The Sword-and-Sandal epic returns

[Mashinka]

A fresh crop of sword and sandal epics are soon to be released:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertai...ic-1925949.html

Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe was in fact written for children, albeit older ones, and was a favourite of mine as a school kid: a real historical mystery and I look forward to seeing it. Must say I've always enjoyed this category of film and the anachronisms just add to the fun, but I agree with the article that Kubrick's Spartacus was a cut above the rest.

[papeetepatrick]

What an odd coincidence, i never even knew the term 'Swords and Sandals Epics' till a couple of days ago. I started checking all these videos from the library like 'Demetrius and the Gladiators', '

The Eqyptian', and 'The Robe' already, and have been using them to go to sleep by. Hadn't thought of them since a child, and don't even listen to the dialogue, just watch the garish colour. 'The Egyptian' really looks campy, you can tell it was filmed in SoCal and the sets so bright. Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Gene Tierney, and BELLA DARVI, wow...can't believe some of these things, and Susan Hayward in two of them. I like to fall asleep and then wake up and see what Victor or Susan is up to then. Sounds completely insane, I know, and probably is. I think the oldest I saw as a child was 'Samson and Delilah', and then Beh-Hur, Ten Commandments, El Cid I always liked them while I was watching them and never thought about them again. Spartacus too, didn't know till your post that that was Kubrick.

[dirac]

Thanks for posting the article, Mashinka. The sword and sandal movie actually did go away from the multiplex for some time until the success of Gladiator revived the genre on the big screen and the small.

Spartacus is a very good movie, great cast, althought it's never been a big favorite of mine. It was more ambitious than other movies of this type, another attempt at the Sweeping Epic with a Brain in its Head. Kubrick did direct after Kirk Douglas, possibly unwisely, fired Anthony Mann. Because Dalton Trumbo was still on the blacklist Kubrick offered helpfully to take credit for the screenplay as well, but Douglas nixed that idea.

The trend to more dirt and blood has been with us for awhile, too. There's a new cable show called "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" and going by the trailers the title is accurate.

The Heston Ben-Hur is a crashing bore - I tend to tune out after the triumph for the Roman general Ben-Hur rescues at sea - but the silent version with Ramon Novarro isn't so bad. It's much livelier and doesn't go on for nearly as long. I like Novarro, which helps - he's a far more engaging presence than the likes of Heston or Douglas (they're much more in the line of Francis X. Bushman).

As the article says, the Alexander the Great with Burton is a turkey, but I don't know if a really good feature film on Alexander is possible. It would have to be a television miniseries, I think. You would sacrifice in spectacle but gain in coherence. Filmmakers tend to assume that because Alexander died young they can squeeze everything into two or three hours, and they assume wrong.

[Mashinka]

I think my enjoyment of these kinds of films stems from the fact that I watched them at an impressionable age - pre and early teens. Apart from the Hollywood efforts there were a number of Italian ones with some awfully attractive people and weak story lines, interesting that the American films often had a biblical bent and the Italian ones were more secular in content.

Richard Burton (in general he made a number of duff films) never looked at home in the ancient stuff, I much preferred Victor Mature who always portrayed sincerity rather well. I also liked Charlton Heston, particularly in the Ten Commandments, though Yul Brynner stole the show in that for me. Thought the relatively recent Troy was awful with the exception of Brad Pitt's Achilles and Sean Bean's Ulysses as both actors played their parts as if they had actually read The Illiad and knew what their characters were all about.

Regarding Alexander, I've never quite understood why he's called 'The Great', they probably didn't do body counts in his times but at a conservative guess he must have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands, to me his 'achievements' are on a par with Adolf Hitler's.

[papeetepatrick]

Mashinka, I like that you said that about Victor Mature. HE even says he's a bad actor, but I find that I like him quite a lot too in these old movies.

dirac--are the two Ten Commandments swords-and-sandals? I haven't seen the famous 50s one since childhood, but thoroughly indulged in it then (love the cobra and the Red Sea parting), but really like the silent version a lot, which I watched twice in the last few years. I don't know if with the modern half that means it's not of this genre, but I think it is really a good film, and boasts NITA NALDI, oh, she is just wonderful as Sally Lung, femme fatale eurasienne...

[Mme. Hermine]

There's always After The Fox, in which Victor Mature really really really makes fun of himself! in a very good humored way.

[papeetepatrick]

There's always After The Fox, in which Victor Mature really really really makes fun of himself! in a very good humored way.

