Oh, God, please don't. See her do her thing, that is. Because if you do, that's almost two hours of your life that you will never get back and believe me, you could spend it doing something infinitely more enjoyable and productive, like having cholera or a really long dream about being naked in math class.
I do love me a good bad movie, but sweet baby Jesus, Barbarella is so bad that it can't even be good bad. Mind you I did fall asleep twice, but that's fifteen minutes of suck upon which I can cast no aspersions. The first time, S.O. woke me up when I started nodding; the second time he just figured that I wasn't missing much and said the hell with it.
The movie's plot is fairly basic; it's a standard good space person saving universe from bad space person sort of thing. It opens with the theme song, "Barbarella Psychedella," which warbles melodiously at us as we get to O̶M̶G̶ ̶B̶O̶O̶B̶I̶E̶S̶ watch Jane Fonda undress in...what the hell? OK, we're in a spaceship...lined with FUN FUR??? Also BOOBIES!!
So apparently Jane/Barbarella is an Earthling who's being dispatched to a different galaxy where Durand Durand (yes, the band is named for the character) is developing a bad thing that will make people do something I really don't remember because it already made no sense and seemed incredibly dumb. Then Jane crash lands on Planet Doodlebop where she's attacked by malevolent children with bitey dolls. Then she attempts to hook up with a gilded angel, whose primary point seems to provide boy eyecandy to balance Jane, but in a very "gay or just European?" way. Oh, she's also saved from the bitey dolls by a dude who wants sex for repayment...real sex, not the pill kind that Jane's people back on Earth now employ! So TITillating! Then the big bad, some saiks-crazed Italian broad who calls Jane "Pretty-Pretty" (I mean I guess she's not bad, but...kind of pushing the envelope a little bit) tries to get it on with her and the evil children and/or birds from hell show up until some dude named Dildano shows up and eventually all is well and the angel (whose name is Pygar, by the way--inspiration for the dragons in Dig Dug?) even saves the bad guy.
Despite what should be a pretty basic plot, it really doesn't make any sense, so I didn't bother reporting it accurately because I don't really care and it wouldn't help you out much. The plot is, like the acting, obviously NOT the point of this turkey. All of the fun fur, the sexy Italian, the gilded angel, Jane gasping "Pyyyeeegarrrr!" in her dippy California-girl accent--it's all to put across a pretty specific, and pretty lame, point--1968 style.
Naughty things like boobs and fun fur and psychedelia had, of course, been around for a long time (well, not fun fur, but I sort of like to think of it as an objet eternel). But they hadn't been around in the public eye for long and they hadn't really been much on the public movie screen at all. Hollywood was trying to cash in on the newly hip...hippies, without actually being either hippie or hip. It's kind of like when Sears tries to pass its clothes off as high fashion. Nice try, but...
This movie kind of sums up what annoys me overall about the culture of the late 60s and early 70s. It tries to be weird, edgy, sexy, modern and shocking all at the same time while not really being any of the above. And, like the era that produced it, by trying too hard it fails at everything--including entertainment.
I do love me a good bad movie, but sweet baby Jesus, Barbarella is so bad that it can't even be good bad. Mind you I did fall asleep twice, but that's fifteen minutes of suck upon which I can cast no aspersions. The first time, S.O. woke me up when I started nodding; the second time he just figured that I wasn't missing much and said the hell with it.
The movie's plot is fairly basic; it's a standard good space person saving universe from bad space person sort of thing. It opens with the theme song, "Barbarella Psychedella," which warbles melodiously at us as we get to O̶M̶G̶ ̶B̶O̶O̶B̶I̶E̶S̶ watch Jane Fonda undress in...what the hell? OK, we're in a spaceship...lined with FUN FUR??? Also BOOBIES!!
So apparently Jane/Barbarella is an Earthling who's being dispatched to a different galaxy where Durand Durand (yes, the band is named for the character) is developing a bad thing that will make people do something I really don't remember because it already made no sense and seemed incredibly dumb. Then Jane crash lands on Planet Doodlebop where she's attacked by malevolent children with bitey dolls. Then she attempts to hook up with a gilded angel, whose primary point seems to provide boy eyecandy to balance Jane, but in a very "gay or just European?" way. Oh, she's also saved from the bitey dolls by a dude who wants sex for repayment...real sex, not the pill kind that Jane's people back on Earth now employ! So TITillating! Then the big bad, some saiks-crazed Italian broad who calls Jane "Pretty-Pretty" (I mean I guess she's not bad, but...kind of pushing the envelope a little bit) tries to get it on with her and the evil children and/or birds from hell show up until some dude named Dildano shows up and eventually all is well and the angel (whose name is Pygar, by the way--inspiration for the dragons in Dig Dug?) even saves the bad guy.
Despite what should be a pretty basic plot, it really doesn't make any sense, so I didn't bother reporting it accurately because I don't really care and it wouldn't help you out much. The plot is, like the acting, obviously NOT the point of this turkey. All of the fun fur, the sexy Italian, the gilded angel, Jane gasping "Pyyyeeegarrrr!" in her dippy California-girl accent--it's all to put across a pretty specific, and pretty lame, point--1968 style.
Naughty things like boobs and fun fur and psychedelia had, of course, been around for a long time (well, not fun fur, but I sort of like to think of it as an objet eternel). But they hadn't been around in the public eye for long and they hadn't really been much on the public movie screen at all. Hollywood was trying to cash in on the newly hip...hippies, without actually being either hippie or hip. It's kind of like when Sears tries to pass its clothes off as high fashion. Nice try, but...
This movie kind of sums up what annoys me overall about the culture of the late 60s and early 70s. It tries to be weird, edgy, sexy, modern and shocking all at the same time while not really being any of the above. And, like the era that produced it, by trying too hard it fails at everything--including entertainment.
