Tony Russell Movies

The five-hour miniseries The Mystic Warrior began life in 1979 when producer David L. Wolper announced plans for a ten-hour adaptation of Hanta Yo, an epic historical novel by Ruth Beebe Hill. Using as her main source a full-blooded Sioux named Chunksa Yuha, Hill fashioned what amounted to a Native American version of Roots, chronicling the history of the Matho tribe of the Ogala Dakota Sioux. Although Hill was briefly the darling of the literary cognoscenti, her book was ultimately attacked and discredited by a veritable army of Indian historians, teachers, and activists, who accused her of distorting and falsifying truths in order to promote her own (and Yuha's) sociopolitical agenda. Suddenly, all of the Native American support that had been promised to the miniseries version of Hanta Yo evaporated; even the filming location had to be changed from New Mexico to Thousand Oaks, CA, so as not to offend the Indian tribes in the former state. When the project finally aired on May 20 through 21, 1984, its running time (and budget) had been cut in half, and the producer was obliged to qualify the credits by noting that the teleplay was based partially on Hill's book, but mostly on "other sources." Judging by the results, those sources would seem to have been such Hollywood fictional films as Cheyenne Autumn and A Man Called Horse. Set in the years 1802 to 1808, the finished film focused on a young brave named Ahbleza (Robert Beltran), the son of a Matho chief. Blessed with supernatural visionary powers by the ancient Mahto seer Wanagi (Ron Soble), Ahbleza set about to save his people from the devastations of the future, among them the invasion of the white man. After a lengthy, truth-seeking odyssey fraught with tragedy and sacrifice, Ahbleza assumed his rightful place as spiritual leader of his tribe. Mystic Warrior was entertaining enough, but failed to draw viewers away from such formidable competition as The Jeffersons, Alice, and One Day at a Time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A con-man/preacher fools a bunch of naive folks. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

From the same people responsible for The Womblies and Paddington Bear, the British series The Herbs used stop-motion animation to bring a garden to life. All of the characters on this series were anthropomorphic herbs, growing on the estate of the aristocratic Sir Basil and Lady Rosemary. Among the main characters (each of whom had his or her own distinctive song) were Dill the Dog, Sage the Owl, Bayleaf the Gardener, Constable Knapweed, Mr. Onion, Aunt Mint, the Chives, Tarragon the Dragon, Belladonna, and Pashana Bedh. The most popular of the batch was Parsley the Lion, later spun off into his own animated series. The 40 15-minute episodes of The Herbs were telecast by BBC1 beginning February 12, 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in fourth century Italy, this sword and sandal adventure retells the story of Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai as it follows the exploits of two brothers who gather a gallant group of ex-galley slaves and sail off to the Middle East to enact the downfall of a tyrant. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this campy Italian sci-fi adventure wicked aliens from outer space abduct and miniaturize Earth's leaders to make it easier to destroy the planet until a courageous hero appears to fight against him and his legion of skintight leather-clad robot women. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A wanderer helps a kingdom oust their oppressive king. ~ All Movie Guide

When Napoleon entered and conquered Italy, one man decided that resistance was what could keep his countrymen free. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide