So, do you like movies about gladiators?

— Peter Graves, in Airplane! (1980)

D. W. Griffith set out to depict the splendor of ancient Babylon in Intolerance.

Sword and sandal films are a cinematic genre of adventure or fantasy films that have subjects set in Biblical or classical antiquity, often with contrived plots based very loosely on mythology or history. Most movies based on Greco-Roman history and mythology, or the surrounding cultures of the same era (Egyptians, Assyrians, Etruscans, Minoans), etc. are sword and sandal epic films . The greatest productions of this film genre were made during the 1950s, but it has experienced a recent renaissance. Broadly considered, this could compass such diverse films as Ben-Hur, Cleopatra, Titus, or The Ten Commandments. In this sense, it is one of the oldest movie genres; the original Ben-Hur was made by Sidney Olcott in 1907; the 1914 silent film Cabiria was important in the development of the art of cinematography. Another name for the genre is peplum, from a Latin word for a sort of tunic, easy to make, and favoured by the costume departments for these films.

More specifically, however, the "sword and sandal" film genre usually refers to a low-budget Italian movie on a gladiatorial or mythological subject; for the genre occupied much of the less pretentious segment of Italy's movie industry before the invention of the spaghetti western. Gladiators were perennial favourite subjects, as were the adventures of Hercules, Jason and the Argonauts, or the more recent legendary strongman Machiste. The fad began with the 1959 release of Hercules, starring American bodybuilder Steve Reeves. This spawned the 1960 sequel Hercules Unchained , among literally dozens of low-budget imitations starring other bodybuilder stars such as Reg Park or Alan Steele .

The absurd plots, out-of-synch dialogue, wooden acting of the muscleman heroes, and pitifully primitive special effects that were utterly inadequate to depict the legendary creatures on-screen, all conspired to give these films a certain camp appeal. This, and the beefcake factor, made the films' unintended humour notorious in the gay community. Several have been subjects of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment. A movie series and syndicated television show called The Sons of Hercules was made from a number of different films; this ran in the 1970s.

List of swords-and-sandals movies

• Alexander
• Ben-Hur
• Clash of the Titans
• Cleopatra
• Gladiator
• Jason and the Argonauts
• The Robe
• The Silver Chalice
• Spartacus
• The Ten Commandments
• Troy
• The Golden Voyage of Sinbad

See also

• List of movies based on Greco-Roman mythology

External links

• The Many Faces of Hercules at Brian's Drive-In Theatre