. Basically Dana Sterling could have been the Buffy Summers of Robotech.

But the writers of the series were locked into whatever the animation provided. Unfortunately Southern Cross provided a very confusing lead character. In the first portion of the series Dana gets tossed in the brig for behaving like an ass a couple of times. And while she does end up getting respect from those around her (especially Marie and Nova) by the end of the series, it just doesn't ring true. I also think the animators felt that if they had to have the lead character be a woman than we needed to have many gratuitous shower scenes. Seriously, Dana must have felt that she was always covered with tank dust or something.

Yeah Nova is Lawful Good to the extreme!

I will say that The Masters Saga doesn't lack for strong female characters. Not only was the top tank commander a woman, but the top fighter pilot was Marie Crystal. She has a major chip on her shoulder, but they manage to give her some interesting subplots. She kind of vanishes about half way through the series, and I think she is a victim of the shortened series. Nova Satori is the head of security for the Robotech forces. She is very strict in her approach to the law. This causes her to butt heads with Dana quite a bit. She is acts as a foil for Dana for the bulk of the series (and so is Marie to be honest). But they actually have Nova play a bit more into the plot near the end of the The Masters Saga.

The Bioroids have the ability to cause massive devistation.

The final element that bothers me about the second series of Robotech is the overall story arc. Again, this is something that could have worked really well if the creative team wasn't tied to the source material. Much of the series feels like a see-saw of attacks and counter attacks that don't achieve very much at all. So for a lot of the episodes this season you feel like the narrative isn't really going anywhere, at least from the war storyline. This causes you to focus more on the character arcs and when so much time is spent with Dana and Zor, that just doesn't pull you in much either. This gives the series a overall feeling of driving your mecha-tank in circles with no destination.

I don't think that was the intention. I think they didn't want one side getting an upper hand, and I can appreciate that. Both the Macross and the New Generation feature humanity going up against a much more powerful enemy and in a constant state of struggle. It created natural drama. But here with both sides so equally matched, you get bored feeling that neither side can win. This is why the desperation of the Robotech Masters adds such weight to the overall feel of the show. But it happens behind the scenes and never seems to impact the actual war until the end.

One of the three modes for the battle tanks used by
the Southern Cross brigade.

If the creative team behind Robotech had a little more room to maneuver they could have turned this into a theme - the costs of war. We would be able to see how far the Robotech Masters are going to keep humanity from seeing how weak they really are. We could see how each failed invasion costs them more resources, more clones, and increases the likelihood that the Invid will find and destroy all of them. Elements of this appears in the show and when it does, it is the most effective part of The Masters Saga.

What is missing is the cost to humanity. The Macross Saga did a much better job showing how much damage and loss of life the Zentraedi caused to humanity. But we don't see that in The Masters Saga. All our protagonists survive unscathed. We hear and see some aftermath of the war, but nothing comes home like the attacks agains Macross city in the first series. We don't hear Earth defense forces talking about any costs to personal, supplies or technology. You just have the firebrand leader behaving like a jerk and yelling that they can never be defeated. But in the end, he kinda turns out to be right. I'm not sure if some material was edited out, or if it just wasn't there to begin with. But the cost of the war to humanity just doesn't seem to be that high. Especially when you see the massive destruction and backsliding of civilization in the New Generation saga. It just doesn't seem to line up.

Staring contest... and GO!

If we could have seen more of that personal cost to humanity. Seen more of the devastation that the Masters were unleashing. Realized that both sides were on the ropes, but putting on a powerful face for the benefit of the other. Dana could have been part of this plan and thought it was a good one, or she could have seen it for the farce it was. Either way could have been an interesting character arc and given her an additional level that would make her a more engaging character.

Sadly this doesn't happen. When the Masters Saga ends you don't feel like you got a proper climax to the plot. It just feel like the filler in the middle to get to the third act. This is actually intensified in the New Generation when you don't get any mention of Dana or Bowie or the Southern Cross brigade at all! You hear about the devastation of the war against the Robotech Masters, but it feels like the events you just spent so many episodes watching didn't impact the story much at all. In fact you get more name dropping of Rick Hunter and the SDF-1 in the New Generation than anything from the Masters Saga. It could be because the middle series just wasn't too popular and they wanted to remind viewers (kids) why they liked this show so much the in the first place.

It is frustrating that so much potential was in place for the Masters Saga of Robotech, but it just never really comes to fruition. Luckily things get a little better with the New Generation, but it isn't without its problems.

Dana gets ready to rock a rhapsody of Robotech.