User Reviews

This film, made at the twilight of Mr. Reeves film career, is certainly one of his best. The location work in Egypt and a rather big budget look add a great amount of, shall I say it?, realism to an essentially escapist, fantastical genre- the Italian sword and sandal flicks of the 1958-64 period. This picture also features some extremely diabolical villainy on the part of Crassus. Sir Laurence Olivier wasn't nearly this outrageously evil playing the same character in SPARTACUS! Steve's dilemma is pretty heavy in this one, doing a complete 180 from up and coming Roman centurions to advocate warrior of the freedom movement for the slaves of Rome. The action scenes stand up pretty well after 40 plus years.

One of the better Sword and Sandal movies from the golden era of the genre (the 1960's). Awesome to see Steve Reeves in his prime. If this movie had been made in the 1980's, no doubt Schwarzenegger would have been the lead. Beautifully shot on location in Egypt, the setting really does seem to improve the movie. Lot's of action, plenty of sword fights and cool set pieces. I think what stood out to me the most about this movie was the similarities to the "Zorro" story. Reeve's character is a bit like a super hero, darting off out of view to change in to a costume (son of Spartacus) that hides his true identity. Zorro would leave his mark, a "Z" carved with his sword. Son of Spartacus leaves an "S" carved or painted in to shields and walls to terrorize the abusive governor. It really did strike me as "Zorro" set in Roman times and happening in Egypt. Check out the size of the mole on the neck of the guy that played Caesar. Holy crap, he should have had that thing surgically removed. It was like a vestigial twin living on his shoulder/neck. Grotesque!

Overall, a good sword and sandal movie that I would have loved when I was 8 - 12 years old. Somehow I only just saw this movie for the first time now that I am 45 years old, but I still enjoyed it.

That "Il figlio di Spartacus" is one of the better sword'n'sandal flicks of the main period (1958-64) is basically due to two aspects: a fluent storyline and original sets in Egypt.

Writers Adriano Bolzoni, Bruno Corbucci and Giovanni Grimaldi (plus perhaps director Sergio Corbucci) have scripted a plot that continues the story of Spartacus where Stanley Kubrick left off in 1960 in his Hollywood production with Kirk Douglas. While Kubrick certainly stuck to the historical facts, the follow-up is complete fiction. Tough daredevil Douglas is replaced by smart bodybuilder Steve Reeves as his son, although this was not the worst choice. Reeves, the original Hercules performer of 1958, does quite well in the rôle of Randus, a Roman centurio (this seems to be considered as the highest military rank in "peplums"!), who is confronted with the fact that he seems to be the son of the legendary slave leader, Spartacus, who had once been smashed and crucified by the Roman consul, Crassus. Reeves' good looks distinguish him from Douglas very remarkably, but there's his Germanic combatant Verus (Franco Balducci), who is styled like Douglas two years ealier.

They needed to change history to a considerable extent (the story takes place in 48 B.C. when the real Crassus was already dead for five years) so that the fictive Randus could be 23 (Reeves was 36 by then) and Caesar could be involved. Note that the Sphinx has already lost its nose (which it did only 1850 years later) while serving as a likeable background to a talk between Caesar (Ivo Garrani), his adjutant Verulus (Renato Baldini, who has almost nothing to say), and Randus. Choosing the Egyptian landscape, including desert, oases and the pyramids of Gizeh, for the outdoor scenes adds greatly to the picture's atmosphere.

Corbucci manages to handle the camera positions and angles very well, almost experimentally for a production like this. Director of photography was Enzo Barboni, the later standard director of the Terence Hill/Bud Spencer movies. There is a foreshadowing of the spaghetti westerns not only in the techniques, but also with a surprisingly high level of brutality as depicted by Corbucci.

The story's main idea has Randus in the dilemma of being a Roman officer on the one hand and having the experience of being enslaved on the other. Only in this situation, he feels into the slaves' minds and puts himself at the head of the revolt against Crassus. The rest is a bit stealing from the "Zorro" idea, including the "S" (for Spartacus) mark. As Western European ideology would have it (we're at the climax of American-Russian confrontation) before a revolutionary attitude became fashionable in Italo westerns, Randus fights for freedom (from slavery), not for redistribution of capital.

Gianna Maria Canale, leading actress of many a peplum since the earlier days (playing the title rôle in "Teodora", among others), is fine as Crassus' love interest. But Claudio Gora can give all he can as the terrible Crassus, right down to an exaggerated paranoid Nero-like figure.

It's worth while, anyway.

A political and financial patron of Julius Caesar, Crassus joined Caesar and Pompey in the unofficial political alliance known as the First Triumvirate. Together, the three men dominated the Roman political system, but the alliance did not last long, due to the ambitions, egos, and jealousies of the three men. While Caesar and Crassus were lifelong allies, Crassus and Pompey disliked each other and Pompey grew increasingly envious of Caesar's spectacular successes in the Gallic Wars. The alliance was restabilized at the Luca Conference in 56 BC, after which Crassus and Pompey again served jointly as consuls. Following his second consulship, Crassus was appointed as the governor of Roman Syria. Crassus used Syria as the launchpad for a military campaign against the Parthian Empire, Rome's long-time eastern enemy. In This Son of Spartacus , stars the decurion Randus (Steve Reeves) holds himself so well in the command of his troops, that Caesar promotes him to centurion . He is subsequently dispatched and sent to Egyp , to keep Julius Caesar (Ivo Garrani) informed on the actions , to observe movements and intentions of co-triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus (Claudio Gora).

This Sword-and sandals movie is plenty of adventures , emotions, thrills , sword-play , impressive battles, atmospheric settings and colorful scenarios well photographed by Enzo Barboni , shot mostly on location in Egypt. It is widely considered to be one of the top 10 greatest Peplum films of all time. This great film will surely attract a whole new generation of classic Peplum fans . And for seasoned cinematic connoseuirs, Son of Spartacus will rekindle an era of film making at its best. This is one of the best Steve Reeves' Peplums along with Hercules (1958) and second and last film portrayal of Hercules Unchained (1959) that in certain ways, better than his first . This marked the final Italian sword and sandal/mythological muscleman movie to be made by Steve Reeves . He would make two adventure movies : Sandokan the Great (1963) , Sandokan pirates of seven seas (1964) and a spaghetti western : Vivo per la tua morte (1968) by Camilo Bazzoni , before retiring from the screen. Here Reeves plays in his usual stoic style a Roman centurion, who is actually the lost son of Spartacus, who is dispatched to Crassus' camp to observe his movements and keep Caesar informed .The corpulent Steve Reeves was a hunk man who made lots of roman epic films also called ¨Musclemen movies¨. Luck's Reeves changed when Italian director Pietro Francisci persuaded him to go overseas to star ¨Hercules¨ and sequel ¨Hercules and queen of Lydia also titled Hercules unchained ¨ that served as the prototypes of all cloak-and-sandal movies to come and both of them became a surprise US hit smash . Later on, he followed with ¨Goliath and the Barbarians, The giant of Marathon, The Trojan horse, The son of Spartacus and The Avenger¨ among them . Steve was an American bouncing who emigrated Italy and created a true star-system based on pumped-up heroes. He paved the way for other actors to seek their fame and fortune in Italy playing bouncing adventurers . Other stars by the time on this type of movies are Mark Forest, