Customer Reviews

Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon

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I first saw this when it came out (released by 20th Century-Fox). It then disappeared. An unusual story with some excellent talent and a great director. The transfer is disappointing however the film itself overcomes that.

This film is the type of thing one could have watched on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in the 1980s. Maybe Turner Classics or some channel like that still shows such old-timey movies.

To its credit, this film had twists and turns, double crosses and exposed secrets. It was almost as complicated as modern, Chinese films. The film includes a queen who is just as powerful as her brothers. This impressed me as I remember reading that ancient Sumerian women had property and other rights. Wearing a feminist cap, however, the women's power was dependent upon their looks, but that happens in all kinds of stories, fables, and myths. This movie was probably filmed in Italian, but the dubbing is pretty good.

Still, compared to today's standards, the fight scenes are terribly choreographed. Hercules uses a club; he's more like Bam-Bam than Conan the Barbarian. He throws many a fake boulder. The film starts by saying it takes place 1,000 years ago, but that would have been right before the Crusades. Not that Hercules is real, but his "time" would have been about 2,300 years ago. There's a ton of fake dying and signs of poor-quality production.

I loved seeing Peter Lupus' strong chin dimple. Remember when Brad Pitt showed the audience what a "cigarette burn" was in films in "Fight Club"? Well, this did not have a spot, but rather a static line that divided the screen. It doesn't distract from watching the film. However, it does show this film has not stood the test of time or was not transferred to DVD as well as it could have been. I don't recall any cool special features either, though I think Lupus and other actors in the film may still be alive.