User Reviews

Steve Carver's "The Arena" aka. "Naked Warriors" of 1974 is a highly entertaining piece of 70s exploitation that should not be missed by a B-movie fan. Produced by the almighty Roger Corman, co-directed by the king of exploitation himself, Joe D'Amato, and starring the sexiest duo of 70s cult heroines, the wonderful Pam Grier and Margaret Markov, this is pure Grindhouse cinema for lovers, and should not leave anybody bored.

Abducted from their homelands and enslaved by Romans, two young women, the Nubian Mamawi (Pam Grier) and Bodicia (Margaret Markov) from the Brittany, are, along with other female slaves purchased by the Roman owner of an arena, where they are to do domestic work and serve as mistresses/sex slaves to the gladiators. After a fight at the dinner table, however, one of their unscrupulous slaveholders suggests to have the women fight for their lives in the arena, in order to offer something fresh to the blood-thirsty audiences...

Both stunningly beautiful, charismatic, sexy and cool, Pam Grier and Margaret Markov are a true dream team in exploitation cinema (something they already proved in "Black Mama, White Mama" of 1972). Apart from Grier and Markov, the cast furthermore contains Lucretia Love ("Battle Of The Amazons", "The Sexorcist") and Rosalba Neri ("Lady Frankenstein", "Johnny Yuma"). Another cool role is that of Paul Mueller, a huge, ugly and bald Tor Johnson-lookalike, who plays an invincible gladiator. I personally also found the score pretty cool, although it is certainly not too original. The sleaze and violence are not quite as extreme as in many other exploitation flicks of the kind, but there's enough of both to entertain. Being a fan of exploitation flicks (or not) is a matter of taste, of course, and "The Arena" may therefore not be everybody's type of film. I personally love this kind of films however, and I therefore recommend this to all my fellow exploitation-enthusiasts. Especially Pam-Grier fans should give it a try!

I wish there were more actresses out there like Pam Grier. A very pretty face, a wonderful body, a tough attitude and surprisingly mature acting for a woman who was, when this "Arena" was made, only 24 years old. And Margaret Markov, her co-star here, is not far behind in any of those categories. The biggest virtue of this film are those two characters - strong, well-defined, acted with conviction. Others have compared the "Arena" with Roger Corman's WIP flicks, but the treatment of the subjects here is much more thoughtful and non-exploitative. As for the actual fight scenes, considering that most of these women probably had not touched a sword before in their lives, they did a fairly good job. Too bad the DVD is full-screen, which damages the compositions severely. (**1/2)

On paper, 'The Arena' looks like exploitation gold. You're got the sexy and super cool Pam Grier and Margaret Markov teamed up again after their success in Eddie Romero's 'Black Mama, White Mama'. A script by the Corringtons, fresh from the success of 'The Omega Man'. Plus two directors, prolific king of sleaze Joe D'Amato ('Antropophagus'), and Steve Carver of 'Big Bad Mama' and 'Drum' fame. Unfortunately, the movie never really kick starts into high gear, and while entertaining enough, is a bit of a let down after the classic 'Black Mama, White Mama'. Grier and Markov play slaves forced to serve the decadent Romans who make up the jaded audience of the local gladiator battles. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess that before too long the women will have to fight in the arena themselves, initially against male gladiators, but eventually their fellow female slaves. Will their individual will to survive win out over their burgeoning proto-feminist consciousness? I'll leave you to find that out... This is an above average 1970s drive in movie helped tremendously by the presence of Markov, and especially blaxploitation legend Grier, who is tough and sexy and shows quite a bit of flesh. The spirited cast also includes Jess Franco favourite Paul Muller ('Vampyros Lesbos', 'A Virgin Among The Living Dead', Caiano's underrated 'Night Of The Doomed'). A fun movie if you don't expect too much.

"The Arena" is one classic cult Blaxploitation film of the 70's that entertains as it's set in ancient Rome and featured Black screen gem Pam Grier. It involves beautiful women who after kidnapped by Roman soldiers must fight to save their lives. The scenes are entertaining and a fun feel good joy as it's jungle caged fever females against males. The eye candy and skin is present with many nude and love scenes that are sweet and nice. Overall nice cult B type flick to check out.

A rare collaboration between U.S. and Italian exploitation exponents and the result is not all that bad either: director Carver, executive producer Roger Corman, producer Mark Damon, editor Joe Dante (I wonder whether these last 2 mentioned reminisced about it at the 2004 Venice Film Festival where I saw them both at the screening of Vittorio Cottafavi's THE HUNDRED HORSEMEN {1964}!) and co-star Pam Grier on one side, and cinematographer Joe D'Amato, composer Francesco De Masi and supporting actors Paul Muller and Rosalba Neri on the other. The film supplies a novelty to the Roman gladiator subgenre – which had seen service in many an Italian and Hollywood spectacular during the Golden Age of such fare, and would of course be revived with the Malta-shot GLADIATOR (2000) – by presenting us female combatants: in this respect, it recalls the contemporaneous "Amazon Women" flicks (and the girls here are even addressed as such at one point!) also emanating from Italy.

The plot starts off with a number of them (including statuesque blonde Margaret Markov and buxomy black Grier – the two had actually already appeared together in BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA {1973; which I also own but have yet to watch} and, for the record, the former would marry Damon and retire from acting not long afterwards!) from different tribes being separately captured and sold as slaves to work for the Romans at the arena, under the supervision of Neri. Muller, then, is a politician who, as if taking a leaf from any of the Jess Franco movies he had appeared in, rapes Markov in front of his peers as a demonstration of his power! As befits its pedigree, the film is filled with wall-to-wall violence and nudity (much of it gratuitous) but also other potentially tasteless ingredients – but who can carp when everything is clearly done in fun? – such as the presence of a sissy overseer.

At first, the girls are made to offer comfort to the male combatants the night before the latter are "about to die" – but, when they break into a veritable catfight in the kitchen, the flustered organizer of the bouts suddenly sees a ray of light in order to inject new blood (no pun intended) into the worn-out formula! Soon, the women (one of whom, annoyingly, is shown to be perennially drunk) begin to realize that someday they may have to kill each other: Grier is the first to have to make this difficult choice but only after her hesitation causes an archer to shoot an arrow and wound her (the result of her not complying with the arena-goers' thumbs down)!; the victim happens to be the love interest of their trainer, a Tor Johnson look-alike(!) who then changes loyalties and determines to help the girls escape. Eventually, the latter take control of the arena and exact a terrible revenge upon their captors (but also one of their number who had ingratiated herself with the 'enemy'); when the Roman militia sets out in pursuit, they (or, rather, the two protagonists since they predictably emerge as the sole survivors) escape through the caves to the safety of the sea. The film, essentially a variation on the Women-In-Prison flicks that were very popular around this permissive time, was actually remade by Russian director Timur (NIGHT/DAY WATCH) Bekmambetov in 2001!

This movie takes place in the days of ancient Rome with people from various places outside of the empire being taken captive by the Romans and sold into slavery. One particular place they are taken is the city of Brundusium where the local coliseum is filled to capacity in anticipation of the gladiatorial games they take place on a regular basis. Although not initially intended for this barbaric sport, several female slaves are forced to participate due in large part to the insatiable blood lust of the restless crowd. Of these female slaves there are three main figures with different viewpoints. The first, named "Bodicia" (Margaret Markov) wants all of the females to band together and resist providing entertainment to the crowd. The second, "Mamawi" (Pam Grier) doesn't want to fight but is willing to kill in order to stay alive. The third, "Livia" (Marie Louise) is a Roman citizen and actually approves of the sport but would rather watch it from a distance. In any case, all of them are essentially powerless but none of them consider that fact to be a permanent condition. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a basic women-in-prison film which consisted of the typical elements of that specific sub-genre but was transposed to an ancient Roman setting. Both Pam Grier and Margaret Markov put in solid performances with Marie Louise being the most attractive while the character of "Deidre" (Lucretia Love) was the most annoying. At least in my opinion. Be that as it may, I found this to be an okay film for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Basically a women's prison movie set in an Imperial Roman slave quarters, with all the soft flesh and catfights that come with it. They even manage to get a little satire on ancient Roman society in--leave it to the Italians to manage something like that. Meet our heroines: Bodacious Blonde Bodicia (Margaret Markov), virgin priestess abducted from Brittany, and Black Mamawi (Wow-ee!), (Pam Grier) nubile from Nubia. Dusty off the slave block, it's the perfect excuse to strip them and hose them down to ready them for "The Arena". And what a sad collection of fellow fightesr we find there: Dig the red-haired combatant with the comb-over, and what an unfortunate and unsightly show of flab in the gladiators' procession. Trivia here says they were stuntmen: in that case, Italy has some of the most out-of-shape stuntmen in the world, which would also explain all the bad action scenes in their movies. Everything here is strictly bottom of the barrel, but the girls get some nifty costumes for combat: Check out Pam's mod chainmail! She is at her loveliest here, and though I'd never call her deep, her performance is by far the best of the worst There's a feel-good fantasy grrl-power climax, then a never-ending me-too feeling denouement in which all the men get theirs. In the midst of all this mess there tries to be a "message" which gets lost in all the ludicrousness, but I was struck by how our black slave's righteous pronouncements on freedom and equality are still having to be said 50 years later.

