Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum (: pepla), is a subgenre of largely Italian-made historical, mythological, or biblical epic films mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget Hollywood historical epics of the time, such as Samson and Delilah (1949), Quo Vadis (1951), The Robe (1953), The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960), and Cleopatra (1963).Patrick Lucanio, With Fire and Sword: Italian Spectacles on American Screens, 1958–1968 (Scarecrow Press, 1994; ) These films dominated the Italian film industry from 1958 to 1965, eventually being replaced in 1965 by spaghetti Western and Eurospy films.
The term "peplum" (a Latin word referring to the ancient Greek garment peplos) was introduced by French film critics in the 1960s. The terms "peplum" and "sword-and-sandal" were used in a condescending way by film critics. Later, the terms were embraced by fans of the films, similar to the terms "spaghetti Western" or "shoot-'em-ups". In their English versions, peplum films can be immediately differentiated from their Hollywood counterparts by their use of "clumsy and inadequate" English language dubbing. A 100-minute documentary on the history of Italy's peplum genre was produced and directed by Antonio Avati in 1977 titled Kolossal: i magnifici Macisti (aka Kino Kolossal).Della Casa, Steve; Giusti, Marco (2013). "Il Grande Libro di Ercole". Edizione Sabinae. Page 194. Kino kolossal – Herkules, Maciste & Co. Eintrag letterboxd.com. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
Genre characteristics
Sword-and-sandal films are a specific class of Italian adventure films that have subjects set in Biblical or classical antiquity, often with plots based more or less loosely on Greco-Roman history or the other contemporary cultures of the time, such as the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Etruscans, as well as medieval times. Not all of the films were fantasy-based by any means. Many of the plots featured actual historical personalities such as Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and Hannibal, although great liberties were taken with the storylines. Gladiators and slaves rebelling against tyrannical rulers, pirates and swashbucklers were also popular subjects.
As Robert Rushing defines it, peplum, "in its most stereotypical form, [...] depicts muscle-bound heroes (professional bodybuilders, athletes, wrestlers, or brawny actors) in mythological antiquity, fighting fantastic monsters and saving scantily clad beauties. Rather than lavish epics set in the classical world, they are low-budget films that focus on the hero's extraordinary body." Thus, most sword-and-sandal films featured a superhumanly strong man as the protagonist, such as Hercules, Samson, Goliath, Ursus or Italy's own popular folk hero Maciste. In addition, the plots typically involved two women vying for the affection of the bodybuilder hero: the good love interest (a damsel in distress needing rescue), and an evil femme fatale queen who sought to dominate the hero.
Also, the films typically featured an ambitious ruler who would ascend the throne by murdering those who stood in his path, and often it was only the muscular hero who could depose him. Thus the hero's often political goal: "to restore a legitimate sovereign against an evil dictator."
Many of the peplum films involved a clash between two populations, one civilized and the other barbaric, which typically included a scene of a village or city being burned to the ground by invaders. For their musical content, most films contained a colorful dancing girls sequence, meant to underline pagan decadence.
Precursors of the sword-and-sandal wave (pre-1958) Italian films of the silent era Italian filmmakers paved the way for the peplum genre with some of the earliest silent films dealing with the subject, including the following: The Sack of Rome (1905) Agrippina (1911) The Fall of Troy (1911) The Queen of Nineveh (1911, directed by Luigi Maggi) Brutus (1911) Quo Vadis (1913, directed by Enrico Guazzoni) Antony and Cleopatra (1913) Cabiria (1914, directed by Giovanni Pastrone) Julius Caesar (1914) Saffo (Sappho, 1918, directed by Antonio Molinari) The Crusaders (1918) Fabiola (1918) directed by Enrico Guazzoni Attila (1918, directed by F. Mari) Venere (Venus, 1919, directed by Antonio Molinari) Il mistero di Osiris (The Mystery of Osiris, 1919) directed by Antonio Molinari Giuliano l'Apostata (1919, directed by Ugo Falena) Giuditta e Oloferne (Judith and Holofernes, 1920) directed by Antonio Molinari The Sack of Rome, (1920) directed by Enrico Guazzoni Samson (1923 film) (a modern day drama, not a peplum) Messalina, (1924) directed by Enrico Guazzoni Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (The Last Days of Pompeii (1926) directed by Carmine Gallone and Amleto Palermi)
The silent Maciste films (1914–1927) The 1914 Italian silent film Cabiria was one of the first films set in antiquity to make use of a massively muscled character, Maciste (played by actor Bartolomeo Pagano), who served in this premiere film as the hero's slavishly loyal sidekick. Maciste became the public's favorite character in the film however, and Pagano was called back many times to reprise the role. The Maciste character appeared in at least two dozen Italian silent films from 1914 through 1926, all of which featured a protagonist named Maciste although the films were set in many different time periods and geographical locations.
