When Sheena first begins, we are introduced to the heroine as a little girl
traveling with her researcher parents in Africa. They are investigating a
mysterious healing grounds where deathly ill people are cured of whatever
ailments after being buried up to their necks in the dirt after a period of time
(which makes me wonder: what if somebody has a head wound? Are they buried
ostrich-style, with their head stuck in the sand?). Little Sheena--then known as
Janet--is left in the tent with a caretaker while her parents look for the
source of the healing grounds' powers in a dangerous cave. Janet makes her
escape from the caretaker and follows her parents to the mouth of the cave,
where she calls for them. When Janet's mother fearfully calls back for her
daughter, her echoes caused the cavern to cave in upon them.
Now an orphan, little Janet is adopted by the Zambuli, a local native tribe who
proclaim her to be the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, which states that a
young blonde girl will arise to be their new protector during troubled times
(but did the prophecy mention anything about how this little "heroine" would
cause the deaths of her own parents?). Henceforth, Janet becomes known as
Sheena, Queen Of The Jungle, and we are treated to a series of "origin" scenes,
where the female shaman (played by Elizabeth Of Toro) teaches Sheena how
to ride a zebra and call forth the animals to do her bidding by putting her
hand to her head and pinching her face.
This is where Sheena begins to stumble badly as a film. I recall the early MGM
Tarzan movies, where Tarzan was not onscreen until almost a half hour into the
film--but the other characters spoke of him in hushed, awed tones. And when the
Lord Of The Jungle was finally revealed, it was in a grand entrance that showed
him in action, and by then the audience was just as impressed by Tarzan as the
on screen characters were. But by showing Sheena growing up and learning her
various jungle skills, this actually works against the story, because it pretty
much robs the character of whatever mystery she has. After several minutes of
this, Tanya Roberts finally takes over the lead role.
And while Roberts
certainly looks very good as a scantily clad jungle queen, she lacks the
commanding presence needed for such a character. In fact, her Sheena is a rather
passive heroine, with none of the spunk that is to be expected from a woman who
commands the wild animals of Africa and considers the savage jungle to be her
home. What makes the film even worse is that Sheena is saddled with a love
interest in the form of reporter Vic Casey, played by Ted Wass with virtually
no personality whatsoever. The lame plot has a prince of a fictional African
nation plotting an assassination on his brother, the king, and blaming the deed
on the Zambuli's Shaman. Thus this will give him the excuse he needs to invade
the Zambuli homeland and plunder their rich resources. Sheena, with the help of
Vic, try and put a stop to this, but at no time does Sheena ever appear to be a
very effective, or formidable adversary. Unlike Tarzan, who always sought the
upper hand over his enemies no matter how insurmountable the odds, at times
Sheena seems to be overwhelmed by her circumstances, which spiral further out
of her control as the film goes on.
Oh well. If you're a fan of jungle movies--especially scantily clad female
jungle movies--then you might want to rent Sheena and "MST3K it" with your
friends. There are no special features on this DVD, but it does have closed
captioning, English subtitles, and it also has the option of watching the film
in either full or wide-screen versions. Do what I did and watch it in
wide-screen, that way you'll see more of Ms. Robert's lovely body. --SF