Comments on: Movies Seen Recently: Hundra, Cube, Invitation to a Gunfighter https://nathanshumate.com/movies-seen-recently-hundra-cube-invitation-to-a-gunfighter/ I make things, and I make things up. Fri, 27 Sep 2024 19:18:33 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 By: RK https://nathanshumate.com/movies-seen-recently-hundra-cube-invitation-to-a-gunfighter/#comment-3973 Mon, 23 Sep 2024 01:51:33 +0000 https://nathanshumate.com/?p=35365#comment-3973 Ah, yes: Hundra; I remember seeing that back during the times of transition between VHS tapes and DVDs (the late nineties to early aughts, in case anybody too young to remember that time might be reading this), and I managed to get a copy that came with a commentary track from some of the cast and crew, which included Laurene Langdon herself. Something she mentioned on that track that’s always stuck with me (since I’d learned some Spanish in college by then) was mentioning that in a scene involving a failed sexual encounter with a decidedly unattractive (and flatulent) barbarian guy out in the wilderness, the actor playing that disgusting character was actually a rather nice guy who didn’t like having to beat and mistreat a gal even just as an act, so she actually to goad him into playing rough with her as the script required. She says she yelled at him something like “C’mon mariquita, I know you can do better than that!” which (if you know your Spanish vulgarities) was a very stinging insult indeed.

Of course, from the general direction the story took, I get the impression its writer(s) didn’t like men very much. I also get the impression it was actually intended to be a somewhat serious story pushing a feminist narrative, but that between all the men involved in producing it and its relatively low budget, they just decided to embrace the cheesiness of it all and make it kinda campy and silly instead so its target audience (lonely and primarily male film geeks) could enjoy it. As the (male) director and his fellow crew on that commentary track pointed out concerning the religion of the town where Hundra learns some of the finer points of grooming herself to attract a man, they called it the “Cult of the Bull” with the winking implication that this cult and its adherents were full a different kind of bull, so to speak.

On the whole, I’d say they succeeded in softening what could have been an obnoxiously misandrist movie to make it more broadly enjoyable; but when it comes to entertaining low-budget flicks about the war of the sexes, America 3000 was a lot more fun. While both are based on the rather dubious premise that a sustainable society composed entirely of women who try to have as little to do with men as possible could actually exist, at least America 3000 broadly hinted at how such a society could have arisen in the first place (with the wise old woman in that movie reciting some of its lore as part of the new ruler’s inauguration ceremony). One also has to put one’s suspension of disbelief through quite a workout to accept the idea that any reasonably attractive gal (let alone anyone as easy on the eyes as Laurene Langdon) would have much trouble convincing a nice normal guy who doesn’t seem to have any other prospects for getting some feminine action to impregnate her; whereas one can easily suspend disbelief that the ruler of a society of men who are the escaped former slaves of a ruthless matriarchy might have some difficulty convincing the ruler of that same matriarchy (who’s been raised all her life to view all men with contempt and loathing) to let him love her rather than just “seed” her (although he’s quite willing to do that too).

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