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As a kid, I was wholly immersed in what the film industry calls ”Epic films“...mega-large scale production, sweeping scope and spectacle, unfettered extravagance, lavishly costumed, a cast of thousands, exotic locations, loosely within a historical context be it Viking raiders, Sinbad the Sailor / Arabian Nights adventures, Spanish Conquistadors or 12th century Crusaders or from countless other pages in the chronicles of history. Even movies which mix myth with history like the Robin Hood saga or the Arthurian legend drew me to their flame. But it was the world of antiquity on screen that most fired my imagination. My all-time favourite viewing entertainments were "Sword-and-sandal" movies, also known as ‘Peplum’§ movies (okay, when we got a TV set watching Westerns started to consume the lion’s share of my leisure time, but in the early Sixties there was just so many damn “horse operas”/ “oaters” monopolising air time on the box!).
In that less prescriptive age when no one fretted much about the adverse effect on juveniles of their maxing out on screen time, my penchant was to binge on an assortment of Hollywood epic blockbusters—the usual suspects, Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments and Spartacus of course—if I had to nominate one ancient world epic as my all-time favourite though I’d probably plump for Jason and the Argonauts – admittedly a smaller scale ‘indy’ production without the big name star drawing power (maybe more “epic-lite?”). It’s stellar appeal lay in part, like its more famous fellow Greek myth story of “The Odyssey”, in the adventure-packed extravaganza of its Classical heroic tale, its virtuous protagonist’s quest and ultimate triumph against the longest of odds stacked against him. But what elevated Jason and the Argonauts above the pack for my 11-year-old self was undoubtedly the film’s fantasy special effects. I was captivated by the myriad of fearsome legendary creatures (Ray Harryhausen’s SFX wizardry)—though to more discerning adult eyes they must have looked decidedly “hokey”—the glorious highlight of which was the iconic scene where Jason battled the frenetic army of animated sabre-wielding skeletons (and emerged triumphant of course!) Later on I developed a particular fondness for Italian Sword-and-sandal flicks, something which I still find hard to explain. These are films, made primarily between the late Fifties and the mid Sixties, with hollow and meaningless translated titles like Goliath and the Vampires, Hercules Against the Sons of the Sun, Samson Against the Sheik and Ursus in the Valley of the Lions. Most are set vaguely in Ancient Greece or Rome or in that neck of the woods, and sometimes with story lines full of anachronisms. Sloppily dubbed into halting English, atrociously woodenly acted, scenes lacking continuity, the plots are ludicrously formulaic, typically involving the strongman hero having to run through his repertoire of superhuman feats of strength while rescuing a beautiful but defenceless heroine (wearing the briefest peplum imaginable) and liberating the oppressed masses at the same time£. The Italian Pepla was indeed a curious passion on my teenage part. My fascination with this Continental movie sub-genre was precisely because even then I knew that they were so egregiously bad! Like being drawn, against your better instincts, in not being able to stop yourself from looking at something horrific like a car crash, the fact that the Sword-and-sandals were such thoroughly execrable, perfect ‘turkeys’ of films was, perversely, what made them essential viewing during my teen and adolescent years!
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| This 1964 ”Sword-and-sandaller” was released in English as Hercules Against the Moon Men |
PS. In adulthood I lack the patience to sit through any more than about 10 minutes max of a Peplum movie...but even with my diminished enthusiasm I still hold a soft spot for the flawed sub-genre...I guess that’s called nostalgia – the remembrances of things past which felt better then (ie, in my youth) than they do now.
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§ tthe peplum (pl: pepla) was a type of tunic worn in Ancient Greecee
£ sso as the lead convincingly looked the part, former bodybuilders transformed into actors were often cast as the Herculean protagonist
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