Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone
Entry updated 28 December 2020. Tagged: Film.
Film (1983). Delphi Productions/Columbia. Directed by Lamont Johnson. Written by David Preston, Edith Rey, Dan Goldberg, Len Blum, from a story by Stewart Harding, Jean Lafleur. Cast includes Ernie Hudson, Michael Ironside, Molly Ringwald and Peter Strauss. 90 minutes (but reported as being originally 105 minutes). Made in 3D. Colour.
Bedevilled with production problems, changing directors in midstream (it was begun by Jean Lafleur), suffering from the ominous stigma of six screenwriting credits, Spacehunter is surprisingly relaxed. Strauss is a space scavenger who comes to Pandemic- and Pollution-ridden Terra Eleven, the Post-Holocaust chic of whose citizens owes much to Mad Max 2 (1981; vt The Road Warrior), to save three maidens. He is joined by a fast-talking tomboy (Ringwald) and an old army buddy (Hudson), and they fight their way past Bat People, Barracuda Women and feral children to the showdown with Cyborg woman-despoiler Overdog (Ironside) and his barbarian cohorts. Strauss is appealing as a down-at-heel Indiana Jones in space, and, while the movie is derivative and meandering, it is also often ingenious and enjoyable. The over-tactfully used 3D becomes an inconsequential irritant. [PN]
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