I still remember, how excited I got when I first saw this film in VCD back to the 1990s. It was just a wonderful surprise to have rented a film so entertaining and provoking.

If you try stubbornly to take this film with the 21st production for its acting, or video definition and so fort. I have to say, you are just making yourself unnecessarily unhappy. True, the actresses hadn't gone that far in some sections, for the film is neither the porno nor the violence type. So save your hard criticism.

The plot was really a good one. Pace is tight, hasn't let you have time leave to have a break. The idea is also amazing, letting the women slaves fight each other. The happy ending satisfies me, for I can't digest so many and so often tragedies.

Markov is a very beautiful and elegant actress. This blond gladiator really hold the entire movie interesting. Can't image how the film were going to look like without this gorgeous female.

After being captured by Roman soldiers, a group of women are sold off as slaves. After a continuous poor showing with the men gladiators. Soon enough, these women servants become the showpieces and now they're fighting each other to the death in front of the bloodthirsty Rome crowd and its powerful oppressors. But these ladies don't plan on living like that and do their best to organise an all-out revolt.

What we get from this Corman production is a boldly, sound drive-in exploitation that follows quite a straightforward formula, which seems to work all the time. On this occasion, chuck in a bunch of female beauties in skimpy outfits in a Colosseum backdrop and watch them go toe-to-toe! It's basically a WIP story within a different era. When you got the likes of the fierily titillating Pam Grier and the ravishingly magnetic Margaret Markov sporting it out. You know you're in for a fulfilling appetizer!

This gladiatorial stout supplies plenty of fleshy impulses and gets its hands dirty to invoke the gritty thrills and slimly sleaze. The barbaric attitude within the story superbly captures the gropingly seedy underbelly of the Roman Empire and that viscous instinct for survival to get on top. Simply what you see here is what you get. The women are the main centrepieces and director Steve Carver knew that by exploiting every opportunity. It does have its moments when some ponderous stretches creep in, but when the ladies get their gear on, it finally kicks into gear. The script is extremely leaden (with some corn riddled hokum) and there's not much in the way of character progression, while the performances on the other-hand go down rather well and trump in with a crackling rapport. The very capable Rosalba Neri pops in as the tantalizing ice-queen Cordelia. Lucretia Love and Paul Muller chip in with enjoyably campy performances.

The glorious cycle of action is very well organised in some frenetic spurts and spanking scenes. The kinetically compact cinematography and a triumphantly heart-pounding music score demonstrated this energy. The atmosphere is paved on very convincingly and truly bait's the audience.

You can't take any of it very seriously, as it can get rather goofy. Although for what it is, it's a well-made and acted piece that entertains.

To call this a B movie would be too generous. This was a very poor movie, in all respects. The script is stupid, with lousy acting, it's partly dubbed, has cheap sets and costumes, and totally phony fight scenes: This movie reeked of "CHEAP". The unfortunate thing about it is that the premise, of depicting gladatrix is a good one. But they certainly did not pull it off. The only thing of interest was the "eye candy" and fleeting bits of nudity. In fact if it wasn't for this I would have given it a two. But sexy ladies was nowhere near enough to carry this off, it was incredibly boring, and I could not endure it to the end,

This an interesting mixture of two very different kinds of exploitation film. On one hand, it's basically a Roger Corman women-in-prison film (complete with lots of showers, catfights, and a big bust-out at the end)featuring WIP regulars Pam Greir and Margaret Markhof. On the other hand, it is an Italian "peplum" that was reputedly largely directed by its Italian cinematographer Joe D'Amato and which also stars the luscious Italian actress Rosalba Neri (aka Sarah Bay) as the villianess making her return to the peplum dramas that had made her (semi)famous in the 1960's.

