Sheena (1984)

Pretty Good

Best movie of this year hands down!

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This often maligned movie is my personal film classic. I saw it in 1984 at a drive-in theater, and now you've got to take my country into account. South Africa with its Draconian censorship laws still in full force, with the emphasis on force, so there was no nudity. There were lots of promotional photographs of the bikini beauty in the press when it was released, but the poster was relatively subdued, bikini beauty yes, but mostly an adventurous image, rather than something pin-up. Anyway, I went to see the pretty girl, and got to see a fun movie with likable characters. Okay, so there are the corny bits, such as Sheena's calling-the-elephants stance. But it's all wonderful fun! And that theme music! Okay, so what if it's a striped pony? Hell, I didn't come to see a zebra. Hell, if you are after a real zebra, might I suggest National Geographic? Off you go then!That scene where she wakes up next to him the next morning, wow, can anybody ever be that perfect in real life? I had it copied onto VHS, and became even better friends with the guy who did it for me as a favor. We shared similar tastes. He was, by the way, the projectionist at this drive-in. I then discovered, through this video rental, the nude scenes. But it was a much-abused original, and my copy of course looked weak.Years later, and after an initial struggle, I have it on DVD. I well remember it was Sunday, 22 January 2010. Movie night! Finally, SHEENA! In all her splendor! First as a child (!! Wow, pretty kids! Really pretty, well-chosen children, but very surprising, all that nudity, not that I myself see anything wrong with that, quite the opposite, it is healthy and natural, BUT WE ALL KNOW HOW PEOPLE ARE, and I suppose there were at least some outcry in the Puritanical regions.) Then, gloriously, Tanya Roberts, all golden mane and long legs and curves everywhere, one stunning example of young maidenhood, and now fully exposed on equally glorious DVD! I could have wept with happiness!I have since also obtained the Gena Lee Nolan TV series and will be reviewing that in the near future, but Tanya Roberts is my particular favorite. Granted, if Gena Lee 'didn't waste her time on BAYWATCH' (not that I really, really mean that, for she was the best bird of the lot) and if SHEENA the TV series came along sooner, she'd have been in her absolute prime. But that's for another review.The action scenes are well done, and that military convoy looks great on the screen. Oh, that old toothless-looking circus lion was a letdown, and the chimps corny as hell, but who really cares when you've got such a feast of Grade A eye-candy? I also loved Sheena's way of talking. 'The water the wagons drink', 'his fermented buffalo milk will be your fermented buffalo milk', 'I see my death in your eyes', 'Vic Casey, you are a giant', the list could go on and on. Tanya Roberts is, by all accounts, a difficult actress to work with, and she really got canned for A VIEW TO A KILL, but the initial haughtiness of her Sheena really made the character all the more tangible.The theme music during the opening credits, and the dramatic climactic showdown, deserves special mention. I have a huge TV with powerful stereo sound (brag, brag :)) and I go full blast!Please somebody Find This Healing Earth In Real Life?Go for it. Just leave your two-bit movie critic attitude at the door. There are clearly many mistakes, there was room for improvement, but what was filmed, remains well worth watching again and again to this day!Update, 7 April 2017. Some thoughts on the Sheena subject after I've spent a considerable part of last month downloading pics of Sheena on DeviantArt. I will be forever divided in two here. For Sheena, it goes: Lean scantily-clad blond goddess, the glorious animals, the wonder of nature. Against it goes: any muscular depiction, which ruins it for me completely. My thoughts went back to the movie, and I had the warmest, warmest regard for Tanya Roberts. Even watched INNER SANCTUM. Say about her what you like, you bunch of detractors out there, I'll always judge her on what was delivered on the screen, and The Lady Is A Goddess. So feel free to mock this 1984 title, ridicule it all you want, but of course, as Wikipedia says, the box office bomb had its success on home video, in the privacy of people's homes, yeah, of course. I rest my case. I will take it even further though. I will go as far as to say that there is something about the Jeep/Landrover/whatever & zebra chase scene with the bow and arrow and that music that is just... words fail me... it will just stay with me forever. If a bit of nudity caused people to turn against it (a la SHOWGIRLS) then all the more reason for it to be seen in a more enlightened age. The kind of nudity here is pretty as a postcard. If anybody is offended by it, I AM OFFENDED MUCH MORE DEEPLY BY THAT KIND OF PERSON.What a relief to have this fun-filled jewel on DVD despite the bickering hordes bringing it down.

