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Simply A Masterpiece

Instant Favorite.

Absolutely Fantastic

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

This movie begins with "Hercules" (Steve Reeves) saving a beautiful woman on a runaway chariot by pulling a tree up by its roots to block the horse's stampede. It turns out that the beautiful woman is "Iola" (Sylva Koscina) the daughter of "King Pelias" (Ivo Garrani) of Iolcus. Unfortunately, Iola is wary of Hercules because his best friend is "Chironi" (Afro Poli) who is rumored to have assassinated the previous king prior to Pelias assuming the throne. At any rate, Hercules has been asked to come to Iolcus to help Pelias stabilize his kingdom. However, when he arrives he encounters political intrigue which ends up with him having to travel to another land to retrieve the "Golden Fleece" taken during the assassination of the king before Pelias' reign. Now, there are a couple of things a person might want to be aware of before they watch this film. First, the special effects are clearly not up to the standard of films made today. But that probably goes without saying. Likewise, this movie was originally filmed in Italian and dubbed into English. Even so that didn't appear to be a major problem. In any case, I think the key ingredient necessary to enjoy this film is for the person to have a general appreciation for movies of this type in the first place. There is no sex, profanity or graphic imagery to be concerned about. However, it does have some beautiful women and plenty of action and adventure to satisfy most viewers who are fond of this particular genre. Slightly above average.

I blame it on my upbringing: I was taught to read (at a very early age) by my mother, who read (mostly super hero) comic books to me. As a consequence, I tended in my later (pre-teen) years to gravitate toward reading matter that featured super heroes or heroes of super-heroic proportions. Like mythology. (My all-time favorite comic book hero was The Mighty Thor, who had his debut in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY. Stan Lee wrote 'em and Jack Kirby drew 'em and Kirby's art clearly reflected his philosophy that "comic book art shouldn't reflect reality, it should transcend it." It was Kirby's Ulik the Rock Troll who inspired my own troll character, TORK.) Beowulf was always a favorite of mine (I saw him as a precursor to Robert E. Howard's Conan, perhaps even a direct lineal descendant- by way of Talbot Mundy)- and so was Hercules. (Imagine my delight when Hercules- looking more than a little bit like Steve Reeves- turned up in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY to slug it out with the Norse God of Thunder.) (And Hercules won!) The next best thing to reading about Hercules in ancient mythology or comic books was seeing him in a movie. While the flesh and blood crowd can hardly hold a candle to the classic tales (or Kirby's comics), this Italian production, shot in Spain with an American actor playing the Greek god, is about as good as it's gotten thus far. There's a bit too much talk and not nearly enough action for an adventure film like this, but Reeves as Herc has enough bulge in his biceps and enough flex in his pecs to keep one distracted throughout. The cinematography is often as beautiful as in an art-house film (thanks in no small part, no doubt, to the ministrations of Mario Bava) and the landscapes through which our heroes move is breathtaking to behold. After all this time, HERCULES is STILL the best of the lot.

Basically this a movie about Hercules falling into the one adventure after the other, without some times feeling an obvious connection between those events. It makes this a pretty disjointed movie to watch at times. If this movie was being made this present day in exactly the same way it would be an absolutely terrible movie but the fact that this was made in 1958 makes it a good and defining one for its genre.It's sometimes laughable how fake this movie is looking, for instance when Hercules is fighting a lion and later a buffalo, who are both obvious puppets in the close-up scenes with Steve Reeves. You can call it part of the charm of these old type of adventure movies but it still looks ridicules, regardless.But besides that all it's a rather good looking movie, with its sets costumes and of course settings. It's an Italian movie, so it features lots of beautiful landscapes.The story is simple and perhaps not as action filled or fast paced as it could had been but it still is an adventurous one. The swashbuckling and adventure genre had pretty much died already when it was 1958. This is a movie that obviously tries to revive a genre, with some new more 'modern' changes and elements in it. After this 'historic' and mythological movies such as "Jason and the Argonauts". "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and "Spartacus" were made. It's hard to say if this movie influenced any of those movies but fact is that this movie was a popular one at its time, also in America. Therefor it's a really thinkable that this movie played at least some part in redefining the genre.Not great, most especially not by todays standards but considering the time it was made, a good genre movie that is adventurous and therefor also has entertainment value in it.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

One day a friend of mine came to me and said that he brings a great classics. I was ignoring him because I thought that he brought a pile of Z-production films.Suddenly I saw an attractive poster with Steve and ,when I first saw the movie I was charmed by Steves performances. Imagine how girls in 50s reacted on his deep voice.In my opinion there is a lack of quality in script , but nice scenography , good cast and music have made movie that you can watch hundred times and you still wont be bored. I have noticed a couple of mistakes but I still think that movie is great. As all movies from that time this one also poses a great spirit which now-days movies don't...