Yes, and I just found the quote too: He says "I'm no actor, and I've got 64 pictures to prove it!" He also said he did well in these pictures because "I can make with the holy look".

[dirac]

I'd say Mature wasn't so much a bad actor as a nonactor. As Mashinka says he had sincerity. I thought he was perfect as Samson, though. (He made a few good noirs at Fox, too.)

And I will say this for Heston, he may lack charm but very few actors could stand in the middle of those giant spectacles and not be totally overpowered.

I thought that Troy was pretty awful, not even enjoyable as camp, although I like the "What's your name, kid? Aeneas?" bit at the end - I guess someone was preparing the ground for a sequel.

Regarding Alexander, I've never quite understood why he's called 'The Great', they probably didn't do body counts in his times but at a conservative guess he must have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands, to me his 'achievements' are on a par with Adolf Hitler's.

I grew up with the Mary Renault books and she loved Alexander. In some ways his father Philip is a more attractive character based on what we know but back then war wasn't a moral issue and going out to conquer the world was considered a pretty splendid thing to do even if a lot of people got hurt along the way. Alexander could be savage if you tried to fight him but in other respects he wasn't so bad.

dirac--are the two Ten Commandments swords-and-sandals?

That's a good question. I would say that the Biblical Spectacular is a separate genre but there is some overlap, as with J.C.'s special guest appearances in Ben-Hur.

The De Mille Ten Commandments is still shown on network television in prime time every year, which is remarkable when you think about it.

[papeetepatrick]

Regarding Alexander, I've never quite understood why he's called 'The Great', they probably didn't do body counts in his times but at a conservative guess he must have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands, to me his 'achievements' are on a par with Adolf Hitler's.

I grew up with the Mary Renault books and she loved Alexander. In some ways his father Philip is a more attractive character based on what we know but back then war wasn't a moral issue and going out to conquer the world was considered a pretty splendid thing to do even if a lot of people got hurt along the way. Alexander could be savage if you tried to fight him but in other respects he wasn't so bad.

Yes, agreed for the most part, the perspective from the 21st century is not the same. However, Plutarch does add some extra personal crimes that even Alexander felt extremely guilty about, a murder of, I believe (it's been about 10 years since I read Plutarch), a close friend or fellow soldier. One of his hangers-on had to convince him that 'as Alexander', he had no right to feel guilty about anything he did, and Alexander 'recovered' from his guilty. The rest of it, the military engagments, were accepted, and I don't think it's accurate to compare Alexander to Hitler or really any modern despot (in fact, most of the Romans and Greeks Plutarch wrote about were extremely bloodthirsty, and even though it was all cruel 'back then' too, it wasn't seen the same way in a hero, one reason being that warfare is now conducted at a distance, so that even if, say, a U.S. president or secretary of defense is referred to as a 'war criminal', he never did it with his own hands with a knife, etc., just bombs and the rest, letting others do the dirty work.

I believe there was also the accusation, often considered a never-proven rumour, in the Plutarch that Aristotle, Alexander's teacher', had been involved with a plot to poison or in some way kill Alexander. In any case, Alexander was suspcicious of this, and I think it was the reason Aristotle fled. After all, we may admire Aristotle more, but the pecking order back then was definitely Alexander being far more the important person than Aristotle. I haven't read any follow-up on this, but I agree with dirac's general thesis here, with the main point that this personal homicide was pretty creepy (even for then.)

[dirac]

I think my enjoyment of these kinds of films stems from the fact that I watched them at an impressionable age - pre and early teens. Apart from the Hollywood efforts there were a number of Italian ones with some awfully attractive people and weak story lines, interesting that the American films often had a biblical bent and the Italian ones were more secular in content.

Any Italian titles you would recommend, Mashinka? I'm not too familiar with those.

[Mashinka]

These were not high class movies so I hestitate to recommend anything at all but you could try the Colossus of Rhodes with Rory Calhoun (Sergio Leone's first film) or The Sign of the Gladiator with Anita Ekberg; as I've already said, attractive people and poor plots. Non-Italian actors in the leading roles seem to have been fairly common in these films, and who could forget the American Steve Reeves as Hercules unchained.

[dirac]

Charlton Heston parted the Red Sea on ABC last weekend in a new high-def version of The Ten Commandments and it looked gorgeous, although unfortunately it wasn't shown in widescreen format.