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The Colossus of Rhodes [1961] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
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Hokum at its mightiest!
Review date: 2007-11-15 Rating: 8 out of 10
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.
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Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Lea Massari
Georges Marchal
Rory Calhoun
Ángel Aranda
Conrado San Martín
Creators:
Rory Calhoun (Primary Contributor)
Lea Massari (Primary Contributor)
Ageo Savioli (Writer)
Carlo Gualtieri (Writer)
Cesare Seccia (Writer)
Duccio Tessari (Writer)
Ennio De Concini (Writer)
Luciano Chitarrini (Writer)
Director(s):
Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 0012569797277
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Closed-captioned, Colour, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 2007-06-26
Universal product code (UPC): 012569797277
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 127 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1961-11
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)