La rebelión de los esclavos

Vibio is being brought to be sold as a slave. He tries to escape and gets caught quickly. Before he is punished, Claudius bribes the overseer and buys Vibio. Claudia is Claudius' entitled daughter. Many are drawn to the new Christian church. Most are slaves like Vibio but there are some Romans including the powerful Sebastiano. Corvino is trying to track them down and pushing Emperor Massimiano to eliminate them.

This is an Italian sword and sandal flick. It's better than most of this genre. The second half gets a bit messy but the ending is quite good. It arrives in the correct place. All in all, it's not going to win any awards but it has some good aspects.

Rhonda Fleming would shortly be ending her big screen career and would henceforth do roles mostly for television. I'm sure that Revolt Of The Slaves might have had a lot to do with that decision. It was a project of her's and the man whom she would soon marry, Lang Jeffries.

This is a Christian martyr film along the lines of The Sign Of The Cross and Quo Vadis. But Fleming's film takes place much later than the early Empire years of those classics. She plays Fabiola who in real life had an interesting story to tell, but this isn't it.

Nor for that matter are the stories of Sebastian and Agnes two other noted martyrs. The lives of Fabiola, Sebastian, and Agnes inter lap chronologically, but they apparently never knew each other unlike how The Revolt Of The Slaves tells the tale.

Jeffries plays Vibio a Christian slave who Fleming takes one look at stripped down and in the true DeMille tradition of sex and gospel falls for him. But Vibio missed the course in turning the other cheek. He's going to fight for his fellow believers in the way he was trained as a gladiator.

One fascinating bit of history that I will have to look up and change my review if it is correct, but this is the only Peplum film I've seen that has the Romans using black African mercenaries. Emperor Massimiano played by Dario Moreno apparently doesn't trust his Roman Guards and he's got a private army of black guards whom he uses for things like suppressing the heresy of Christianity.

They have a white commander, a sniveling little ferret of a human being played by Serge Gainsbourg. He has a death scene to beat all and I won't say another word. You should see Revolt Of The Slaves for that alone.

As a lover of Roman history, I enjoy these old sword-and-sandal movies.

The reign of Maximinus was from 310 to 313. He was Augustus of the Eastern Roman Empire until he was defeated by Licinius, who was in turn defeated some years later by Constantine I.

Maximinus' persecution of Christians came some years after the Diocletian persecutions. Before his death, Maximinus issued an edict of tolerance allowing Christians to freely worship.

Like his uncle Galerius, Maximinus was a devout pagan of Dacian heritage. Galerius had been the architect of the Diocletian persecutions (before becoming emperor, Galerius the son-in-law of Diocletian, had been Diocletian's "Caesar" in the east, winning a great victory in the Battle of Satala). Both Galerius and his nephew Maximinus felt their own religion was threatened by the increasing popularity of Christianity.

Maximinius' persecution was the last persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.

Revolt of the Slaves is loosely based on a famous novel called Fabiola written by Cardinal Wiseman in the 1850s. It strays drastically from the original story, keeping some of the same characters (in particular the martyrs Sebastian and Agnes), and some of the same scenes, but downplaying martyrdom as a whole, and trying to make a movie that could be called "Vibio saves the Christians." The "Vibio" character is not part of the Fabiola story. He is introduced as a slave who is also a Christian, but he isn't about to be a martyr. He rescues Christians a number of times throughout the movie. Action scenes are everywhere in this movie, and every one of them is added--none are from the book.

I loved the book Fabiola, and I found this to be a deconstruction of it, not only in story but in philosophy. The screenwriters had some sympathy for the Christians, and portrayed them somewhat positively, but wanted to make them safe and happy in this world. If you know anything about the Diocletian persecution, Christians were anything but safe in those days. Faith is present in some of the characters, and it comes in handy, but physical combat seems to be the preferred mode of doing business. This movie had potential, but it was just Hercules vs. the pagan Romans.

This is the kind of film , as a theatrical designer, I fast forward through to see if it's visually worth looking at--- I should say, I will watch a film no matter HOW BAD it is, if the sets and costumes look interesting ( and this is NOT a great film)--BUT--- This film is OUTSTANDING visually for it's over-the-top costume and set design (God, those Italians know HOW to do it RIGHT!) It was made in the, shall I say, "Golden Age of Sword & Sandal Epics" from the mid 50's to early 60's-all with bad scripts, bad overacting, bad dubbing, battle scenes-usually with someone revolting against a tyrant, some has-been American actors, lots of muscle guys and busty babes!--get the picture? Rhonda Fleming was one of the most gorgeous American actresses and looks fantastic in these luscious costumes and hairdos- 6 out of 10 just for the EYE-CANDY!