As a Corman film it's not too bad. It has his usual trademark of faux feminism and gratuitous female nudity (by Grier, Markhof, and some of the other slave/prisoners)and it's very formulaic right down to the death of likable innocent(s) and the revenge plot at the end. Unfortunately, it's also a little too tame--it's certainly nowhere near as sleazy as what we've come to expect from the notorious Joe D. I was also personally disappointed at how much they wasted Neri. Not only does she not get naked (a lesbian scene with her and Grier or Markhof would certainly have been memorable), but as a villain she comes off kind of bland--not nearly what she showed she's capable of in films like "Amuck", "Top Sensation", and "Lady Frankenstein".

I guess whether you like this or not will depend on whether you're more of a Corman and Grier fan (in which case it's pretty OK) or whether you're a D'Amato and Neri fan (in which case you'll probably be a little disappointed).

This is called the first women in prison flick ever made, so only for that alone it's a reason to watch it to see where it all started. But for the geeks in horror genre there's more. It was a co-production between the USA and Italie and it showed. Roger Corman was producer. The cinematography was done by Joe D'amato en the editing was in the hands of Joe Dante. All of them becoming notorious for their flicks. And if you look at the thespians, it had Pam Grier in it just coming out of Coffy (1973).

With all those famous names it should have been a fantastic flick but it's all done before their heydays and it shows even as it do has a few potentials. The story is simple but believable and of course due some catfight in the kitchen it's decided that all women who are slaves should become gladiators. Being raped and humiliated by Romans they all work together to destroy the Romans.

Don't expect big effects, there aren't any, and when stabbing takes place it's all done off-camera. Being an exploitation flick it also has a bit of nudity full frontal from the slaves. It was so typical back then around those years because porn was the big thing so nudity was a must in most of the flicks made early seventies to compete with the porn business.

Clocking in under 90 minutes makes it watchable. And it do show the use of the typical zooming in on faces or action seen in spaghetti westerns made then and Italian horrors.

If you aren't into WIP flicks then forget this but if you want to see the start of a few famous horror directors and producers then you must pick it up. It's not a good flick as I wrote earlier but a perfect example of early seventies exploitation.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 1,5/5 Effects 0/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

The Arena (1974) is a movie in my DVD collection that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows the Romans needing some new entertainment. Some female slaves are purchased and set-up to fight each other to the death. Two slaves form a bond to try and find a way to set things up to eventually escape and earn their freedom but their owner has other plans.

This movie was directed by Steve Carver (Lone Wolf McQuade) and stars Pam Grier (Coffy), Margaret Markov (Black Mama White Mama), Daniele Vargas (Invincible Masker Rider), Maria Pia Conte (Day of Violence) and Lucretia Love (Love Angels).

The women in this movie are smoking hot...all of them. The attire and depiction of this era is very well done and the girl fights are solid. There's some great nudity and well executed rape scenes as well. The ending battle is unpredictable and sets up a worthwhile conclusion.

This movie has a lot going for it and is better than you may anticipate. I would score this a 7/10 and strongly recommend it.

One of the better sword and sandals movies set in the time of the Roman Empire. On top we get some female slave gladiators breaking free in the good old tradition of Spartacus. Another hot ingredient - young Pam Grier and Margaret Markov are very pleasing for eyes and souls. The Arena - no masterpiece or meant to win the Golden Globe or such things, but simple fun and solid entertainment - if you got any interest and taste for such kind of movies.

Britain: a group of peaceful druids are carrying out a ritual when who should pop up to ruin their fun but the Romans, who proceed to kill the unarmed pagans, the only exception being blonde priestess Bodicia (Margaret Markov), who is taken captive because she is hot.

Africa: busty Nubian babe Mamawi (Pam Grier) is getting down to some groovy jungle beats when those pesky Romans turn up to ruin her fun, killing her bongo-bashing pals and taking her captive... because she is hot.

Bodicia and Mamawi are put on sale in a Roman slave market with two other unfortunates, Deidre (Lucretia Love) and Livia (Marie Louise Sinclair), who are also hot. All four are bought by flaming homosexual Priscium (Silvio Laurenzi), and put to work in the home of Timarchus (Daniele Vargas) and his wife Cornelia (Rosalba Neri), who preside over gladiatorial battles in their arena. When the crowds begin to get bored by the predictable hack-and-slash entertainment, Timarchus decides to switch things up a bit by having his slave-girls fight to the death in the arena.

