Barbarians at the Gates of Hollywood: Sword and Sorcery Movies of the 1980s (Movie Guides)

This is not the book I wished it to be.It’s not terrible. Its early chapters: “Forward”, “Introduction” and “Influences” give an admirable background of how swords and sorcery came to be. It’s short entry for each movie give entertaining plot capsules, but not much discussion.There are some neat tidbits given, but I get the sense that not much research was performed other than watching the movies. I wanted tropes identified and discussed, commonalities not just pointed out (the book does do this), but dived into.I wanted movie stills. Not one. I do, however, dig the retro look of the cover.Enjoyable, but not ground breaking. This is little more than a fan’s blog with a cool cover.Major annoyance: the book ends with an elevator pitch for the author’s latest novel “Available Now!”

A good intro and overview to the sub genre. Mostly a series of plot synopses with a little behind-the-scenes info but the author has some fun turns of phrases and provides lengthy and well-researched introduction and conclusion that really layout the film subgenre’s literary and comic book and previous film influences. I used this book as a good excuse to watch a good batch of these movies and had a blast watching some of them and reading along.

Reminded me of a simpler time....Fun to reminisce about movies from my childhood. Some good movies I haven't seen in awhile. Good reading...