The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
by Gordon Hessler
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DVD details
Actor: Caroline Munro, Douglas Wilmer, John Phillip Law, Martin Shaw, Tom BakerDirector: Gordon Hessler
Brand: LAW,JOHN PHILLIP
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Georgian (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled); Thai (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Portuguese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-06-06
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
DVD Review: "Every voyage has its own flavor."
Summary: 4 Stars
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), the second film in the Ray Harryhausen/Charles H. Schneer trilogy, the other two being The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), all available in a three DVD boxed set available as I write this...when I say `trilogy', I mean three films featuring the character of Sinbad, as they are not one, continuous storyline, but three, separate tales, so there is no necessity to watch them in any particular order. Co-written by Brian Clemens ("The Avengers") and Ray Harryhausen, and directed by Gordon Hessler (Scream and Scream Again, `KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park'), the film stars John Phillip Law (Danger: Diabolik), Caroline Munro (At the Earth's Core, Maniac), and Tom Baker, who would find his niche in his next role as the lead character (played by many over the years) in the long running BBC television series "Doctor Who". Also appearing is Douglas `Nayland Smith' Wilmer (The Brides of Fu Manchu), Kurt Christian (Horror Hospital, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger), and Robert Shaw (From Russia with Love, Jaws) as the floating, larger than life, gangrenous, disembodied, riddle speaking, horned head of The Oracle of all knowledge...seriously, you have to see, fizzy bubbles and all, it to believe it...
The film opens with a ship sailing the ocean, those aboard spotting a mysterious-looking flying creature overhead, carrying a shiny object, which it ends up dropping. Sinbad (Law) picks it up and has visions of a hot babe (Munro) dancing about in I Dream of Genie garb...the crew thinks it's bad mojo (they're idiots), but Sinbad decides to keep it (hey, if it provides visions of Miss Munro just by touching it I'd keep it too). Later that night, after Sinbad has some strange and seemingly prophetic dreams, he and his crew narrowly avoid complete destruction during a harrowing storm, and end up finding themselves off course, near a kingdom named Marabia. Sinbad goes ashore, to which he has a run in with some a-hole named Koura (Baker), a meddler in the black arts and someone desperate to get the golden object Sinbad found earlier at sea. Turns out the object is part of a map, one leads to untold wealth, power...and danger. The Grand Vizer (Wilmer), who rules the land, requests Sinbad's help in that if this prize were to fall into Koura's possession, Marabia (and eventually the world) would suffer greatly, so begins a race against evil to a mythical island named Lemuria, where a fortune the likes never seen before await, along with some really nasty, ill-tempered creatures one would normally expect to see in a film like this...
While The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is my favorite of the Sinbad films, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (Filmed in Dynarama!) is really pretty decent and shouldn't be neglected. The weakest element in this film for me was it took so very long for things to really get going. The first third of the film sort of drags its feet, but it does pick up eventually. On thing that annoyed me was the writing, particularly the way nearly every, stinkin' character regurgitated proverb after proverb after proverb..."Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel."..."A live dog is better than a dead lion." and my personal favorite "He who walks on fire will burn his feet."...can anyone tell me what was the point of the character played by Kurt Christian, named Haroun? Sinbad ends up taking a merchant's worthless son at the merchant's behest (to make him a man, I suppose), but it seemed only a plot contrivance to work Munro's slave girl character into the film (Sinbad decline, but then agreed when the merchant tossed in the girl as part of the bargain). Yeah, Haroun took part in a number of sequences later on (mostly as a comic relief), but my point is he was pretty much a worthless and unnecessary character, cluttering up the landscape, and taking screen time away from the others, particularly Caroline Munro, who, thankfully had very few speaking lines (Think I'm kidding? Check out her 1979 film Starcrash and get back to me)...don't get me wrong, I love her to death, but she just can't act...but then neither can I, so we're even. I though Law did very good job portraying and embodying the swashbuckling