YOR THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE

Italy/US, 1983, 85 minutes, Colour.
Reb Brown, Corinne Clery.
Directed by Anthony H. Dawson.

Yor: the Hunter from the Future is Saturday matinee prehistoric material - in the vein of One Million B.C., Creatures that the World Forgot, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth and so on. It has its share of prehistoric monsters, although the film has a small budget and does not have vast resources for a variety of monsters. The film shows, as usual, groups of primitive people trying to survive, fighting one another, the details of their day to day living. American Reb Brown (Uncommon Valor, The Leonski Incident) is Yor. Corinne Clery (The Story of O, For Your Eyes Only, The Humanoid) is the heroine.

The film changes pace in the middle - and the audience discovers that this is not a prehistoric adventure but rather a post-nuclear adventure. The Earth has been destroyed; survivors (mutants and those who wield power) still survive - but are challenged by the new people led by Yor. This puts the film in the vein of The Planet of the Apes. It is very much routine material - with a nuclear twist.

1. The popularity of this kind of Saturday matinee material? Primitive societies? The change to science fiction, post-nuclear comment, the vision of the future?

2. Italian production values: settings, special effects and prehistoric monsters, stunt work? The American star? The French heroine? The rousing score?

3. The title and the focus on the past and the future?

4. The primitive setting: landscapes, villages, peoples, lifestyle clothes, hunting, cooking, fighting)?

5. The variety of communities, their battles, Yor as the hero stepping in from the unknown and saving people? Children?

6. The change in the screenplay to bring the plot to the present? The finding of technology? The nuclear situation, power, the wielders of authority, the slaves, the rebels? Machines?

7. Yor as the primitive hero moving in to combat the future? The routing of the power-hungry tyrants? The assertion of the rebels?

8. The film's comment that the post-nuclear age will resemble the prehistoric era? The possibility of humankind for a new chance? New beginnings? The same mistakes?