Die sieben Gladiatoren

I wasn't that interested in the "gladiator" genre but recently bought a DVD compilation - how could I go wrong with four movies for $4.99! The first movie was bad, the second better and finally the last, Gladiators Seven, turned out to be quite interesting. It benefited from what was clearly the highest budget featuring multiple scenic locations in great color. The title, while descriptive of the plot, also seems to be derivative of the Seven Samurai and The Magnificant Seven. A freed gladiator (Richard Harrison) returns to Sparta to find his father killed and his girlfriend (Loredana Nusciak) in the hands of the evil and lustful ruler (Jose Marco Devo). The gladiator gathers six collegues to take on the ruler's army. The scenes of him gathering the gladiators one by one will clearly remind you of the previous movies. Richard Harrison is not an expressive actor and his performance here remains wooden. However, from an opening arena battle onwards, he is good in most of the action sequences. However the other gladiators are all colorful characters and overshadow Harrison's acting in all the scenes. Even with dubbed dialog they convey individuality. There is a stong under current of humor and they often dispatch their enemies in a humorous manner. The movie is fast paced and speeds by effortlessly. All in all a very pleasant surprise.

One year, A.D. , Rome rules over Greece , in Sparta governs the Eforos . A gladiator named Dario ( Richard Harrison ) getting his freedom , thanks his courage in the Roman circus ; formerly his band of fellows gladiators ( Livio Lorenzon , Tony Zamperla , Joe Marco , Enrique Avila ) flee from Coliseum . Dario returns to Sparta where governs the Eforo Hiarba (Gerard Tichy ). There discovers his father has been killed by Hiarba who also wants to murder Dario and marry to Aglaia (Loredana Nusciak , Djanjo) promised to Dario and daughter of Milone . Then Hierba orders to kill Malone and accuses Dario . After that ,they save the damsel in distress , a Eforo 's daughter . Later on, Dario escapes and join forces with the Spartans, he unites his six professional gladiators to rid itself of the scourge , they are his formers Circus partners , to fight patrician ruler . Seven Spartans are faced at every turn by enemy army . Meanwhile Dario falls in love again with his former sweet-girl named Aglaia and then must rescue her from slavery and death. The gladiators attack the detachment and the fortress where is prisoned Aglaia.

Peplum or ¨Sword and Sandals¨ remake of Akira Kurosawa's classic ¨The seven samurais ¨and John Sturges's ¨The magnificent seven ¨ , it's an adventure film with all the ingredients as action , suspense , comedy , amusement and typical confrontation between good guys and bad guys . The picture allows for periods of humor and calm in which to establish characters punctuated by viscerally exciting bursts of action . It packs fights , sword-play, adventures and some touches of light humor . These culminates in the spectacular climatic battle between the Spartans and the enemies with bulls included . Ample support cast with most of the actors are relative unknowns and formed by muscle-men and regular from Western and Peplum as Livio Lorenzon , Tony Zamperla, Jose Marco and Antonio Molino Rojo , among others. As comic relief appears Bernabe Barta Barry , a sympathetic secondary playing a corpulent man . Good production values with spectacular final battle full of extras , some stock-shots and nice maquettes and scale model by Emilio Ruiz Del Rio . It's shot in the area round Madid , Manzanares and Pedriza where in the 60s were filmed several movies as El Cid , and is a co-production Spanish/ Italian produced by Italo Zingarelli . Atmospheric score by Marcelo Giombini with catching musical leitmotif . The motion picture is professionally directed by Pedro Lazaga , a Spanish craftsman who directed various film with the popular Paco Martinez Soria.

It's followed by other films in similar style such as the ¨The ten gladiators¨ trilogy formed by ¨I dice gladiatori(1963)by Gianfranco Parolini with Roger Browne, Jose Greci and Dan Vadis and followed by ¨Spartacus and ten gladiators¨ and the third outing titled ¨Triumph of ten gladiators or Il Trionfo Dieci Gladiators ¨ again by Nick Nostro .

Although only a few days have elapsed since I've watched this one, I've already forgotten practically everything about it – as my memories of the film seem to have melted into all the other peplums I've been watching of late! Obviously, from the title one can gather that it's basically a transposition of the SEVEN SAMURAI (1954)/THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960) plot to the Roman Empire – and the rating suggests that I found it to be a middle-of-the-road peplum, not very good perhaps but not especially bad either. Richard Harrison is the lead here and, while he may not have much range as an actor, at least he's not as wooden as Dan Vadis; as a matter of fact, over the last week, I've watched two films – and both, incidentally, turned out to be more or less of the same quality – by either of these Euro-stars. I do recall, however, that the print utilized for the DVD transfer of GLADIATORS SEVEN was perhaps the best of all the English-dubbed peplums I rented and, surprisingly enough, it was presented in the correct aspect ratio (unlike the majority of the titles, which were available only in horrendous pan-and-scan editions).

Darius, son of of the king of Sparta is thrown into the arena for allowing five gladiators to escape. Fighting and winning a huge victory he is freed. Returning home he finds his father dead, supposedly a suicide, but really murdered by the new King. Rounding up the gladiators he helped escape he fights to get back his throne. This is a good movie. It starts and goes right to the end with no side trips. Even the romance which normally handled badly in most films of this type doesn't intrude, although it isn't really resolved either. Its the perfect rainy day film where everything simply works.

The fighting in this movie looks like cowboys shooting Indians which means every cowboy or American military shoots ten Indians before he is shot. A part from this, the sword-fighting is impressive, those Spartans are real acrobats. The story is a little bit "have seen" but this movie is still worth watching it. The costumes are correct as ought to be for Greeks soldiers and the love-scenes are just as they should be with the ever-presence of beautiful women. But you wonder how even the best gladiators can match a complete army.