Since I've opened up the subject of Sheena, queen of the jungle, I've decided to mention the 1984 movie version. Tanya Roberts had campaigned for the role many years, even claiming her part in The Beastmaster was to demonstrate she had the acting ability. It was released in the summer blockbuster season. Sadly, the movie bombed after the critics tore the film apart.Which is too bad because the Sheena we got in 1984 wasn't all that bad. Yes, it did have a mind-numbing pseudo-Vangelis score which grated on the nerves. But Tanya Roberts did her best to play the legendary jungle queen. The opening scene, where the healing powers of the sacred soil are shown, is fantastic. Too bad the rest of the movie never lived up to the first five minutes. I should also give the producers credit for filming the movie entirely in Kenya. The shots of the grasslands are magnificent. Even Pauline Kael admitted " the picture certainly never starves the eye". The Sheena movie we were given in 1984 had the title character in plain suede leather, not the bizarre leopard skins of previous years.The question which never gets answered in this movie (or any other jungle girl flick) is where she gets her hair and make-up done. I've always wondered if Chim the ape was trained to do hair care at an early age and has a salon hidden somewhere on the savanna. But it's all part of the willing suspension of disbelief.The 1984 Sheena movie continues to be popular on video and DVD. I'm not aware of a Blu-ray version, but I'm sure one is one the way. http://www.z7hq.com/pulp/sheena-movie-1984.php

In the early 20th century, Audrey Munson made her movie debut in Thanhouser's "Inspiration" (1915), essentially playing herself: an artist's model. A year later, she appeared in another film, "Purity" (1916). What is remarkable about these films is that in both, Miss Munson appears in the nude. This is in the nineteen-teens, remember. There were censorship boards then, run by the states rather than the film industry... and of course they always sought to keep the movie screens free of smut.And yet, both "Inspiration" and "Purity" were approved for public exhibition... because the nudity in them was artistic and non-erotic. I don't know if that standard has ever been applied, to any other film; or rather, I didn't know, until I chanced across "Sheena" (1984).Browsing through the channels one evening, I found this film, starring Tanya Roberts as Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. "I'll give it a chance," I figured. So my wife and I watched as Ms. Roberts, clad only in a leather bikini-like garment, went about her adventures in the jungles of darkest Africa.Then, out of nowhere, there's a scene where she stops by a lake to bathe. I figured she would just jump in, since she's already wearing practically nothing anyway, right? Wrong!Before we knew what was happening, Tanya Roberts slipped out of her garment and entered the lake nude, in all God's glory. I mean it when I say I didn't see it coming. Most of the time when you see nudity on the screen, you kinda know it's coming, but this was a real surprise.I checked the program guide for the MPAA rating. Gotta be an R, right? Wrong again! Sheena was given a PG rating -- not a PG-13, not an R, not an NC-17. It's a PG, meaning any youngster, of any age, can see the movie without an adult. And, come to think of it, the "Parental Guidance" suggested by PG is probably because of some battle scenes in the movie.Thinking back, I wonder: Is this the first time since the two Audrey Munson films in 1915 and 1916, that on-screen adult nudity has been allowed, with no restrictions whatsoever?I'm not a big fan of nude scenes, and I don't seek them out. But this one, in Sheena, has to be the most innocent one I've ever seen.Dan Navarro ([email protected])

The film for the period was good. It was an adaptation of the women in the movie Tarzan. Sheena had excellent environments and photographs but the base was good. This film had the beautiful actress Tanya Roberts and its thanks. The environments show a 'africa and uncontaminated healthy and the link between this woman and Tarzan animals. The Charlie's angels tried to make this movie for 80 years could be fine. The actress was physically a little 'lean arms were fairly skeletal and the breast was little short, was not a woman but increased for the role that was to run and in one thousand ups went well. The film, I repeat, was a response to male Tarzan although as usual on this website prefers to lay sea everything that was part of anni'80. It 'a tradition!!