Sunday, September 27, 2020

Movie review - "Sheena" (1984) ***1/2

 This isn't a fashionable opinion but at least I share it with Pauline Kael: I like this movie. It looks gorgeous, was beautifully shot on location, has a wonderful score. The script flies along -Lorenzo Semple was skilled at this even though David Newman was the one who did the heavy lifting - and John Guillermin was still on it at this stage.

Tanya Roberts' method like intensity takes some getting used to but once you tune in she's great fun and has the body of an athlete. I think it was a mistake to show her breasts and bare backside - I think bare back and implied nudity would have been fine, breasts is too pervy.

Ted Wass is an engaging hero, handsome and a bit klutzy, but an ideal partner. They shouldn't have put him in that red towel at the end.

I'm aware it's problematic with its white saviours and all that. I will argue in the film's defence at least it's in present day Africa and there are a lot of positive black characters (the Obi Wan, the president, the tribal leader) it's just most of them are killed. The Donovan Scott character could have been black. There are several white villains.

Enjoyable action - I loved the jeep charge at the end, Sheena wielding her arrow and bow, the flamingo attack. This is fun. There doesn't seem to be a cult about it though.


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