Sandal film
With sandal film ( English : sword-and-sandal ; Italian : Peplum ) are mainly films produced in Italy in which historical or biblical stories are shown. The production of the sandal films dominated the Italian film industry from 1958 to 1965 and was replaced by the spaghetti westerns . The term sandal film was mostly used disparagingly by film critics, as they imitated Hollywood's monumental films (like later the “spaghetti westerns”, the Hollywood westerns). Lightweight desert-suitable footwear such as sandals are a formal characteristic of this genre of B-movies, which was popular until the 1980s .
history
Sandal films were based on the success of monumental films with great ancient themes, such as those shot at great expense in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s . The introduction of the wide format Cinemascope process was decisive for the success of those strips . Well-known examples of monumental films from this period, and thus also templates for later sandal films, were Cleopatra , Ben Hur , Das Gewand , Quo Vadis? , Spartacus and The Fall of the Roman Empire .
Sandal films were not made in the USA because of the high production costs in Hollywood, but mainly in Italy and other southern and southeastern European countries. The production effort there was significantly lower, the cast cheaper than with the big role models, but these films were also very well received by the audience. In contrast to the monumental films, the directors placed less emphasis on character representation and symbolic actions than on as many fist and sword fights as possible. Popular subjects were the muscular heroes Hercules , Ursus , Samson and Maciste , especially in the later films in often strange variations such as Hercules' fights against vampires or Zorro. In The Hour of the Hard Men , all four of the central characters were shown together in one film. Popular stars in numerous Italian sandal films were the American bodybuilders and actors Steve Reeves , Gordon Mitchell , Richard Harrison , Gordon Scott , Kirk Morris , Mark Forest , Dan Vadis and Ed Fury , who often shared the names Hercules, Samson, Maciste and Ursus . Sergio Ciani (under the stage name Alan Steel ) was an important Italian actor of the time, Iloosh Khoshabe (as Richard Lloyd or Rod Flash ) was Iranian.
With Goliath , the producers created another hero. In contrast to the Old Testament , the figure had positive connotations. However, the name was not enough popular with the German distributors. In The Odyssey of Hercules (1961) he was called Hercules and in The Tiger of Sardis (1963) he was called Gordian. The later productions changed the era. Played Golia e il cavaliere mascherato (1963) in Spain in the 16th century, was the scene of action Arabia for Golia alla conquista di Bagdad (1965).
Another recourse to the Bible was with Samson . Here, too, the German-speaking distributors were not sure of their cause. The hero was renamed for Hercules in the Cleopatra's Net (1961). The other productions were then based on the pirate film. The plot in Samson and the White Slaves (1963) and Samson Against the Devil's Corsairs (1964) was limited to the 17th century. Samson and the Treasure of the Incas (1964) came about with German participation . The connection to the western, however, was a one-time affair.
When the production of monumental films was stopped in the mid-1960s due to high costs and dwindling popularity, the sandal films also disappeared.
literature
- Marcus Junkelmann : Hollywood's dream of Rome - “Gladiator” and the tradition of monumental films . 2nd Edition. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2009, ISBN 3-8053-2905-9
- Jon Solomon: The ancient world in the cinema . Revised and expanded edition. Yale University Press, New Haven 2001. ISBN 0-300-08335-1, ISBN 0-300-08337-8
- Harald Steinwender: The Italian Peplum Cycle of the Post-War Era - A Journey into the Realm of Sandal Films . In: Splatting Image . Volume 20, Issue 77, March 2009, pp. 11-17.
Web links
- Peplumania.com - website with lists and descriptions of 500 monumental and sandal films