Customer Reviews

The Colossus of Rhodes

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Director Sergio Leone is of course much better known for his famous westerns of the 1960's and '70's however what we have here is his first official directing effort in one of the bigger budgeted films in the early 1960's cycle of "Epic", productions. Usually set in ancient Greece or Rome, here the setting is the beautiful island of Rhodes with the plot revolving around the famous statue or "Colossus" that stood astride the harbour in ancient times and after its premature demise courtesy of an earthquake became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. "The Colossus of Rhodes", has been the Italian epic I have long wanted to see and Warner Bros. have done a wonderful job on presenting it now in all its original glory on DVD for the first time. While certainly not on the level of "Ben-Hur", "Cleopatra", or "The Fall of the Roman Empire", in terms of overall scope and majesty, it does still have much to offer the viewer. The film is rich in beautiful cinematography highlighting attractive locations photographed in Spain, stunning sets and costumes, excellent swordplay and plenty of the necessary intrigue, and best of all the eye catching recreation of the legendary giant statue known through history as the "Colossus of Rhodes". Misplaced or I should say also miscast, leading man Rory Calhoun continued the early 1960's tradition of Italian and Spanish film makers importing second string American leading men to star in their epic productions in the hope of widening their film's distribution potential. However Calhoun, best remembered as a cowboy star in the 1950's looks badly out of place in the setting of ancient Rhodes and he defiantely doesn't look comfortable in the Toga-like costumes he wears in the story. I still feel original choice for the role, John Derek who excelled as Joshua in Cecil De Mille's classic "The Ten Commandments", would have been better suited for the part of Greek Military hero Darios who gets caught up in the intrigue of ancient Rhodes just prior to the devastating earthquake that toppled the world famous statue at the film's fiery climax.

For the longest time, I never thought I would actually see this film. This is Sergio Leone's first official film as director, and it's been notoriously hard to find in any home video format. I was plesantly surprised when I found out that it was officially released, so I rented it immediately.

Leone started as an assistant director on many Hollywood productions that shot in Italy in the 1950's, and many of them were part of the Roman epic cycle. This film follows in that vain (even though it's on Rhodes, not Rome), and it's a decent "Roman" epic film, nothing more. You would have to be clairvoyant to think that Leone would go on to direct masterpieces after this film, though. Some of the action scenes are awkwardly choreographed, and much of the acting is rather formless (the film has that awkward dubbing best known in Italian films), or it's so over the top. Many have said Rory Calhoun was miscast here, but I thought he was OK. He wasn't great, but it didn't bother me that much. He's kind of endearingly goofy, like he knows he really shouldn't be in the film, but he's enjoying himself anyway. The original leading man, John Derek, was fired early in the production because Leone was convinced that he was trying to steal his job (John Derek did go on to be a director, but his films were horrible). It's kind of fun to see Lea Masari in this film. The previous year she played Anna, the woman who disappears in L'avventura. Maybe this is where Anna ended up.

There is some good here. Leone's framing is pretty good, the crowd scenes are well handled, the plot twists are surprisingly good for a film like this, the inside of the Collusus is cool, and the film is never boring. It's definitely worth watching once, just don't expect the beauty and mastery of Leone's best films. It's not a great debut or anything, but if you're a Leone fan (like me), you should check it out nevertheless.

COLOSSUS OF RHODES provides a good look at Sergio Leone's roots--and the roots of the Italian Western--in the peplum (or "sword and sandal") genre that dominated popular Italian film in the late 50s and early 60s, just before the western boom. There is little in this film to suggest the master stylist that Leone would become just a few years later. But it's one of the better peplum films, with high production values that look especially good on this transfer. And there is one delightful shot that seems to prefigure, in a comic way, Leone's later attraction to extreme closeups of eyeballs.

On the commentary that comes with this DVD, film historian Christopher Frayling has many interesting insights, but he finds fault with the number of subplots in Colossus of Rhodes. I find this puzzling, because isn't one frequent complaint about the peplum genre that the stories are overly simple and too many are just alike?
Part of the success of The Colossus of Rhodes is because of its thorough detail, I think. It might take more than one viewing to understand the intricacies but isn't that one reason we buy DVDs? This is not at all a typical 'lots of action--no sense' entry into the genre, much as I enjoy those.
Here are some of the selling points of Colossus of Rhodes:
1. Two tyrants for the price of one! (One is an enjoyable oaf, the other is quite cruel but has a clever wit.)
2. Two excellent leading men! Rory Calhoun does well enough;Georges Marchal is great as the leader of the underground.
3. Two contrasting leading ladies, both comfortable in costume and not unpleasant on the eyes.
4. An absolutely great music score, at times showing the influence of Ravel, especially in dance sequences. The 'Colossus' music has a wonderfully ominous metallic sound, totally in keeping with the nefarious designs of the villains who enjoy displaying the statue's cutting edge technology.

The plot of Colossus of Rhodes works as well as it does because it includes typical elements, for instance, the revolt of the oppressed against tyranny, and clever additions such as the machinations of the wicked against the wicked. AND, the Colossus itself is spectacular! Scenes of the fighting taking place on its shoulder are indeed similar to Hitchcock's suspense sequences from North By Northwest.

Mr. Frayling thinks Colossus is more a pretty good warm-up for 'better' works that the director Sergio Leone would do later. Actually, a much better approach is to compare Colossus with other Peplum films and then realize how much more intelligent and less cheesy it is than others of the genre. Leone did a great job with it. It's 2 hrs. and 8 minutes long and there's not a dull moment anywhere.

great classic romans movie directed by sergio leone with:lea massari georges marchal.prisoners scramble for their live in coliseum pageants of doom. usurpers connive. revolution erupts. and towering over all the excitement is the mighty bronze colossus that stradles the harbor, fighting foes by dropping burning oil from the huge cauldron it holds and firing streams of molten lead from the catapults in its headpiece. i love this film i recommended for those ancient fans movies.