Here is a complete list of the silent Maciste films in chronological order: Cabiria (1914) introduced the Maciste character Maciste (1915) "The Marvelous Maciste" Maciste bersagliere ("Maciste the Ranger", 1916) Maciste alpino ("Maciste The Warrior", 1916) Maciste atleta ("Maciste the Athlete", 1917) Maciste medium ("Maciste the Clairvoyant", 1917) Maciste poliziotto ("Maciste the Detective", 1917) Maciste turista ("Maciste the Tourist", 1917) Maciste sonnambulo ("Maciste the Sleepwalker", 1918) La Rivincita di Maciste ("The Revenge of Maciste", 1919) Il Testamento di Maciste ("Maciste's Will", 1919) Il Viaggio di Maciste ("Maciste's Journey", 1919) Maciste I ("Maciste the First", 1919) Maciste contro la morte ("Maciste vs Death", 1919) Maciste innamorato ("Maciste in Love", 1919) Maciste in vacanza ("Maciste on Vacation", 1920) Maciste salvato dalle acque ("Maciste Rescued from the Waters", 1920) Maciste e la figlia del re della plata ("Maciste and the Silver King's Daughter", 1922) Maciste und die Japanerin ("Maciste and the Japanese", 1922) Maciste contro Maciste ("Maciste vs. Maciste", 1923) Maciste und die chinesische truhe ("Maciste and the Chinese Trunk", 1923) Maciste e il nipote di America ("Maciste's American Nephew", 1924) Maciste imperatore ("Emperor Maciste", 1924) Maciste contro lo sceicco ("Maciste vs. the Sheik", 1925) Maciste all'inferno ("Maciste in Hell", 1925) Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni ("Maciste in the Lions' Den", 1926) il Gigante delle Dolemite ("The Giant From the Dolomite", released in 1927)
Italian fascist and post-war historical epics (1937-1956)
The Italian film industry released several historical films in the early sound era, such as the big-budget Scipione l'Africano (Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal) in 1937, written by Mussolini's son Vittorio, and heavily financed by his fascist government. In 1949, the postwar Italian film industry remade Fabiola (which had been previously filmed twice in the silent era). The film was released in the United Kingdom and in the United States in 1951 in an edited, English-dubbed version. Fabiola was an Italian-French co-production similar to The Last Days of Pompeii (1950) and Messalina (1951).
During the 1950s, a number of American historical epics shot in Italy were released. In 1951, MGM producer Sam Zimbalist cleverly used the lower production costs, use of frozen funds and the expertise of the Italian film industry to shoot the large-scale Technicolor epic Quo Vadis in Rome. In addition to its fictional account linking the Great Fire of Rome, the Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire and Emperor Nero, the film - following the novel "Quo vadis" by the Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz - featured also a mighty protagonist named Ursus (Italian filmmakers later made several pepla in the 1960s exploiting the Ursus character). MGM also planned Ben Hur to be filmed in Italy as early as 1952.Pryor, Thomas M. "Ben-Hur to Ride for Metro Again." New York Times. December 8, 1952.
Riccardo Freda's Sins of Rome was filmed in 1953 and released by RKO in an edited, English-dubbed version the following year. Unlike Quo Vadis, there were no American actors or production crew. The Anthony Quinn film Attila (directed by Pietro Francisci in 1954), the Kirk Douglas epic Ulysses (co-directed by an uncredited Mario Bava in 1954) and Helen of Troy (directed by Robert Wise with Sergio Leone as an uncredited second unit director in 1955) were the first of the big peplum films of the 1950s. Riccardo Freda directed another peplum, Theodora, Slave Empress in 1954, starring his wife Gianna Maria Canale. Howard Hawks directed his Land of the Pharaohs (starring Joan Collins) in Italy and Egypt in 1955. Robert Rossen made his film Alexander the Great in Egypt in 1956, with a music score by famed Italian composer Mario Nascimbene.
The main sword-and-sandal period (1958-1965) To cash in on the success of the Kirk Douglas film Ulysses, Pietro Francisci planned to make a film about Hercules, but searched unsuccessfully for years for a physically convincing yet experienced actor. His daughter spotted American bodybuilder Steve Reeves in the American film Athena and he was hired to play Hercules in 1957 when the film was made. (Reeves was paid $10,000 to star in the film).Jon Thurber: Steve Reeves, Mr. Universe Who Became Movie Strongman, Dies 4 May 2000 latimes.com. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
The genre's instantaneous growth began with the U.S. theatrical release of Hercules in 1959. American producer Joseph E. Levine acquired the U.S. distribution rights for $120,000, spent $1 million promoting the film and made more than $5 million profit.p.73 Frayling, Christopher Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone I.B.Tauris, 2006. This spawned the 1959 Steve Reeves sequel Hercules Unchained, the 1959 re-release of Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949), and dozens of imitations that followed in their wake. Italian filmmakers resurrected their 1920s Maciste character in a brand new 1960s sound film series (1960–1964), followed rapidly by Ursus, Samson, Goliath and various other mighty-muscled heroes.
Almost all peplum films of this period featured bodybuilder stars, the most popular being Steve Reeves, Reg Park and Gordon Scott. Some of these stars, such as Mickey Hargitay, Reg Lewis, Mark Forest, Gordon Mitchell and Dan Vadis, had starred in Mae West's touring stage review in the United States in the 1950s. Bodybuilders of Italian origin, on the other hand, would adopt English pseudonyms for the screen; thus, stuntman Sergio Ciani became Alan Steel, and ex-gondolier Adriano Bellini was called Kirk Morris.
To be sure, many of the films enjoyed widespread popularity among general audiences, and had production values that were typical for popular films of their day. Some films included frequent re-use of the impressive film sets that had been created for Ben-Hur and Cleopatra.