War Goddess (also known as The Amazons) is a 1973 French/Spanish/Italian adventure film directed by Terence Young.
Antiope (Alena Johnston) becomes queen of the Amazons after winning a tournament that includes various trials, defeating Oreitheia (Sabine Sun) in the final test. Antiope imposes a rigid discipline that allows sexual relations with men only to procreate, but after an encounter of the Amazons with the Greeks, Antiope finds that she quite enjoyed her thirst with her man, much to her dismay, who turns out to be Theseus, the king of the Greeks.
Meanwhile, Oreitheia, together with her loyal followers, hatches a plot to eliminate Antiope and take her place on the throne. But when the opportunity to kill Antiope presents itself, their enmity blossoms into something else...
This film features examples of:
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The Amazons organize a tournament of various trials to select their queen for a four-year term(!), and the movie opens with Antiope winning one of those.
- Based on a Great Big Lie: Parodied in the opening lines onscreen ("This story happened (if it ever did happen) nearly three thousand years ago.") and also the ending lines ("So, Antiope and Theseus went off to live happily ever after... And if you believe that, you'll believe anything.")
- Crashing Through the Harem: A variant occurs during the Amazons' mating encounter with the Greeks, when one Amazon that isn't pleased with her partner ends up crashing into another couple. She suggests they change partners, and they do: The two men end up leaving together, leaving the two women making out behind.
- Death of the Hypotenuse: The love triangle Antiope has with Theseus and Oreitheia ends up resolved when Oreitheia is killed in battle.
- Due to the Dead: After Oreitheia is killed in battle, Antiope recognizes her desire to become queen, and places the ring symbolizing her status as queen on her finger.
- Fanservice: Pretty much every Amazon is gorgeous, and they sure do a lot of activities while in several states of undress (competing in tornaments, commiting assassination attempts...)
- Full-Frontal Assault:
- The final fight in the contests to elect the Amazons' next queen in done the nude, which serves as a great source of Fanservice.
- Oreitheia is also in the nude when she goes to kill Antiope. Antiope, in turn, decides to fight Oreitheia nude too after catching her, before they end up sleeping together.
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: Antiope and Oreitheia have a fight after the latter attempts to kill the former, which ends with them making out, and it's implied they then have sex.
- King Incognito: Theseus is the king of the Greeks, but passes himself as a low-ranking captain during the Amazons' first encounter with the Greeks.
- Love Triangle: Antiope ends up falling for Theseus while also getting into a relationship with Oreitheia. It ends up resolving itself most painfully when Oreitheia is killed in battle.
- Sadly Mythtaken: The film takes the main characters' names from characters from Greek mythology, but that's about the extent of Greek mythology being used on the film.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Oreitheia straight-up plans to kill Antiope before they end up kissing after a fight.
- Survival Mantra: The Amazons have one, which they use during their encounters with men, that goes "Men are repulsive in mind and body..."
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Antiope always carries herself with regal feminity (appropiately enough for a queen), whereas Oreitheia behaves with a more rough demeanor.
- Vasquez Always Dies: Oreitheia sticks out as the tougher and most aggressive of the Amazons, and ends up dying at the end of the film.