A peplum-style adventure with a big dose of drive-in goodness, The Arena was produced by B-movie legend Roger Corman, while its director Steve Carver was purportedly given a helping hand by his cinematographer Aristide Massaccesi (AKA Joe D'amato), the man behind many an Italian trash classic. The Corman influence is extremely evident, from the excess of T&A, to the daft 'catfight in the kitchen' scene, to the cheesy gladiatorial battles between its sexy women, but sadly D'amato's contributions are less obvious, the sleaze quotient and level of graphic gore surprisingly low considering his reputation - a shame, because that's precisely what this film is crying out for.

As it stands, the film is a moderately entertaining piece of exploitation, but had the battle scenes been more gruesome and the sexy bits more salacious, this could have been something special indeed, especially with such stunning leads in Grier, Markov and Neri. All of the women get naked, with an early scene providing full frontal nudity, and poor Bodicia is raped by a Roman, but the whole thing still feels very restrained, especially the combat scenes, which fail to deliver the gory goods. Even 'The Beast in Heat' himself, Salvatore Baccaro, doesn't get anything memorable to do. One thing is for sure... if D'amato had had total control, there would have been a lot more to talk about.

6.5/10, rounded down to 6/10 for the extremely silly faux-feminist girl-power uprising at the end, the women gladiators somehow sneaking female archers into the arena to kill the guards, with Grier and Markov slaughtering numerous Roman soldiers with ease before escaping into the catacombs and to freedom.

Nothing like seeing washed-up blaxploitation actresses further their careers with such shimmering nuggets of bile as this. She has since gone on to bigger and better things, but this film is noticeably absent from her resume.. Hmmm... I wonder why? This is just another mindless t&a flick with some dumb cat fights and forgettable characters. Except for maybe Priscium, a drag queen Roman praetor portrayed masterfully by Sid Lawrence. And some big goofy bald guy who was sort of reminded me of Tor Johnson, one of Ed Wood's old spooks. If you absolutely must know what this garbage is about.. I'll enlighten you. Roman soldiers recruit "beautiful" (read: laundromat recruits) women to be love slaves for the hedonist government officials. When two of the girls, Pam Grier and some blonde chick, start a particularly brutal food fight, those ever-crafty Romans devise a new plan to keep the proles entertained: we'll make these girls fight! So, they make 'em be gladiators. I would've thought that Pam Grier would've used this film to showcase her awesome whupa$$ skills, but.. she didn't. She was suprisingly subdued, actually. Especially for being a Nubian warrior woman. Anyway, after several boring battles, unsaved even by copious amounts of jiggling flesh, the girl gladiators start a revolt and overthrow the government, allowing Pam Grier and blonde chick to escape.

If you're looking for bad movies, this is merely average. There are so many better ones out there, but it is nice to see Pam Grier again. I bet she looks back on this one as a crowning achievement.

I've never even heard of 1974's 'The Arena' and I had no idea what I was sitting down to watch. So my mind was officially 'blown' by a film that was about as far from 2023's cinematic output as you could possibly get. Let's just say that there wasn't a computer generated skybeam and army of faceless alien soldiers in sight.

I think it's safe to say that 'The Arena' wouldn't be made today. Or, if it was, it would be very different. It's set in the era of the Roman Empire where four women from across the globe were all enslaved by the Romans and taken back to Rome to work as slaves to gladiators in an arena.

I'm guessing 'politically correct' wouldn't be a phrase used to describe this movie. It's pretty brutal in places and actually shows just how much of a 'raw deal' women - and especially enslaved women - got during the time period. And yet it's weirdly 'progressive' when the women actually get their shot at fighting in the arena. And, despite being laughed at to begin with, they soon get their revenge in typically grisly fashion.

I didn't recognise any of the stars, but it wasn't until I sat down to review it did I realise one of the two leads was none other than 'Jackie Brown' herself, Pam Grier. Both she and the other (blonde) lead certainly have the physical presence to carry the film, even if certain scenes do seem a little clunky in terms of the dialogue and the fight scenes are hardly on a par with 'The Matrix.'

Yes, it's a little far-fetched and will probably never be taken seriously due to its (probably unnecessary!) nudity, but it's certainly worth a watch, simply because it's a product of a bygone cinematic age.

Good movie with a plot that is perhaps too complicated and melodramatic and with too many characters but that manages to be interesting. There is a very theatrical imprint in the acting of the actors but you get used to it. Good actresses.