7/10
Hight budgeted and spectacular Peplum based on historical events with the corpulent Steve Reeves
3 March 2010
The film starts with Achiles(Arturo Dominici)dragging body of Hector, Priam's son. Later Aeneas (Steve Reeves) and Priam, king of Troy, go to the enemy camp asking his body. There, Aeneas will have to combat hunk men (Mimmo Palmara, Nello Pazzafini). Later on, at Troy takes place the famous episodes of the prophecy of Cassandra (Lidia Alfonsi) and the ¨Trojan Horse¨ . The movie deals about war of Troy as adaptation from classic poem of Homero. Helena( Hedy Vessel)wife of Menelao of Sparta( Nando Tamberlani),escapes with Paris( Warner). The Greek Army and ships go to Troya with Achiles(Arturo Domicini), the king of Micenas Agamenon(Nerio Bernardi) and the Spartans. They fight against the king of Troya (Carlo Tamberlani) and his son Paris and of course Aeneas.

This is an overwhelming and breathtaking film with impressive battles, as thousands of extras take part and mostly are staged on Yugoslavia.The picture packs colorful cinematography and evocative musical score by Giovanni Fusco. The flick is finely directed by Giorgo Ferroni , an expert on Peplum. It's followed by ¨La Leggenda di Enea¨ or ¨The avenger¨ directed by Giorgo Rivalta and Albert Band and again with Steve Reeves as Aeneas.

The picture is well starred by Steve Reeves who made lots of roman-epic-Italian films also called ¨Musclemen movies¨ or ¨Sword and sandals¨. Luck's Reeves changed when Italian director Pietro Francisci persuaded him to go overseas to star ¨Hercules¨ and sequel ¨Hercules and queen of Lydia¨ also titled ¨Hercules unchained ¨, and later on, he followed with ¨Goliath and the Barbarians¨, ¨The giant of Marathon¨, ¨The son of Spartacus¨ ,¨The Avenger¨ and several others . Steve was an American bouncing who emigrated towards Italy and created a true star-system based on pumped-up heroes. He paved the way for others actors to seek their fame and fortune in Italy playing stocky adventurers . Other stars by the time on this type of movies are Mark Forest, Gordon Mitchell, Dan Vadis, Brad Harris, Ken Wood who is usually Reeves's double and appears in very secondary role at ¨War of Troy¨ ; furthermore 'Gordon Scott' who made him more important competence. Nobody, nevertheless, topped Steve in popularity.

The story is partially based on ¨Iliad¨ that is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer and the screenwriters, Hugo Liberatore and Giorgo Stegani take parts here and there. Set in the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of Ilium by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. Although the story covers only a few weeks in the final year of the war, the Iliad mentions or alludes to many of the Greek legends about the siege.Along with the Odyssey, also attributed to Homer, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version is usually dated to around the eighth century BC. The Iliad contains approximately 15,700 lines, and is written in a literary amalgam of several Greek dialects. The authorship of the poem is disputed .
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