AMAZONS: A retro female revolution feared by conservatives

Paul Michael Glaser is not typically associated with niche B-movies distributed solely on VHS tapes, but Amazons perfectly fits that description. The “quality” of the film was shaped by the times and the television-focused goal. Video tapes were a consequence of this focus. However, this didn’t hurt Glaser, who, in 1987, made the cult classic The Running Man. And that’s about it for his most well-known and feature-length productions. The rest are TV series, so film lovers should appreciate Amazons, because although stylistically a B-movie, it is still unique in its content, both in terms of its plot and its approach to female characters. The problem is that it may be “understood” today as a revolutionary, leftist manifesto. But to reach that conclusion, one would need a very frightened mind, like some of the men in the film.

Amazons begins like a dark fantasy film with elements of a superhero epic. The creators likely aimed to present the origins of the mysterious Amazon organization and their symbol, the broken bow. Unfortunately, introducing such an explanatory scene as a prologue essentially eliminates any criminal intrigue from the film, which was supposed to be a mix of fantasy, crime, and a failed post-apocalypse. The broken bow of one of the warriors appears a few minutes later as a pendant on the bracelet of an assassin who sneaks into a hospital to inject a congressman, who is recovering from an appendectomy, with a hallucinogenic drug. In a delirium, he escapes from the hospital and ends up under… an ambulance. The method of murder is brilliant, especially since the politician wasn’t entirely clean. The investigation is led by the inquisitive Dr. Sharon Fields (Madeleine Stowe), whose unexpected ally turns out to be the somewhat arrogant police lieutenant Tony Monaco (Jack Scalia). Together, they uncover a dark conspiracy involving a mysterious organization of attractive women, determined to take over the world by assassinating the most powerful politicians.

It’s hard to call this plan wise, let alone realistically achievable, both technically and practically. However, that doesn’t matter for the action. The audience must accept that the plan is dangerous and real, and could upset the world order. It’s important to note that this “order” is a male one, and the main characters can’t allow it to continue, because such a revolution supposedly won’t change anything, only destroy human civilization. I won’t spoil the rest of the plot, since the film is available online, and it’s better for you to discover it yourselves. It can only be watched in its original version, with poor quality and a square aspect ratio, but it’s enough to appreciate it as a fantasy-action movie with elements of noir crime.

Amazons is a somewhat paradoxical film. It was made for ABC television with a small budget, yet well-known creators were involved. This refers not to the director, but to the cinematographer and composer. Dean Cundey, who worked on Holiday and The Mandalorian, was responsible for the cinematography. Basil Poledouris composed the excellent soundtracks for South of the Border and Conan the Barbarian. The lead actress in Amazons also came from B-movie productions, but she didn’t settle in them. It was just the beginning of her career. Therefore, it can be said that Glaser’s film is a wasted gem in the television world, one that should have received much more investment and an additional 20 minutes of action to survive today as a far superior production, instead of yet another poorly told TV story unworthy of even becoming a hit in local video rental stores. Luckily, there’s YouTube and its users who are passionate about such oddities. On IMDb, it has 204 ratings. All of this means that Amazons has been completely forgotten. And it could have been for several reasons.

One reason is the lack of investment, which affected its distribution, and thus, its reach to the audience. ABC was one of the largest TV stations in the U.S., and it had already held that status in the 1980s. However, back then, no television network invested in films as much as independent producers did. Today, television is thankfully more understanding. Another reason could be the script, or rather, its holes. The Amazon story was reduced to a few women planning a global conspiracy. One historical sequence at the beginning, and the rest is more of a walking action film with some deception and a small fight at the end. The lack of special effects could have been off-putting. The absence of magical elements, even though the Amazons are connected to them, also didn’t help the reception of the plot. The world was reduced to too many office-hospital scenes, which probably bored many viewers. And then there are the antagonists. Strong, dark, proud women, who are both feminine and possess male strength — not the kind of women that the male American audience of the mid-80s liked, when racial and gender conservatism, if not outright sexism, were still prevalent. So, it’s hard for me not to recommend this flawed but interesting production, leaving you to decide whether such a political stance really deserves such or any removal from power.