Maciste, l'eroe più grande del mondo

(1963) Maciste, the World's Greatest Hero/ Maciste, l'eroe più grande del mondo/ Goliath And the Sins of Babylon DUBBED MYTHICAL HISTORICAL FICTION

Saw this movie as the alternative title "Goliath And the Sins of Babylon" that has Mark Forest as Goliath joining rebels against a tyrant king King Rukus (Paul Muller) and his right hand man Morakeg (Erno Crisa) kidnapping young women (supposedly virgins) to be used as pawns.

I don't quite remember why I liked this movie for it has been awhile since I last saw this. All I know is that it was better than the average Italian/ Spanish co production sword and sandals movie. It was on one of those cheapo sword and sandals DVD sets cramming so many movies onto a single disc with no bonus features.

Named as Sword & Sandal genre is one my favorite ones, my DVD copy has a Italian original language, therefore in the Italian version Mark forest is Maciste, arriving at Nefer he gathered with 41 revolutionary gladiators to put a close over send 40 virgins girls a year to Babylon to be sacrificed, it's was a price to maintain the peace, they hijack a ship to sink Babylon's ship that is coming to takes all girls to there, the picture has another highlight, a chariots race, likes Ben Hur, the love between the princess with Xandros (Gemma) however the most exiting sequence certainly was the Maciste was chained on a table with several spurs hold by ropes from the celing, their friends have to cut the rope that release the spur toward Maciste's body, many them reach closest, a true breathtaking haunting scene, by the way a true unique, many battles, betrays, lavish giant sets, among others things, has a Midge called Goliath on this version, a true amusing guy, bringing humor to small group, valuable and enjoyable adventure, unfortunately it already didn't come out officially in Brazil, my DVD-R copy is came from internet download!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2012 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD-R / Rating: 6.5

Goliath returns to his home land to help stop the flow of 30 virgins a year to Babylon.

As Sword and Sandal films go this is pretty good. Its not the worst its not the best. Its just a good, light entertaining film that makes you smile as things go along. Filled with interesting set pieces, a chariot race, a sea battle, dungeon torture, this movie attempts to give you more than the usual film of this nature.

The trouble is that the film seems to have been done before. Its not even so much that the film has the same plot as the vast majority of this type of film, its that the sets, the tortures and perhaps whole sequences show up elsewhere. Even allowing for the fact that the trailer has shown up on various other taps and DVDs, this film seems overly familiar, especially to anyone who has ever watched more than a handful of these films.

Still as these things go its not a bad movie. See it.

Goliath returns to a kingdom (Nefer?) on the Persian Gulf which has fallen under the cruel domination of Babylon. Each year a number of the kingdom's most beautiful virgins must be sent off to serve the evil Babylonian king. Goliath unites with some local rebels to end this domination, destroying by fire the city of Babylon in the process.

This "peplum" comes with a lot of action: the usual fights, a chariot race, a sea battle, and a climactic conflagration. There's also a touch of romance, (though not involving Goliath), and for comic-relief we're offered one of those midget sidekicks so dear to the hearts of Italian audiences. As usual our hero is subjected to a torture or test-of-strength. In this case he's spreadeagled face-up on a sloping table while spears drop toward him from holes in the ceiling. Some of these spears crash into the table just to one side of the hero's flesh while other spears are halted in their downward plunge mere inches above various parts of the hero's body. (The spear that hurtles toward Goliath's groin is a real attention getter!)

Fans of such goings-on will probably find this an adequate way to pass 80 or so minutes, but there's little to distinguish these goings-on from numerous similar movies. Had Steve Reeves played the lead, the situation might have improved, but here we have Mark Forest (born Lou Degni), a bodybuilder who has the necessary pecs but is short on charisma. Something about the way the skin crinkles around his eyes whenever he smiles makes him look a bit "wimpy."

I don't know how all these Maciste, Hercules and all those big tough (oiled up) guy movies could be made. A friend of mine told me, some of them with repressed homosexuality included. Might be true and I would not be surprised men who like men, enjoying these movies. Good for them and don't take this as a negative.

All that aside, this is one more of those. It is what it is - while this has a negative connotation right now, I hope this will change and just get back to what it literally means, without us having to get all upset. On the other hand, some may get upset on multiple things the movie depicts. Take this for what it is, either relish in it or stop watching ... or you'll be more tortured than our central character here ... well he actually isn't tortured at all. Even with the explanation why that is ... ah well who cares right? It's all fun and games