YOR, THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE (1983)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*

MYTHICITY: *poor*

FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*

CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological, cosmological, psychological*


These two films, made in different countries and belonging to different genres, still resemble each other in featuring heroes who race around their planets, encountering all sorts of weird dangers, but never impeded by anything resembling a strong plot.

Of the two, YOR THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE -- based on an Italian comic book, and compiled from a 4-part Italian TV-miniseries-- remains popular with lovers of "bad movies" precisely because the flick is so unabashedly simple-minded. 

The film, directed by long-time genre-workhorse Antonio Margheriti, begins as if it were a caveman-and-dinosaurs film, since it starts out with the muscular Yor saving a girl named Kala and her father-like protector Pag from a big dino.  Yor, in addition to being the only blonde caveman in sight, wears a strange metal medallion.  He knows only that he had the necklace with him in infancy, when his tribe found and adopted him.  He's not exactly obsessed with trying to find out where he came from, but this mystery will be largely the only thing close to a coherent plotline in the film.

No sooner does Yor save Kala and Pag then he has to save two more times, from blue ape men and from diseased-looking desert-dwellers.  However, as if in imitation of the many "blonde goddesses" seen in jungle films, the desert-dwellers have a blonde goddess of their very own, name of Moa, who just happens to be wearing a medallion just like Yor's.  In addition, there's a big piece of ice in the desert-people's cave-- ice which has a humanoid figure inside.  In Margheriti's one concession to science-fiction verisimilitude, the script does mention that this isn't ordinary ice as it only melts very slowly, thus supplying the leprous-looking types with a motive to hang around the human icicle. 

Yor manages to fight off the desert-lepers and escape with Moa, Kala and Pag.  Moa doesn't get a chance to tell Yor much about her obscure origins, though, for when Yor's back in turned, jealous Kala tries to kill Moa.  But just so the audience doesn't feel Kala's a bad person, some more ape-men intrude, starting a fracas in which Moa is conveniently killed.

Eventually Yor and company arrive at a fishing-village, where Yor kills another man-eating dinosaur.  The village tries to reward him by giving him a hot young virgin-- who's more than a little eager to be the reward-- but Yor has learned from sad experience to value monogamy, and turns the little nymphet down.  Yor gets all the babes-- which is probably the main reason this cheesy trashfest is still popular.

A village elder explains that they also fear an attack by mysterious "gods," for one of their number accidentally killed a god who visited them.  Shortly thereafer, sky-ships blast the village to pieces.  Yor gets hold of a boat and with his buddies tries to travel to the island where the gods make their home.  He's separated from his friends but learns the Big Truth: their world was once more advanced, only to fall apart due to atomic chaos (which presumably explains the rebirth of the dinos).  The all-too-human gods comprise the last of the once-advanced civilization.  But there's a schism in the works: the culture is ruled by the extremely Darth Vader-ish "Overlord," who cast out Yor's parents, and Yor himself as an infant, for having threatened his reign.  Fortunately, for Yor and his friends, the forces of the, er, rebellion are still active, and with their help Perseus takes down his evil grandfather Acrisius-- oops, wrong myth.  Then Yor flees the island to go back to fighting dinosaurs.