A budget of almost 18 million US dollars, a box office of only 7 million, fur and leather costumes, bare skin, sword fights – that’s Red Sonja, a legendary trash blockbuster from the 80s. Today the film with stars Brigitte Nielsen and Arnold Schwarzenegger is on TV. The latter doesn’t have a good word for Red Sonja.
What is Red Sonja with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brigitte Nielsen about?
Queen Gedren (played by Sandahl Bergman) wants untold power. A magical stone guarded by priestesses could give her supernatural powers. Without further ado, she steals the stone and has the guardians cruelly murdered, including Red Sonja’s sister. Red Sonja, the indomitable sword master, swears revenge and sets off on a dangerous journey to destroy the magical stone. During this dangerous mission, she can only count on the support of Lord Kalidor (played by Schwarzenegger), Prince Tarn (Ernie Reyes Jr.) and his loyal servant (Paul L. Smith).
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Brigitte Nielsen and Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger is ashamed of Red Sonja and his children had to suffer because of it
Arnold Schwarzenegger has some skeletons in his closet. When the Austrian moved to Hollywood with only a weak knowledge of English, he mainly took on trashy roles with just a few script lines. However, Red Sonja comes from a later phase of his career (released in 1985) – and is therefore actually a little more embarrassing than, say, Hercules in New York. As MSN notes, he once said the following about the film:
[Red Sonja] is the worst film I have ever made. If my children misbehave, I send them to their rooms and force her to watch Red Sonja ten times. I never had many problems with them.
You can only feel sorry for the Schwarzenegger kids. However, it is difficult to say whether he is serious about all of this. By the way, Red Sonja is to receive a new edition after almost 40 years. However, development has been stalling for some time.
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When and where is Red Sonja on TV?
Red Sonja airs on Saturday at 8:15 p.m. on Tele 5 (where else?), the repeat follows on Sunday afternoon at 6:25 p.m. If you don’t have time, you can still watch the stream on Paramount+.
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