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Hercules and the Amazon Women

Revision as of 19:50, 11 April 2017 by Ragestorm (Message Wall | contribs) (→‎Background Information)
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Hercules and his friend Iolaus must stop the legendary Amazon women who have been abducting children from a nearby village.

Summary

In a time long ago, Zeus, King of the Gods, charmed a mortal woman named Alcmene. Their union brought about a son, half-god and half-man, called Hercules. Hercules' existence angered Hera, the Queen of the Gods and Zeus' wife. She vowed to make Hercules suffer at every turn in order to punish Zeus, who despite never having a good relationship with his demigod son, cared a great deal for him.

Three men try and escape the beast-ridden forest that leads out of the village of Gargarencia. Only the one called Pithus makes it. Meanwhile, Hercules learns that his best friend, Iolaus, is getting married. On their way to visit Hercules' mother Alcmene, the best friends defeat one of Hera's favorite beasts called the Hydra. Later, Hercules and Alcmene visit Iolaus and his fiancé, Ania, for dinner. Pithus shows up in the same town looking for Hercules. He asks the demigod to return with him to Gargarencia to save it from the beasts.

Hercules and Iolaus return with Pithus. They speculate if he has told them everything when they notice that there are no women in the village, yet several infant male children. Pithus claims the women were taken by the beasts, while sometimes they find babies abandoned on the river bank. The next day, as they travel through the beast-ridden forest, Hercules and Iolaus discover that the women are actually the "beasts" after they are attacked by a band of female warriors wearing animal masks. During a scuffle with one of the women, Iolaus is stabbed to death. Hercules is then surrounded by several of the beasts. Two of them approach him with spears. A woman's voice cries out and says, "No Stop!" One of them raises their mask. It happens to be a woman. The woman then says, "The queen will want to kill him." Hercules is in utter shock to discover that the beast were actually women.

Hercules is then seen being taken captive by the women. He has been stripped of his shirt and chained to a wooden sled assembled by the women that is attached to a horses saddle. The women have also cleave gagged his mouth with a black leather strap. He is surrounded by women on each side of him and led into a village full of women. He is starred at by many of the women. A few laugh and taunt him. You can hear one of the women saying "keep him bound" and another saying "Men should be seen and not heard" in referrence to him being gagged. In the village, some women are being trained in combat and others are doing chores. When he arrives at the end of the village, the leader of the Amazon army (Lysia) helps to release from the sled. She tell Hercules "If you're looking for men, you won't find any. Not in the city of amazons. You're the only one and I don't think you'll last very long."

Hercules is taken into the palace to meet Hippolyta, The Queen of the Amazons. Their Queen is the beautiful and strong Hippolyta. Upon meeting Hercules, she berates him and his male ways. She tries to convince him that men aren't capable of showing emotion and compassion to women by using the Candle of Time to make him relive several defining moments of his childhood. Later, Zeus pays his son a visit while he rests in a cage the Amazons have locked him up in. When Zeus asks his son why he isn't trying to escape, Hercules reveals his interest in the fact that Hippolyta is strong and has a will of her own. Zeus warns his son that the Amazons are Hera's servants. After overhearing Lysia and Hippolyta plan a raid of Gargarencia, Hercules breaks out of the cage so he can return to Gargarencia and warn the men about the raid.

Upon returning to Gargarencia, Hercules learns that the "raids" aren't actual attacks, but "sexcapades" during which the women procreate with the men in order to establish a new generation of Amazon warriors. Hercules decides to prepare the men for their next encounter with the women by teaching them to listen to and respect them. The Amazons are impressed by the men's change of attitude toward them. Unfortunately, come morning, Hippolyta decides to summon her women back to the Amazon village. She speaks to Hera. The Queen of the Gods berates her for trusting Hercules, claiming Zeus and him planned the previous night's events to try and weaken the women into returning to be the men's subservient property. Having developed feelings for Hercules, Hippolyta tells Hera that the Amazons and her have had enough of her lies and hatred.

Hera decides to insure her vengeance by possessing the Amazon Queen. As Hippolyta, Hera orders the Amazons to ride to Gargarencia and leave nothing left standing. Ultimately, the women cannot destroy the men and their village. Hercules has to fight "Hippolyta" to save both the men and the Amazons. Pithus tries to come to Hercules' aid, but "Hippolyta" slits his throat. When Hercules has a chance to kill the possessed Hippolyta, he cannot do it as he would also be killing the woman he loves. Knowing the pain it will cause Hercules, "Hippolyta" takes a suicidal dive into a ravine.

Unable to cope with all the senseless deaths that have occurred, Hercules tries to set things right by using the Candle of Time to go back and change the past so Iolaus, Pithus and Hippolyta won't die. With Zeus' help he is able to do so. Instead of returning with Pithus, this time Hercules tells him to teach his men to respect and listen to the women.

Gallery

Background Information

  • This motion picture is the first to be set in what will eventually be known as the Xenaverse. It marks the first appearance of Hercules, Iolaus, Zeus and Hera- the same four characters would eventually appear in the series finale Full Circle. Alcmene also makes her first appearance.
  • Lucy Lawless was also present at the beginning: she played Lysia and would go on to play Xena.
  • Iolaus dies for the first time, but originally, he was not going to be brought back to life by the movie's end. He was intended to stay dead. However, Michael Hurst greatly impressed Rob Tapert and company with his performance. They changed the movie's ending to include the Zeus time travel twist that allows Hercules to prevent his friend's death, which made it possible to feature Iolaus in later stories. [1]
  • Rose McIver would later play Ilea, Hercules' daughter, and Daphne, who would later swap bodies with Xena.
  • With help from Iolaus, Hercules slays the Hydra. The slaying of the Hydra was the second of the Twelve Labors, and Iolaus is usually credited as Heracles's helper for this particular Labor. Most of the other labors would in some way be featured or referenced in following movies or episodes of HTLJ.
    • Hippolyta and the Amazons factor into the ninth labor, which saw Heracles/Hercules seek Hippolyta's girdle.
  • The rapprochement of the women and the men is apparently based on Herodotus' account of the formation of the Sauromatae people by the union of an Amazon offshoot with a group of Scythian men.
  • Michael Hurst is one of the few major actors (if not the only one) to be involved in every part of the media franchise. He has made appearances in the TV-Movies series, HTLJ, XWP, The Battle for Mt. Olympus , Young Hercules and YH. He also directed Amazon High (as well as episodes of HTLJ and XWP).
  • The music for this movie (and later much of the franchise) was scored by Joseph LoDuca, who scored Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy.
  • The depiction of Hercules and Iolaus as childhood friends is a blatant continuity error with later productions (notably "Hero's Heart") placing their first meeting when Iolaus was a fifteen-year-old thief. All are inconsistent with mythology, in which Iolaus was Heracles's lover or nephew.
  • The Amazons are considered semilegendary in this production, but in the rest of the Xenaverse, their existence is widely accepted, and meeting one is only uncommon.

Links and References

Cast

Other Cast

Uncredited

References

Beings/Creatures/People

Places

Alturia, City of Amazons, Gargarencia

Notes

  1. ↑ "It's a Wrap" segment – Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Season 6 DVD set

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