Good souvenir to see this film again, I am glad that I bought it at the low price
Small Giant
I have long waited to start a collection of Steve Reeves movies on dvd. So important to me as a kid, I'd rush to see every new one that came out. Some were actually rather good! This DVD has I imagine been issued simply to make some money. Advertised as WideScreen it is NOT the cinematic ratio of 2.35:1 (Cinemascope/Panavision) so the sides are chopped off. It is also a really dirty and badly graded OLD print. All in all it is something I ended up skimming through before putting on the shelf to be replaced one day by hopefully a properly graded really wide screen version with some good extras. This is a very cheap dvd thank goodness, else I would be really upset!
Amusing Bad Film
Mario Bava's 'Hero of Marathon' is a cheap Italian sword & sandal film presenting a fictional story of Philippides, an Athenian commoner who saves Athens and Greece against Darius in the First Persian War. The film is still amusing to watch despite it being historically inaccurate and of terrible quality.
The battle of Marathon was fought on a plain and not a canyon. Unlike Reeves' Phillipedes, the real runner of Marathon died upon having delivered his message. The film does have some interesting battle scenes with relatively accurate equipment and tactics but they're pretty cheap. This is certainly not one of the best Italian sword and sandal films to come out of Italy. A good (if not the best) Italian film to watch on Roman history instead of this one is the 1939 film 'Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal' covering the Second Punic War with Carthage and Hannibal.
I've been waiting in anticipation for Steve Reeeves to finally come out on DVD, so it's nice to see his movies slowly but surely being released. This review is about the Platinum Disc Corporation version of The White Warrior, which was sent to me instead of the VCI version (...or by mistake). As I've mentioned in other Steve Reeves reviews, watching Italian movies can take a little getting used to, mainly due to the editing practices, in addition to dubbing the sound in after the movie had been completed; but this should not deter you from getting and watching some of these old classics. This was a Steve Reeves movie that I had actually never seen, and the plot line looked pretty good; so I was looking forward to receiving it. Unfortunatley, as much as I REALLY wanted to like this disc, I... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Riccardo Freda DVD Release Date: Released the 29 January 2002 Usually ships within 24 hours
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I greatly enjoyed this DVD - the colors were vivid and the sound was strong. There was only one problem. If you select chapters, chapter 1 starts 15 minutes into the movie. Not a big deal if you plan to watch it all the way through, and I didn't check the other chapters (there were only 4 listed) to see if they match. For the money spent, not much to quibble over. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Pietro Francisci DVD Release Date: Released the 16 April 2002 Usually ships within 24 hours
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I viewed this film at my local theater when I was just a youngster. At that time I was inthralled by all things "sword and sandle". Steve Reeves (Who was a good friend and work out partner of Gordan Scott.) had captured my imagination and inspired me to begin a life long love of body building/weight lifting with his portryal of, Hercules.
"Sampson and the Seven Miracles of the World" was one of the countless such films that I watched each and every Sat. afternoon. Gordon Scott has always been one of my favorite body builder turned actor. He can actually act !! He also had a build that was on a par with the late great Steeve Reeves and knew how to make the best use of those massiive lats in the scenes where he up roots trees or moves huge boulders. He knew how to make us kids... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Riccardo Freda DVD Release Date: Released the 27 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Before Sylvester Stallone, There was Steve Reeves, and any film that he was involved in: strangely used to work. A lot of these films were tongue in cheek but there is still something magical about The Giant Of Marathon, and the story of the Trojan migration to found Rome. A lot of these films are completely innocent in their story line and their over dubbing, but they still bring a warmth of nostalgia whenever I view them.
If you are of a particular age, then all I can say to you is "purchase and enjoy." More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jacques Tourneur - Mario Bava DVD Release Date: Released the 26 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Ah, yes! Those were the days! Disregard the dubbed-in dialogue and hokey plot lines. The orginal 1957 "Hercules" is a treasure of fantasy and fun. To those Americans who possess a sense of the past (what used to be known fondly as "nostalgia" prior to the MTV generation and its contemptuous stance toward anything that occurred prior to the maturation of Jennifer Lopez's big, fat posterior), Johnny Weismuller was Tarzen. Bela Lugosi was Dracula. Clayton Moore was the Lone Ranger. And Steve Reeves was Hercules. Long before Arnold there was Steve Reeves, the prototype body builder who in the 1940s and 50s surpassed what Charles Atlas initiated a generation earlier. A scrawny, unathletic kid who was teased unmercifully, Reeves decided to do something about his predicament. He made body... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Steve Reeves Director(s): Pietro Francisci DVD Release Date: Released the 25 September 2001 Usually ships within 24 hours
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