Le fatiche di Ercole

The movie that launched the career of muscle man Steve Reeves.... In the late 1950s Italian director Pietro Franicisi wanted to do a film about the exploits of the famous muscleman, "Hercules"...he had scoured actors all over Europe looking for a handsome, musclebound actor who could complement the role...soon his daughter who had seen Reeves in a couple of B films recommended Reeves to her father....the rest was history. Reeves was an out of work muscleman actor who reportedly took the role for about $40,000 US cash - quite a sum at the time for an unemployed actor. The rest as they say is history. When first released it was panned by the major US studios until a film producer named Joseph E. Levine took a big chance and bought all the rights to the film's USA release. After a major US advertising campaign on television and in the newspapers the film confounded the experts and for some strange reason became an international hit. The timing was right for some unknown reason for this cheaply made muscle man movie to become a hit. At the time fantasy films, such as the Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and others were big at the box office. Reeves incredible physique and handsome face were big attractions to the young boys and ladies who went to see the film. Levine hit the jackpot again when Francisi made "Hercules Unchained" a few months later after the release of "Hercules". "Hercules Unchained " made even more money, in fact an astounding amount in 1960 and became one of the year's biggest grossing films. Soon, Italian directors jumped on the bandwagon and starting churning out these muscleman epics by the dozens.....Gordon Scott, Mark Forrest,Reg Lewis, and Kirk Morris all tried to duplicate Reeves in these "epics".....and the public loved them. Reeves went on to make several more muscleman epics in the late 50s and early 60s playing Morgan the Pirate, The Thief of Bagdad, Goliath, The White Warrior, The Son of Spartacus and other muscleman epics. An odd twist to Reeves career was the fact that he reportedly turned down two roles that became international sensations: He was offered the role of James Bond by producer Cubby Broccoli and "The Man with No name" made popular by Clint Eastwood and made by Sergio Leone....for whatever reason Reeves turned the roles down....hard to understand. Reeves retired to ranching, his first love in the late 60s and raised cattle and horses until his death in 2001. The greatest physique ever seen on a man....probably the most admired bodybuilder of all time.

Don't look for an Oscar moments here as the acting is wooden for the most part and the special effects a bit far-fetched, but this is a film that can be enjoyed by everyone.

Mr. Universe 1950, Steve Reeves became a star with this film. People didn't come to see acting, they just wanted him to take his shirt off. He would be the role model for future Hercules like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno, who gave him his due.

After performing all the stunt he is famous for, he saves the day for Jason (Fabrizio Mioni, who went on to a long TV career in America) and rowed off into the sunset with Croatian beauty Sylva Koscina.

This is the stuff epics are made of.

Basically this a movie about Hercules falling into the one adventure after the other, without some times feeling an obvious connection between those events. It makes this a pretty disjointed movie to watch at times. If this movie was being made this present day in exactly the same way it would be an absolutely terrible movie but the fact that this was made in 1958 makes it a good and defining one for its genre.

It's sometimes laughable how fake this movie is looking, for instance when Hercules is fighting a lion and later a buffalo, who are both obvious puppets in the close-up scenes with Steve Reeves. You can call it part of the charm of these old type of adventure movies but it still looks ridicules, regardless.

But besides that all it's a rather good looking movie, with its sets costumes and of course settings. It's an Italian movie, so it features lots of beautiful landscapes.

The story is simple and perhaps not as action filled or fast paced as it could had been but it still is an adventurous one. The swashbuckling and adventure genre had pretty much died already when it was 1958. This is a movie that obviously tries to revive a genre, with some new more 'modern' changes and elements in it. After this 'historic' and mythological movies such as "Jason and the Argonauts". "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and "Spartacus" were made. It's hard to say if this movie influenced any of those movies but fact is that this movie was a popular one at its time, also in America. Therefor it's a really thinkable that this movie played at least some part in redefining the genre.

Not great, most especially not by todays standards but considering the time it was made, a good genre movie that is adventurous and therefor also has entertainment value in it.

6/10

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Joseph E. Levine's timing when he decided to capitalize on this low-budget Italian epic was so right that it has become a legendary example of film promotion. That aside, it's amazing still how the dynamic image of Steve Reeves and a multimillion dollar saturation campaign was able to make this one of the most profitable films of it's time. That bad word of mouth didn't kill this picture's boxoffice only goes to show you that kitsch can be appreciated when it delivers, and HERCULES is colossal kitsch that delivers sensational, fetishistic, sexist spectacle in it's cheapest, most primitive form. Tastelessly tasteful.

I saw this film in Brazil when I was 10 and I never could forget it. It is amazing even today. Well produced and directed, it is may be the best of all the Sword and Sandal genre. Steve Reeves was not the awful creature the critics said. And Gianna Maria Canale, the queen of the amazons, deserves the title she once had as the most beautiful woman in the world.