Sinbad, but his crew didn't fare as well. Instead of harden, sea weathered sailors, they appeared to be a bunch of longhaired dudes pulled in from off the street and dressed as sailors...at least they were better than the goofy dancing tribe of green meanies that populated the Temple of the Oracle. Also, I thought the quest itself got a bit convoluted...every time one aspect would be completed, like three more things would need to be done to move on...the mythical island of Lemuria, Temple of the Oracle, The Oracle of All Knowledge, The Great Eminence, the Fountain of Destiny, Crown of Wealth, Cloak of Darkness...where does it end? By the way, did anyone else notice how similar the Fountain of Destiny was to Stonehenge? Baker did very well as the villain, as by the end of the film you really wanted to wring his neck. An interesting aspect was that every time his character called upon his magics, he got a little older as his delving into the black arts require a physical payment of sorts. And I have a question...when Sinbad and his men were trapped in the cave, they made a rope out of clothes...how come Caroline Munro's character was the only one not to contribute to the cause? Missed opportunities...so what about the creatures? Well, let's see...there's a homunculus (a tiny, winged demon looking creature), a lively ship's masthead, a six-armed statue of Kali a sickly cycloptic Minotaur (half humanoid, half bull), and a griffon (wings and head of an eagle, body of a lion). The homunculus is probably the best looking in terms of detail and movement, but in terms of actually blending it into the live action, it probably looks the most awkward...but that's all right because I've got imagination, and I can make exceptions when the effort is obviously there, even if the results are less than ideal. The coolest sequence involved Sinbad and his men fighting the six-armed (six swords) Kali to the death...it didn't look as good as when Sinbad fought the skeleton in the first film, but still, it is exciting and completely worthwhile viewing, underscored well by Miklós Rózsa's adept musical scoring. Overall strong production values, great settings, decent acting, decent directing add up to a fun and enjoyable adventure for all...three stars for the movie, plus one extra for Caroline Munro's heaving cleavage.
The film is presented in both widescreen anamorphic (1.85:1) and fullscreen format, both looking very clean and clear. The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio comes through well enough to satisfy most. There's a good amount of special features available, including three featurettes titled `Mysterious Island' (9:04), `The 3 Worlds of Gulliver' (5:21), and `Earth vs. the Flying Saucer" (8:37), vintage advertising, an original theatrical trailer, and production notes in a insert booklet.
Cookieman108
Description of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
Sinbad, the prince of Baghdad, sets sail for the uncharted island of Lemuria with a beautiful slave girl, Margianna; Prince Koura is an evil wizard who tries to thwart Sinbad's quest.Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: G
Release Date: 1-JUL-2003
Media Type: DVD
John Phillip Law stars as the legendary sailor this time around as he finds a talisman and sets sail with his crew for an uncharted island. With a beautiful slave girl (Caroline Munro) in tow, Sinbad takes on the evil sorcerer Koura (Tom Baker), who wants Sinbad's golden talisman to complete a spell. En route to the island, Koura brings the ship's figurehead to life to wreak havoc on the ship and crew. Once there, Sinbad and crew must do battle with a six-armed figure of Kali brandishing a sword in each hand, as well as an enraged Cyclops centaur and a winged griffin, and also deal with the treacherous Koura.
This 1974 entry in the Sinbad franchise is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, the film's production values are quite good, and of course the Ray Harryhausen effects are as beautiful as ever. The set design (especially for the scenes inside the cavern) is striking and inventive, and there's Miklós Rózsa's score gracing the soundtrack. On the other hand, the story definitely tends to drag a bit, and Law's indeterminate accent often wavers toward a weird Slavic inflection. Pointing to the film's age, Law and company often tend to look like poncey rock stars with their long hair, beards, and harem pants. That's all nitpicking, though; the action segments, though they're fewer and farther between than in other Sinbad films, redeem the movie with Harryhausen's incredible artistry. It's worth owning just to see the fluid, complex movements of the animated Kali flailing away at six men with her swords. And of course, scream queen Caroline Munro never looked better as the slave girl Margiana. This is rich, well-crafted fantasy fare that the entire family can enjoy. --Jerry Renshaw
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