Il colosso di Roma

The king Tarquinio is banished from Roma . Mucio Scevola (Gordon Scott) married to Clelia goes to Porsena's headquarter and demonstrates his courage by burning himself a hand , for that reason is named Scevola (the left-handed) . Tarquinio (Massimo Serato) unites to Lars Porsena (Roldano Lupi) , king of Etruscos . They ask to Romans as hostages a group of young women (Gabriella Pallota , Maria Pia Conte). But Aronte(Antonini) , Porsena's son , enamored to Valena (Pia Conte) frees her and she passes the river Tiber . Meantime , Scevola hides his hand into an iron glove and begins the fighting .

This is an enjoyable sword and sandals movie with historical backstage , action , a love story , battles and spectacular scenarios . Gordon Scott is top-notch , as the historic hero who finds many dangerous situations while attempting to save Rome and his true love , Clelia , of several risks . Strong and robust Gordon Scott was a magnificent muscle-man . He was one along with Ed Fury , Brad Harris , Kirk Morris , Reg Park , Mark Forest , among others , whom to seek fame and fortune acting absurdly as muscle mythological figures , but anybody topped Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott in popularity . He played another historical character : ¨Coroliano , hero without country¨ with battle stock shots taken from this one and directed again by Giorgo Ferroni , a Peplum expert (Conquest of Micenas , Trojan war) . The motion picture is based on true events but has not prospect historical . The real deeds are the following : Tarquino(534-509, B.C.) was the seventh and last king of Roma and he governs tyrannically . The rape of Lucrecia by his son caused a riot and he was overthrown , the Roman Republic was proclaimed and he actually disappeared . Rating : Better than average Peplum fodder and better than most Sword and Sandals movies , thanks to Gordon Scott and slick direction by Giorgo Ferroni .

What singles out this feature is the grandeur of the first 2 minutes. What follows is a presentation typical of so many other works of this genre. The musical overture towers over this work like a mountain over a rolling plain.

The musical overture, written by A. Francesco Lavagnino, the great prolific Italian composer of this era, is another inspiring work that convinces one that this composer could have been a giant among classical composers of an earlier time.

Another feature, Duel of the Champions, contains an overture of similar stature written by Lavagnino. So, enjoy the first 2 minutes, and if you like movies within this genre, you may find this entertaining as well. After all, Gordon Scott is a pretty good substitution for Steve Reeves.

As far as the story goes, it's another one of those that had the potential to be good but falls flat on it's own script. Cinematography is ordinary, choppy at times. Directing is questionable, some of the shots are really bad. Acting seems okay, I can't hear their real voices it's originally in Italian and it's dubbed it into English but as far as I can tell the acting is fine. The voice actors did okay with the dubbing.

It's just flat, drab. It's not bad at all but really needed a bit more action to "dress it up". What action there is in the film is fine.

Once again we have out of this world costumes for the men, the Roman soldiers mainly (as usual). Standard stuff on the women. There are some cool prop weapons as with all peplum films.

4/10

This film was pretty good, for it's time it has a lot of sword fighting and action. I'm not sure what other reviewers are complaining about. Of course it won't have too much violence as it was made in the 60's and it isn't a horror film. Of course it won't have too much CGI because they didn't have the technology back then. Yes of course they won't have boobs because this isn't a porn film. The story is better than a lot of other Hollywood films made today, and more easy to follow, and makes sense. The costumes are awesome and much went into the armour, The 60's Italian film wasn't big enough to have too much lavish sets and it's fine as it is. A product of it's era. People complaining about the women's costumes are being silly now, because Roman women did used to dress this way and their hairstyles were the most gorgeous.

I am in agreement with the reviewer who says that most peplum pictures involving the Roman Empire start with the era of Julius Caesar and go through the pagan and Christian eras and then the fall. There are very few involving the original kingdom which was simply Rome and its suburbs and the Republic that came from it.

Modern historians are not in general agreement as to what constitutes myth and what constitutes fact in the early days. Two stories of the early Republic are combined into one film in Hero Of Rome starring former Tarzan Gordon Scott.

Scott plays Mucius Scaveola, the last name translated means left handed. He became such for an act of incredible bravura. When he went into the camp of the Etruscan king who was besieging Rome and missed assassinating him. When captured and ordered to be put to death, Mucius thrust his right hand, his sword hand into a flame and held it there for several seconds. The Etruscan king was so impressed he set him free.

The second story is the overthrow of King Tarquinis the seventh and last king of Rome. Tarquinis simply went into exile and out of history like Francois Villon or Jean Lafitte. But here the two stories are combined and as these stories are legend, the Italian filmmakers just did a little legend combining.

According to Wikipedia the Roman history Livy is the source for all of this. No other sources survive so his word has to be taken. Nevertheless Scott does a good job and Hero Of Rome is definitely a cut above the glut of peplum pictures from the early Sixties.