What a great movie. If only they could act now like they did when this epic was made.

Having only see Sergio Leone's The Colossus of Rhodes in a panned-and-scanned TV version before, it's surprising how much more enjoyable the film is when you see it in its proper `TotalScope' ratio. Where Leone's previous peplum, 1959's dreary and underfunded version of The Last Days of Pompeii, looked like it could have been made by any one of a hundred unimaginatively anonymous Italian directors, Colossus always looks terrific, with a mastery of the widescreen that Leone would take even further in his Westerns: this being a particularly well-funded epic, rather than the huge close-ups and empty space of later films, it's filled with people as if the producers are afraid to leave any corner of the frame without something to look at, but it wears it well. You also get to see the redressed Roman barracks set where Chuck met Stephen Boyd in Ben-Hur again, here redressed as a royal mausoleum!

It's a genuinely spectacular affair offering pretty much everything you could want from a peplum - not much in the way of musclemen but plenty of corrupt rulers, rebels and conspiracies, torture in the dungeons and the arena, the spectacular destruction of a city in a natural disaster and imported American star Rory Calhoun imitating Victor Mature every time he laughs in profile, which is surprisingly often considering the misfortunes that befall him. Along the way Leone throws in plenty of playful riffs on Hitchcock, with the Colossus itself providing plenty of visual homages to both The Saboteur and North by Northwest. Not a major work by any means but a surprisingly enjoyable one.

While this is the American release version rather than the slightly longer Italian version, it's still a good DVD, with a good 2.35:1 widescreen transfer, informative audio commentary by Leone biographer Christopher Frayling and the US theatrical trailer.

This is one transfer to DVD that has been worth the effort. . . and worth the wait. Fortunately, there is still an audience for these Spanish-Italian spectaculars. After the many disappointing transfers of the sword-and-sandal genre -- such as ROME AGAINST ROME, THE TROJAN HORSE, the washed-out color of THE AVENGERS (THE LAST GLORY OF TROY) and the interesting but dismal print of FURY OF ACHILLES -- this is a welcome appearance on a big-screen TV. If only the experts who tackled this transfer would tackle some of the other Italian epics, those of us who teach mythology, or just appreciate it for its own sake, would be happier.
We have no GOOD, BAD, AND UGLY score for this pre-spaghetti western effort by Sergio Leone, and we have none of the stylistic flourishes that became a Leone staple in his garlic-flavored shoot-'em-ups, but we do have another missplaced American actor in the grinning persona of Rory Calhoun, who is a long way from his RIVER OF NO RETURN. He seems to know he is out-of-place with his miniskirt and grinning "I'm so handsome so it doesn't matter" countenance; he doesn't even bother to change his hairstyle from the Fonz-fifties greaser look. Why Leone didn't bother to do anything about his appearance as a Greek hero is a curiosity; perhaps his name in the credits was all he was after at the time. This was, after all, not EL CID or THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, and Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef were undoubtedly not available to wear the toga fashion of 280BC. Some reviewers are looking for hints of the stylized Leone touch, as I was. Perhaps one can count the knife-throwing youth who might be a prototype for the deadly accurate Eastwood with a gun, able to gun down five men from a fence. After all, doesn't Eastwood's zarape resemble a toga? And you thought we were in the southwest with those two follow-ups to A FISTFALL OF DOLLARS.
Anyway, it is fortunate that this transfer was made with the anamorphic vistas clearly visible in sharp, crisp colors -- something that was not always apparent in these Italian epics, some of which appeared as though the prints had been processed at the local drugstore. Exceptions would be the two Hercules film starring British strongman Reg Park. HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD and HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN (film in 70mm but relying, in one scene, upon music from 1950s USA sci-fi films) are available in crystal clear color versions on DVD. As clear as the images are in THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES, this DVD belongs on the collector's shelf with those two films.
The colossus itself invites comparisons with the metal creature of Talus in Harryhausen's superb effects epic JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, although this colossus doesn't come to life and start chasing the mortals around the island. The images of the Greek sea (filmed in Spain) remind one of the beautiful images of THE MAGUS.
The second male lead in this film is the (bleach)blond-headed Georges Marchal, a veteran of such efforts as SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR. He bears a startling resemblance to American actor Tom Drake (MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS and WARLOCK); only John Drew Barrymore is conspicuous by his absence.
So. . . no scenery chewing by Barrymore. . . and no muscule flexing by Steve Reeves, Gordon Scott, Mark Forrest and the rest. . . but plenty of the usual intrigue until the deus ex machina of the earthquake (standing in for the volcanic eruption at the finale of THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII and HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN) topples the colossus. If the film makes you run for your classical history texts, great. If you merely enjoy the brilliant colors and action on the widescreen, fine. This is well worth the price of a ticket to the ancient world.

Not bad, but only for those die hard old-time Greek tales. The color and sound reasonable but I noticed the sound quality not to Warner DVD's usual standard and really had to push up the volume. Not sure if this was my copy or the entire DVD reproduction range.

Still, an interesting story and if you like these old tales, then certainly a welcome edition to the library. If you have been to Greece and the island of Rhodes then this is a chance to see how it was in those days - and I say this tongue in cheek!

the movie was superbly done by sergio leone well known for the spaghetti western of clint eastwood. great cinematography and action but rory calhoun is very badly miscast in this epic movie. steve reeves should have been chosen for his role here. rory calhoun looks like a cowboy wearing sword aand sandals. terrible!