The Giant of Marathon
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Movie Reviews of The Giant of Marathon
Movie Review: Applause for Apha Video
Summary: 4 Stars
UPDATE AGAIN:
RetroMedias release looks fantastic! It's called The Steeve Reeves Collection, and it is a double-feature release with Giant of Marathon and War of the Trojans. Check out my review on the newer release.
UPDATE:
Retromedia is planning a new dvd release of this movie (release date TBA), using the original 35 mm widescreen print! It will be anamorphic, and should by all accounts be a very nice release. Check out Retromedia's website for more details!
This is an exceptional sword and sandle Italian production, with Jacques Tourneur (Night of the Demon) directing, and Mario Bava as second unit director (as well as mop-up director). This is my first outing with a Steve Reeves movie, and I see why he became such a hit during his reign in Italian fantasy films. He had a masculine charisma that lent itself perfectly to the role of bigger-than-life hero.
Reeves plays Philippedes, a Greek warrior and hero that must stand against traitors to Greece, political intrigue, self-serving politicians, and eventually an invading Persian Army. The film must have been spectacular on the big screen, when the film was still young and bold with color. Even on this somewhat faded, and damaged reproduction, the film is exciting to watch. And here is where I commend Alpha Video.
This small company is well known for producing public domain films that are, by and large, better quality than your likely to get from say, Madacy Entertainment or Front Row Entertainment. The price of their DVDs is so low, that you never feel jilted by taking a chance on some old horror or sci-fi film you may never have seen before. Generally speaking, the Alpha Video DVDs that I've purchased have all been full-frame. But this little gem is presented in Letterbox, and for that I am extremely thankful to these people.
The quality of the print, as I mentioned earlier, is not of the caliber you'd ever accept from a high-priced DVD release. The colors have faded, and the clarity of this print has become soft with age. It would take major work to clean this up, which I hope we'll see someday. There are some definate video dropouts and jumps in the soundtrack. And the aspect ratio, though letterbox, is not quite correct. The film is definately wider than what is presented on this DVD, as can be seen during the beginning credits, when the first and last letters of the director's name are cut off on both ends. However, this all aside, it is for the low price, a rare jem for a Steve Reeves sword and sandle picture. I don't have either of the Hercules DVDs starring Mr. Reeves, but I've read enough reviews to realize they have suffored far worse transfers to DVD than this picture.
So if you like sun-drenched landscapes, with absolutely gorgeous women, full of action and adventure, an heroic leading man who himself was heroic in proportion, then you can do a lot worse than this DVD.
One more word on the subject: If ever a DVD studio would take the time to find the best print of this film (including a five to seven minutes of missing film) and clean it up, remaster it, and release it in its original bold colors and widescreen aspect ration, I and many others like myself who have a soft spot for Italian sword and sandle epics, would stand in line with my hard-earned cash to buy it. It would be well worth the price.
Movie Review: Entertaining Italian epic with great battle scenes.
Summary: 4 Stars
As a kid growing up in the late 50's/early 60s, I enjoyed Italian sword-and-sandle epics almost as much as sci-fi and horror flicks. Steve Reeves' 'Hercules' and 'Hercules Unchained' were his most popular films, but some of his subsequent work were superior productions. 'The Giant of Marathon', along with 'The Last Days of Pompeii' were such films. In 'Marathon', Reeves (sans his Hercules beard) plays Philippides, an Athenian who became a champion of his adopted city/state of Sparta, and who single-handedly manages to forge an alliance between the two enemy states to thwart an invasion by the dastardly Persians. Palace intrigue, deception and duplicity abound in this colorful production. And, like many of these types of films, a gorgeous (and quite voluptuous) female lead offers additional visual appeal. While initially a bit slow moving, things get cranking about midway through, with some of the most realistic (and gory) battle scenes ever put to film. The scenes where Philippides and his men attack the Persian's boats from underwater (and the Persian's counterattacks) are especially realistic. Italian horror meister Mario Bava handled the cinematography on this film, and the results were outstanding. A great Saturday afternoon romp. Alpha Video is to be commended for releasing older, more obscure titles at affordable prices, although often (such as this release), their source material leaves something to be desired. Still, for the price, this is well worth having if you're a fan of the old Italian epics.Movie Review: The Giant of Marathon
Summary: 4 Stars
Good souvenir to see this film again, I am glad that I bought it at the low priceMovie Review: Amusing Bad Film
Summary: 2 Stars
Mario Bava's 'Hero of Marathon' is a cheap Italian sword & sandal film presenting a fictional story of Philippides, the 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 Phillipedes 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.
Movie Review: Small Giant
Summary: 2 Stars
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!
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