It's colossal!
School is out but I like to pretend that my classes just go on and on! So here's what I did... I picked up several of the films that were mentioned often in our textbooks (for "Myth, History & Movies") and put them in my NetFlix queue or brought them home from the library. This is what I got so far:
That last one's just for kicks!
So, anyway, I finally got around to watching one of them last night. I started with The Colossus of Rhodes (1960). It's a total "B Movie" - the kind that used to be on tv Saturday mornings when I was growing up. (Man, I used to love those movies!) It is actually really good. It's Sergio Leone's first film as Director. According to his IMDb page, he'd been AD on a bunch of sword and sandal films so it makes sense that he would start off by directing one of his own. After this, though, it was all westerns. The sets and costumes were wonderful, but the best thing by far is the Colossus itself. Huge! And there are a couple of great scenes that involve the characters crawling out of the statue's ears or peeking out through it's eyes. Fantastic images. The destruction of Rhodes is rather exciting as well. Much better than the Great Fire of Rome in Quo Vadis. (Interestingly, the guy who plays the evil king Serse in this seems to be channeling Ustinov's Nero from Quo Vadis.) Historically, it's a bit mixed up. There are scenes set in an arena of Roman-style public executions. Yeah, whatevs, it's still a fun and good looking film. In fact it's filmed in SuperTotalscope!
Here's the trailer for it. It's a great trailer, but it doesn't really describe the film very well. There aren't any real orgies or "devil" worship that I can think of. (Oh, yeah, I guess they do sacrifice to Baal.) Anyway, enjoy the trailer and if you get a chance, check out the film!
That last one's just for kicks!
So, anyway, I finally got around to watching one of them last night. I started with The Colossus of Rhodes (1960). It's a total "B Movie" - the kind that used to be on tv Saturday mornings when I was growing up. (Man, I used to love those movies!) It is actually really good. It's Sergio Leone's first film as Director. According to his IMDb page, he'd been AD on a bunch of sword and sandal films so it makes sense that he would start off by directing one of his own. After this, though, it was all westerns. The sets and costumes were wonderful, but the best thing by far is the Colossus itself. Huge! And there are a couple of great scenes that involve the characters crawling out of the statue's ears or peeking out through it's eyes. Fantastic images. The destruction of Rhodes is rather exciting as well. Much better than the Great Fire of Rome in Quo Vadis. (Interestingly, the guy who plays the evil king Serse in this seems to be channeling Ustinov's Nero from Quo Vadis.) Historically, it's a bit mixed up. There are scenes set in an arena of Roman-style public executions. Yeah, whatevs, it's still a fun and good looking film. In fact it's filmed in SuperTotalscope!
Here's the trailer for it. It's a great trailer, but it doesn't really describe the film very well. There aren't any real orgies or "devil" worship that I can think of. (Oh, yeah, I guess they do sacrifice to Baal.) Anyway, enjoy the trailer and if you get a chance, check out the film!
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