The Sword and the Sorcerer

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Talon and the titular sword. Offscreen, making him sick: The titular sorcerer.

The Sword and the Sorcerer was a low-budget Heroic Fantasy movie from 1982.

A generation ago, an evil sorcerer aided an ambitious tyrant named Cromwell, allowing him to win a decisive battle against his enemies. But Cromwell betrayed the sorcerer, stabbing him in the back (literally); he's not quite dead, but it'll take years or even decades for him to recover. In the process, Cromwell also slays his arch-rival Richard, but makes the crucial mistake of leaving his young son Talon alive.

Cut to the present -- a present that resembles a fantasy version of the middle ages -- and Talon is now a grown mercenary. With the help of a sword with 3 blades (2 of which it can shoot like missiles), Talon rides into town, swings his sword, woos the princess, defeats the evil Cromwell, and finally slays the evil sorcerer for good.

At the end of the film's credits, we were given a tantalizing promise of the further adventures of Talon in later movies, none of which ever materialized.

Tropes used in The Sword and the Sorcerer include:
  • Cool Sword: A sword you could shoot people with. Stan Freberg's "forty-five caliber sword" joke takes on a whole new meaning here.
    • A big deal is made in this movie of "whose steel is stronger." In the final fight against Cromwell, the titular 3-bladed sword actually breaks when Talon parries one of Cromwell's blows; thus, by the transitive property, we know that Cromwell's sword must be even cooler.
  • Heroic Fantasy: Another name for heroic fantasy is "sword and sorcery", after all.
  • Fanfare: The main theme is just about the only memorable thing made by David Whitaker. (And just about the only memorably thing in this movie, for that matter.) It appears in this video at about 2:43.
  • Fictional Currency: The city uses the Talon as their unit of currency. Which, either by coincidence or by the late Richard's design, is also the name of the hero.
  • Retroactive Recognition: Xusia, the titular Sorcerer, is Bull Shannon.
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