Pretty bad. Visually a mesh of Italian Futurist motifs and imitations of the Nazi "Triumph of the Will," with doses of peplum tossed in for good measure - but not the peplum of heroic action scenes (the action scenes in this movie - only two - are so poorly edited they are simply confusing) but that of the dull cloak-and-dagger intrigue subplots that drag down the lesser muscle-man films and Italian epics. Lotsa posturing and talk, talk talk. Some striking images, but they are all painfully static - the editing is atrocious.
The scenes with the elephants are painfully ugly, and just a reminder of the essential cruelty of the politics behind this film.
Produced by Vittorio Mussolini at the urging of his father 'Il Duce.' Some moments constitute effective propaganda, but that the film only played a week in Italy tells us that by the date of its release, Italians were getting tired of the same old lies.
And whatever the facts, thematic lies abound - the central premise of the film appears to be that, since an African nation had invaded Italy 2,000 years ago, this justified Italy invading another African nation (Ethiopia) in the 1930s - huh?! A grim reminder that Mussolini had slipped into some kind of fantasyland and was bent on bringing Italy down with him.
Looney, messy, arrogant, dull. Only for students of the history of Italian Fascism, or that of propaganda in general.
The scenes with the elephants are painfully ugly, and just a reminder of the essential cruelty of the politics behind this film.
Produced by Vittorio Mussolini at the urging of his father 'Il Duce.' Some moments constitute effective propaganda, but that the film only played a week in Italy tells us that by the date of its release, Italians were getting tired of the same old lies.
And whatever the facts, thematic lies abound - the central premise of the film appears to be that, since an African nation had invaded Italy 2,000 years ago, this justified Italy invading another African nation (Ethiopia) in the 1930s - huh?! A grim reminder that Mussolini had slipped into some kind of fantasyland and was bent on bringing Italy down with him.
Looney, messy, arrogant, dull. Only for students of the history of Italian Fascism, or that of propaganda in general.