Androcles And The Lion (1952/3) -
I hadn't expected this film to be quite so silly. I was actually hoping for a more traditional and sensible telling of the story akin to 'Spartacus' (1960) or 'The Ten Commandments' (1956), but this one seemed to be more like a cartoon or fairytale. I nearly gave up on it just after Androcles started baby talking to the creature he had saved, because Alan Young was so stupid to watch and sooo irritating. Throughout the film I felt that he was almost Vaudevillian in his comedy with terrible jokes and an expectation that he would light a cigar and say "Wakka, Wakka" all the time.
The Lion/Tommy however was actually beautiful and a superb actor, unlike Victor Mature in his role of The Captain who was as wooden as a forest and delivered his lines as if he was double parked and had to get back to his car before a traffic warden gave him a ticket.
The script and the story was highly flawed, nowhere near as bloody and ruthless as even some of the early sword and sandal tales, which made it really hard to believe and quite pantomimic. The Centurion's were ignorant to the goings on and basically useless and the Christian's gallows humour was even more difficult to buy.
Although the one part of the story that I did like was the fact that the gathered prisoners all refused to take arms and would rather be martyred, because they had such faith in their God, something that I hadn't seen in other films before, except perhaps 'Monty Python's Life Of Brian' (1979).
It also appeared that the actors in the Roman roles were all deliberately asked to be very gay, as if that would make them villains, but Ferrovius (Robert Newton) and Androcles weren't exactly the traditional depiction of manly either.
And it was laughable that the producers thought we wouldn't notice Robert Newton's stunt double so obviously fighting his fights for him.
Thank goodness for Jean Simmons as Lavinia and John Hoyt playing Cato, for they at least added some decorum to the film, although Lavinia and The Captain's romance was almost completely unbelievable and made me cringe at times.
With the story's origins in George Bernard Shaw's play I could only imagine that he had a vested interest in Christianity as the script certainly seemed to contain moralistic and thoughtful arguments dotted throughout, which stood out as honourable sentiments, but not necessarily they weren't necessarily followed through, which I felt diminished their message.
It felt odd to me that the persecuted people were worshipping Christ only 161 years after his death. By today's standards it would be like taking Queen Victoria or Abraham Lincoln as a God. I felt that to celebrate something so much it should at least be old enough to be well established, but then I've never really understood the fascination of religion and I'm obviously coming from a very different time. I supposed that Jesus had already had followers when he was alive too, so after some thought it made a bit of sense, but it certainly had me pondering on it to start.
Being kind to one another should be a given in life and I suppose that a lot of our laws and beliefs (Generally beneficial to a modern world) have a basis in religion and I think that having faith or spirituality could provide happiness for some, but blind faith to a God that allows people to die of terribly painful diseases and takes a register every Sunday is really not for me. I would certainly fight for my right to live and sod being a martyr.
I'll get down from my soapbox long enough to say that this was not a film that I enjoyed (Obviously), especially as, for the most part, it didn't really deliver what the title claimed by making the story far more about The Captain, Lavinia and Ferrovius than Andy and his feline friend. Although that tack did improve the way the film was going. Androcles only really bookended the film with his stupid shenanigans, but I suppose it wouldn't have been a very long film if it was just about his specific adventure.
It wasn't offensive as such, but very daft in places and slow at others. I'm not really sure how I made it to the end, but at least now I can say that I have seen it.
417.16/1000.
I hadn't expected this film to be quite so silly. I was actually hoping for a more traditional and sensible telling of the story akin to 'Spartacus' (1960) or 'The Ten Commandments' (1956), but this one seemed to be more like a cartoon or fairytale. I nearly gave up on it just after Androcles started baby talking to the creature he had saved, because Alan Young was so stupid to watch and sooo irritating. Throughout the film I felt that he was almost Vaudevillian in his comedy with terrible jokes and an expectation that he would light a cigar and say "Wakka, Wakka" all the time.
The Lion/Tommy however was actually beautiful and a superb actor, unlike Victor Mature in his role of The Captain who was as wooden as a forest and delivered his lines as if he was double parked and had to get back to his car before a traffic warden gave him a ticket.
The script and the story was highly flawed, nowhere near as bloody and ruthless as even some of the early sword and sandal tales, which made it really hard to believe and quite pantomimic. The Centurion's were ignorant to the goings on and basically useless and the Christian's gallows humour was even more difficult to buy.
Although the one part of the story that I did like was the fact that the gathered prisoners all refused to take arms and would rather be martyred, because they had such faith in their God, something that I hadn't seen in other films before, except perhaps 'Monty Python's Life Of Brian' (1979).
It also appeared that the actors in the Roman roles were all deliberately asked to be very gay, as if that would make them villains, but Ferrovius (Robert Newton) and Androcles weren't exactly the traditional depiction of manly either.
And it was laughable that the producers thought we wouldn't notice Robert Newton's stunt double so obviously fighting his fights for him.
Thank goodness for Jean Simmons as Lavinia and John Hoyt playing Cato, for they at least added some decorum to the film, although Lavinia and The Captain's romance was almost completely unbelievable and made me cringe at times.
With the story's origins in George Bernard Shaw's play I could only imagine that he had a vested interest in Christianity as the script certainly seemed to contain moralistic and thoughtful arguments dotted throughout, which stood out as honourable sentiments, but not necessarily they weren't necessarily followed through, which I felt diminished their message.
It felt odd to me that the persecuted people were worshipping Christ only 161 years after his death. By today's standards it would be like taking Queen Victoria or Abraham Lincoln as a God. I felt that to celebrate something so much it should at least be old enough to be well established, but then I've never really understood the fascination of religion and I'm obviously coming from a very different time. I supposed that Jesus had already had followers when he was alive too, so after some thought it made a bit of sense, but it certainly had me pondering on it to start.
Being kind to one another should be a given in life and I suppose that a lot of our laws and beliefs (Generally beneficial to a modern world) have a basis in religion and I think that having faith or spirituality could provide happiness for some, but blind faith to a God that allows people to die of terribly painful diseases and takes a register every Sunday is really not for me. I would certainly fight for my right to live and sod being a martyr.
I'll get down from my soapbox long enough to say that this was not a film that I enjoyed (Obviously), especially as, for the most part, it didn't really deliver what the title claimed by making the story far more about The Captain, Lavinia and Ferrovius than Andy and his feline friend. Although that tack did improve the way the film was going. Androcles only really bookended the film with his stupid shenanigans, but I suppose it wouldn't have been a very long film if it was just about his specific adventure.
It wasn't offensive as such, but very daft in places and slow at others. I'm not really sure how I made it to the end, but at least now I can say that I have seen it.
417.16/1000.