kicked off with the international success of John Milius' Conan the Barbarian in 
1982 and particularly gained traction in Italy was already slowing down considerably three years later with films like Ladyhawke, Legend, and The Black Cauldron proving to be less than blockbuster hits (though all have big cult followings now). To that list you can add Red Sonja, an attempt by producer Dino De Laurentiis to continue the cycle he had begun with Conan the Barbarian and its lighter, more family-friendly sequel, 1984's Conan the Destroyer from director Richard Fleischer. De Laurentiis managed to wrangle back star Arnold Schwarzenegger again for a character called Lord Kaligor here but otherwise the same as Conan in pretty much every way, with his name changed due to rights issues. The title character in Red Sonja is credited here to Conan writer Robert E. Howard and his Red Sonja of Rogatino, though it's far more closely based on the chain-mail bikini-wearing Marvel Comics character (using the current spelling and initially a spin-off from Marvel's Conan comics) whose publishing run initiated by creators Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith ended a year after this film.
roles in Rocky IV, Cobra, and Beverly Hills Cop II before mainly heading off to work in Europe. Shot with lavish resources in Italy and outfitted with a score by Ennio Morricone, the film charts the vengeful path of Sonja who suffers horrifically at the hands of the evil but flamboyantly dressed Queen Gedren (Conan the Barbarian's Bergman) including a sexual assault from 
her guards and the slaughter of her entire family. That includes Sonja's mystical sister, Varna (City of the Living Dead's Agren), whose priestesses are the keepers of a big glowing green talisman that can only be handled by women and could destroy the world. The traveling Kalidor brings Sonja to Varna just before dying to learn about a mission to destroy the talisman now in the queen's hands, and fortunately Sonja has also been bestowed with superhuman sword-fighting abilities as long as she doesn't sleep with a man who can't beat her in a fair fight. Much combat ensues on the road as Sonja and Kalidor spar and bicker and separate several times, with two more traveling companions, juvenile martial artist Prince Tarn (The Last Dragon's Reyes, Jr.) and his bodyguard, Falkon (Pieces' Smith), all of whom will be instrumental in trying to stop the queen from destroying the world.
scenes (and a gruesome severed head gag), but today that adds to the off-kilter '80s charm of the whole thing if you watch in the right spirit. Basically it's the kind of thing that worked great when it passed an afternoon on HBO for a couple of generations of impressionable fantasy-loving kids, which is why it now has a warm place in many hearts today.
time and has been on home video numerous times including an okay Warner DVD in 2004. Pretty much everywhere else in the world, the film is controlled by StudioCanal (or whichever spelling of the company's name you prefer) who first issued it on Blu-ray in 2010 via its own name and affiliates (eventually folded into the main company) Optimum in the U.K. and Kinowelt in Germany. That release looked pretty good at the time and came with English and French 5.1 DTS-HD audio options plus German, Italian, Spanish, or Russian 2.0 mono, with Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, or Russian subtitles. The film was mixed and released theatrically in mono for some reason, but the 5.1 remix sounds okay even if Morricone's rather thin-sounding score doesn't particularly lend itself to having lots of reverb added on. Also featured on the disc are a trailer and "Arnold Schwarzenegger: The Man Who Raised Hollywood" (15m39s), an okay featurette on Schwarzenegger’s early career with colleagues like Peter Hyams, Arthur Allan Seidelman, Edward Pressman, Michel Ferry (an assistant director on Red Sonja), and others chatting about the star's career from Pumping Iron onward. Then Ferry turns up solo for "Red Sonja vs. Kalidor: The making of a Misunderstanding" (12m3s) an archive interview with assistant director Michel Ferry about De Laurentiis' technical prep for the film and the complications of making a Conan film where you couldn't use the character's name. 
finish with a heavy teal and urine color scheme that's impossible to watch for more than a couple of minutes. For what it's worth, that release (which has a "remastered" Blu-ray for good measure) comes with English or French 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio plus French or German 2.0 mono with English, French and German subtitles. Both previous featurettes are here plus the original trailer, a new trailer to show off how godawful the "restoration" looks, and in the sole saving grace of the release, the 2020 Italian doc Renato Casaro: The Last Movie Painter (97m32s) and a gallery of art devoted to the artist behind numerous 
iconic posters including this one. 
heavy hitters you'll recognize in the cast and crew, as well as the enduring appeal of Smith (still loved among Gen X-ers for Popeye) and the essentials about the source material. The second track by Dave Baxter focuses a great deal on the tenuous connection to the original Robert E. Howard character, the evolution of her name and Marvel origins used in the film, the film's status 
as more or less the third part in the "Barbarian" trilogy, the rocky history of female-led fantasy and sci-fi around this time including Supergirl, the character's striking and much-cosplayed outfit, and the backgrounds of the cast. It's fun and informative, though for some reason the movie audio occasionally cuts in loudly and drowns him out for quick bursts.
stunt man Ottaviano Dell’Acqua (a.k.a. wormface from Zombie) discusses his career since childhood and highlights in peplums and westerns, culminating in not only doing action on this film but getting a recognizable role on-camera as well. He's hilarious as always with a particularly great bodybuilding anecdote at the end. "The 12 Labors of Red Sonja" (30m43s) features assistant production manager Stefano Spadoni sharing his own production war stories, talking about the "professional eye-opener" of doing this film with five units at a time, the nature of working with Dino De 
Laurentiis, and lessons learned from it all including the "Italian way of doing things." In "The Marvel of Primitive Technology" (28m10s), effects artist Domingo Lizcano discusses the techniques and background of Spanish special effects guru and set decorator Emilio Ruiz del Río, a cineaste who also worked on Dune and several Guillermo del Toro films. "Moulding Fantasies" (20m18s) is a new interview with make-up effects assistant Adriano Carboni about the local tendencies for directors and actors to also take on makeup duties, the masters of the makeup craft in the golden era, and his father's work on major Italian productions with some of the all-time greats like Fellini and Leone. Though the Casaro doc isn't on here, you do get "Bodybuilding the Imagery" (22m34s), a previously unreleased archival interview about his poster art and attempts to overhaul the era's stereotypical imagery. "The Man Who Raised Hollywood" and "Red Sonja vs. Kalidor: The Making of a Misunderstanding" are also ported over here, plus the trailer and a 56-image gallery. The typically lavish packaging comes with a double-sided foldout poster, six postcard-sized reproduction artcards, and a booklet featuring essays by John Walsh, Nanni Cobretti and Barry Forshaw.Arrow (UHD)
StudioCanal (UHD)
Kinowelt (Blu-ray)
