Der Sohn des Spartacus

This film, made at the twilight of Mr. Reeves film career, is certainly one of his best. The location work in Egypt and a rather big budget look add a great amount of, shall I say it?, realism to an essentially escapist, fantastical genre- the Italian sword and sandal flicks of the 1958-64 period. This picture also features some extremely diabolical villainy on the part of Crassus. Sir Laurence Olivier wasn't nearly this outrageously evil playing the same character in SPARTACUS! Steve's dilemma is pretty heavy in this one, doing a complete 180 from up and coming Roman centurions to advocate warrior of the freedom movement for the slaves of Rome. The action scenes stand up pretty well after 40 plus years.

Steve Reeves plays a high-ranking Roman centurion who finds out he's the son of the infamous rebel slave leader and spearheads a revolt, of course, in one of the better "sword & sandal" entries. Mixing the backstory of Moses (instead of a swaddling cloth, an amulet gives him away) with the exploits of a comic book superhero (Reeves sneaks off every now and then to shuck his tunic for dad's face-covering armor), director Corbucci took the tale and ran with it, producing some impressive mise-en-scène amidst his unexpectedly inventive camera-work. Gianna Maria Canale as Crassus' cougar wife does little more than lounge around on divans and ogle our hero but no matter, it's always a pleasure to see her in peplum like this.

One of the better Sword and Sandal movies from the golden era of the genre (the 1960's). Awesome to see Steve Reeves in his prime. If this movie had been made in the 1980's, no doubt Schwarzenegger would have been the lead. Beautifully shot on location in Egypt, the setting really does seem to improve the movie. Lot's of action, plenty of sword fights and cool set pieces. I think what stood out to me the most about this movie was the similarities to the "Zorro" story. Reeve's character is a bit like a super hero, darting off out of view to change in to a costume (son of Spartacus) that hides his true identity. Zorro would leave his mark, a "Z" carved with his sword. Son of Spartacus leaves an "S" carved or painted in to shields and walls to terrorize the abusive governor. It really did strike me as "Zorro" set in Roman times and happening in Egypt. Check out the size of the mole on the neck of the guy that played Caesar. Holy crap, he should have had that thing surgically removed. It was like a vestigial twin living on his shoulder/neck. Grotesque!

Overall, a good sword and sandal movie that I would have loved when I was 8 - 12 years old. Somehow I only just saw this movie for the first time now that I am 45 years old, but I still enjoyed it.

From Sergio Corbucci, director of the classic spaghetti westerns "The Great Silence" and "Django," comes a routine, but serviceable Italian sword-and-sandal epic staring Steve Reeves, best know for his many Hercules films. This was Reeves final on-screen appearance in this particular genre, later moving onto pirate and western films. "The Slave" has Reeves cast a Roman soldier who discovers he's actually the son of Spartacus, a slave turned gladiator turned rebel leader against the Roman Empire. Like his father, Reeves ends up leading a slave revolt. Unlike the Stanley Kubrick version of Spartacus, this film is minus interesting characters, dialogue, and narrative. However, Corbucci does bring strong visuals to the film and the production values of "The Slave" is better than most Italian sword-and-sandal pictures, which makes this film worth checking out for fans of these admittedly silly films.

"The Slave" (aka Son of Spartacus) is a an excellent action Reeves film with a good story line to borrow from (the original Spartacus). Reeves learns of his heritage after being captured by a band of slave drivers in the Egyptian desert - also tagging along is a beautiful slave girl who along with Reeves survives being dumped overboard by a ship which hits a barge in the River. Great scene,when Reeves doubtful that he is Spartacus's son walks slowly into a small catacomb and finds the helmet and sword of Spartacus and muses for several minutes about his heritage - linking a medallion he has worn since birth with the same emblem on the sword handle of Spartacus. Also great action scene when Reeves rescues a band of prisoners of Ceasar Crassus who are tied into a large moat with water rushing in to cause a drowning execution. Excellent sword and action with several bad guys being wiped out by Steve, looking like an adonis with a metal helmet on in a great swashbuckling scene.....Reeves as a tribune of Ceasar finally realizes as did his dad, Spartacus, that the Roman empire cannot survive as a slave empire.....reluctantly Ceasar realizes it also and gives Reeves and his slave followers their freedom. Good cloak and dagger role for Steve as he poses as a tribune working for Caesar and also as the Son of Spartacus - wearing an impressive full head helmet to complete his disguise.



good