No Aslan, you may not scratch my back!
Aslan Adam, or Lion Man, also known by its international release title The Sword and The Claw, is a 1975 Turkish movie starring Cüneyt Arkın.
Best described as Tarzan meets Battal Gazi, Cuneyt Arkin stars as Kilic Aslan, an Anatolian prince whose father, Sultan Suleiman Shah, was murdered by Christian invaders led by the warlord Antuan, who took over the kingdom while Aslan was a mere baby. Taken into the woods by the loyal vizier, Aslan ends up being raised by a pride of lions, becoming a jungle warrior with razor-sharp claws, extreme agility, and capable of performing absurd feats of strength. When returning to civilization, Aslan - a name he adopts for recognition of his adoptive lion family - discovers his royal lineage, and seeks revenge against Antuan.
Lion Man contains examples of:
- Absurdly Sharp Claws: Aslan's ability to claw through flesh and rip through his enemies' guts, thanks to being raised by a pride of lions.
- Age Cut: Used to depict Aslan growing from youth to adulthood while living with the lions.
- An Arm and a Leg:
- The opening ambush had Antuan hacking off Suleyman's arms before killing him.
- In the final battle, Aslan rips off both of Antuan's arms with his bare hands.
- Barrier-Busting Blow: In the final battle, Antuan realize the battle is no longer in his favour and tries to escape via a hidden passage... only for Aslan to punch through the walls with his natural strength, grab Antuan by the throat, and drag Antuan out to finish the villain off.
- Big Bad: Antuan the evil warlord and crusader, who invades Aslan's kingdom, killed Aslan's father Suleiman, caused Aslan to be abandoned in the woods, and rules the kingdom as a tyrant.
- Died Standing Up: Aslan's father, Suleiman Shah, dies in this manner, holding the castle's gates close to prevent Antuan's soldiers from catching his baby son.
- Death by Childbirth: Aslan's mother, who fled the palace while pregnant with him, ends up giving birth in the wilderness and quickly succumbing to the ordeal.
- Facial Horror: Several of Aslan's kills are enemy soldiers whose face he claws out, with bloody results.
- Fingore: Aslan suffers this fate halfway through the film, when Antuan pours acid on his fingers in an attempt to make Aslan fall to his death. Aslan barely survives, and turns the second half of the movie into an Injured Limb Episode as the resistance tries to heal him.
- Foe-Tossing Charge: Aslan in the final battle use his strength to fling aside mooks who gets into his way while pursuing Antuan.
- Gorn: Being raised by lions, Aslan has a habit of clawing or ripping out chunks of flesh from his enemies' face, throat, guts, and various body parts. And the movie doesn't shy away from showing the graphic gore details onscreen.
- Hanging by the Fingers: Aslan ends up in this state as he tries to hold a trapdoor shut to prevent Antuan and his soldiers from pursuing the escaping La Résistance. Too bad he didn't count on Antuan pouring acid through the cracks on said trapdoor.
- Improvised Zipline: During the palace breakout, Aslan managed to scale the courtyard by grabbing hold on the horizontal rope spanning each side of the area.
- In a Single Bound: Aslan jumps a lot during his fights, leaping all over the damn place. His backstory of being raised in the wilderness is probably a key reason.
- Karmic Death: Antuan, who killed the Sultan by hacking off his arms and took over the entire kingdom as a dictator, ends up having Aslan, the son of the Sultan, finish him off by ripping his arms into stumps. Followed by a throat-rip, and then being chucked off the palace's walls to his death.
- Meaningful Name: Kilic Aslan means "Lion Man" in Turkish. It's also the name of the main character, a Turkish Prince raised by lions.
- Men of Sherwood: The La Résistance warriors, led by Altar, who can kick plenty of ass on their own. They serve as backup fending off Antuan's army in the climax as Aslan deals with the villain, and did a great job fighting on their own.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The protagonist starts off in the film as a baby, before Sultan Suleiman's enemies invade the palace resulting in the protagonist being abandoned in the woods. He then gets raised by lions, with a montage of him as a boy living in the wilderness, before eventually reaching adulthood.
- Power Fist: After Aslan suffers a severe crippling damage to his fingers, the resistance decides to give Aslan clawed gauntlets made by their best blacksmiths (seen in the poster above) as replacement. These turns out to be better, stronger, and allows Aslan to kill twice as many enemies in his fights.
- Super-Strength: Somehow, being raised in the wild has granted Aslan the strength of over a dozen men, allowing him to throw mooks around like ragdolls and at one point rip a tree off its roots as an Improvised Weapon.
- Raised by Wolves: The titular hero is Raised by Lions.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: In the final battle, several of Antuan's soldiers tries to stop Aslan by forming a wall using a row of shields. Aslan simply punches through those shields with ease.
- Wild Child: Aslan, being raised by lions, with a childhood montage depicting him living with lions, eating raw flesh and killing animals with his bare hands.
- You Killed My Father: Eventually, Aslan learns that Antuan is responsible for his father's death, and vows revenge.
- Zerg Rush: Antuan's soldiers tries this tactic on Aslan, which doesn't work, since Aslan just flings them aside with ease every time.
