I really can't imagine anyone watching Gor and thinking, "What a great movie." It's got problems galore - bad acting, ridiculous dialogue, poor special effects, a horrible plot . . . you name it, it's probably bad.With all that in mind, I understand I've most likely overrated Gor. But it's just too much fun! Three things I enjoy - 1. The Cheese - I really hate the expression, but for me, Gor is the definition of so bad it's good. Fortunately, the movie never seems to take itself too seriously. 2. Oliver Reed - I doubt Reed could have passed a sobriety test while filming, but he's got so much presence, he's always worth watching - even with the ridiculous dialogue. 3. Rebecca Ferratti - What's not to like - WOW! And that hair - puts most 80s hair bands to shame.Even with the many obvious problems, the thing that bugs me the most is the ending. The last 5 minutes is tacked on to setup the sequel. Jack Palance is also featured in the ending. You'll be forgiven if you forget he's supposed to be in the movie. He's only there to plug the followup.

I honestly don't know why they bothered making this movie (or Outlaw of Gor either).Now, I know that people are tired of listening to the fans of books put down movies because they stray too much from the books, but in this case, listen up. They didn't just "stray" from the books. This is nothing like them at all.In the books, there is a counter Earth called Gor. This planet orbits our sun directly opposite the Earth, so it cannot be seen. The "Gods" of Gor are a technically advanced race of giant insects called the Priest Kings. These insects use their technology to prevent humans on Earth from detecting Gor.The Priest Kings realize that humanity is close to destruction by their own hand (nuclear war) and so they bring a large sampling of Earth's population to Gor, but forbid them from making any form of technology other than medical. Because of this, Gor has developed Stabilization Serums that allow them to stop ageing.The people of Gor are organized into a caste system, with slavers, warriors, builders, physicians and so on. The main character Tarl Cabbot is in the caste of Warriors. He is a professor from Earth, who was kidnapped and brought to Gor. It turns out his father was a leader of one of Gor's city-States called Ko-Ro-Ba.The books are all based on his learning the way of Gor, and becoming the best swordsman the planet has ever seen.Because of the sampling of humanity brought to Gor, the peoples there are separated into areas of the planet they would naturally be from on Earth, thus you have Viking like people in the north, Arab like people in the desert and so on. Many of the books take place with the main character in different areas of the planet amongst different peoples.Due to the caste system on Gor, they have developed slavery. All slaves are branded and become property of their masters. Many women are used as pleasure slaves, and the author John Norman often goes overboard (especially in the later books) trying to convince the reader how women naturally want to be dominated by men. He gets so involved in this in his later books that I often found myself skipping chapters that had nothing to do with the story.All of this back-story is basically completely missing from the movies, and the Priest Kings have been relegated to being played by Jack Palance's Xenos character.So, basically, everything that made this book series "epic" was removed, and they made it into a bad warrior-journey movie ala The Beast Master.One of the problems is that they may have not had the budget or the capability to pull off some of the great things about the books, like some of the encounters between the Priest Kings and their deadly enemies the "Others", or the ability to see Gor's warriors riding their mounts, Tarns, which are giant hawk-like birds (I can just see them trying to pull this off at the time and failing miserably).The book that follows the first two, The Priest Kings of Gor, Cabbot actually goes to the mountains the Priest Kings live under, and meets them and is involved in a civil war between the forces of The First and the Fifth (those are the leaders of the Priest Kings, as in the first born, and the fifth born).Nothing like these characters, events, or even the true nature of the Gor books is even touched on in these two complete failures they called movies. They should have just called them something else considering how bad they were, and how little they had to do with the books.Personally, I think that if they were to make a real attempt at making these books into new R rated movies, they could have some real block busters on their hands. They could remove 75% of Norman and his fetish with dominating women, but still had a great, bloody, sexy series of movies that could interest a lot of adult scifi/fantasy fans.As for the movies, just skip them, They're so bad they will leave a bad taste in your mouth. Just don't let it stop you from reading the books.

The John Norman "Gor" series gets a thoroughly shoddy screen treatment with this hopeless Italian entry in the sword 'n' sorcery genre. Norman's novels blended magic and fantasy with elements of erotica, and the early entries in the series were quite highly regarded (though later ones received increasingly negative reviews). There is none of the sexual stuff in this film version and anyone expecting to be titillated will be sorely disappointed. In fact, anyone expecting to be entertained will be disappointed too – this is one of those films that bears few, if any, redeeming qualities.A nerdy American college professor, Tarl Cabot (Urbano Barberini), is involved in a car crash, but his body is catapulted by magic to another planet. This other planet, named Gor, is terrorised by ruthless tyrant Sarm (Oliver Reed), who spends most of his time leading his army from village to village enslaving the people and stealing their homestones. Tarl arrives just in time to witness an attack on yet another community. He accidentally gets caught up in the fight and kills one of Sarm's soldiers – who happens to be Sarm's son. The people hail Tarl as a champion, a warrior from another dimension sent to overthrow Sarm. It soon becomes apparent that this timid scholar is far from a hero, and he has to be trained in combat ready for his quest. Tarl and a small group of companions – among them accomplished swordswoman Talena (Rebecaa Ferratti) – set off across the desert to Sarm's realm to end his reign of fear once and for all.Where to begin with what is wrong with "Gor"? Finding fault is almost too easy – it's like tripping a handicapped kid. The performances range from the vacant (Barberini and Ferratti) to the downright bizarre (is there a scene in the whole film during which Reed appears to be fully sober?) The dialogue is utterly trite, the narrative is so episodic it becomes boringly predictable, and there is a distinct lack of conviction in the fight sequences. If Norman's novels contained any intelligent ideas, they are nowhere to be found here. The only thing saving "Gor" from a 1-out-of-10 rating is that it is at least ripe for unintentional hilarity. The joke turns a little sour when Jack Palance turns up in the final five minutes to set up a sequel – what has the population of the world done to deserve another dose of this moronic garbage?

If they made a movie true to the book, it would have been great. This is the first science fiction series of books I ever read starting in 1973. Instead of the Priest Kings being immense, highly-intelligent sophisticated insects that communicate via smell, we get Jack Palace as a man. Instead of traveling via tarns (immense hawk-like birds) and tharlions (mini T Rex like lizards) we get horses. I think a limited budget might have played a large roll in all this.I'm hoping they will remake these books into movies with modern special effects. The original story from the book is very well done too. In fact, the first 8 books are pretty good.