At the height of her Baywatch fame Pamela Anderson was cast in the title role of Barb Wire based on Chris Warner’s graphic novel. She was ideal casting for the pneumatic blonde bombshell who despite her centrefold image insisted ‘Don’t call me babe!’ the characters catchphrase to any man who dared call her such.
The synopsis calls Barb Wire the sexiest, toughest woman in Steel Harbor, a city marked by chaos and crime, providing a home for a new kind of mercenary. If you’ve got a problem, Barb Wire is the solution. She’ll use any weapon – including her body – to take what she wants, crossing the line for no man, until the day Axel Hood hits town. He’s on a mission and Barb is the only one who can get him out alive. Will Barb help the man who once betrayed her? There’s only one thing you can be sure of… she can get anything you want, for a price.
Pamela Anderson’s appearance in the film is the stuff of school boy fantasy and frankly many middle aged men too but what followed was generally unsatisfactory. Despite Anderson looking phenomenal bursting out of leather, pvc and high heels it was generally ludicrous seeing her in such attire throwing herself (or at least her stunt double) around in such attire in action scenes and audiences generally agreed with the film earning a paltry $3.7m worldwide.
Director David Hogan had an extensive background in music videos that had included Prince, Diana Ross, Rod Stewart, Kylie, Sheryl Crow and consequently Barb Wire has that glossy music video aesthetic and the opening scene epitomises that with Anderson dancing in a strip club being sprayed down with water as her tits spill out of her dress. It was a scene inspired by a dream she had had ( along with every 13 year old boy at the time) and the studio, keen for more nudity in the film , were only too keen on the idea. It’s the outtakes from this scene that are included the 4K UHD’s alleged ‘sexy outtakes’. Unfortunately the previous year had seen her notorious sex tape leak which made the sexy shenanigans in Barb Wire look somewhat tame in comparison to what everyone had seen previously.
Barb Wire was very much of its time having been released at the peak of Anderson’s fame and the films promotional hype relied heavily on her physical assets but as a superhero type film it generally was hindered by a lack of decent narrative and taking every opportunity for the camera to linger on her figure in what she was wearing (or not wearing). And setting the film in 2017 a mere 20 years after the film came out in the expected post-apocalyptic cityscape was always going to date it pretty quickly too.
Released now on 4k UHD the bonus features include:
- New 4K HDR restoration from the original negative with Dolby Vision by Turbine
New 5.1 and 2.0 mix - New interviews with producer Todd Moyer (18 mins), costume designer Rosanna Norton (18 mins) and visual effects supervisor Chris Brown (16 mins)
- Sexy Outtakes (9 mins)
- Making-of (15 mins)
- Promo featurette (6 mins)
- Trailers
Best of these are the interview with producer and what the disc does obviously miss is any input from Anderson and director Hogan who quickly returned to music videos soon afterwards. It’s a shame because many retro films that are re-released with new features often have featurettes that go into the whole saga of the films production and Barb Wire is one that would have been ideally suited so perhaps this is one for the die hard fans of Pamela Anderson who herself has very much moved on and away from the beach blonde babe that she built so much of her career on. Barb Wire is one of those superhero films that never really made an impact but is worth a look for curiosity as much as anything else.
related feature : Baywatch- REVIEW
related feature : Oscar winning make up genius Howard Berger reveals the Kill Bill secrets and that crazy 88’s scene
Here’s the Barb Wire trailer…….
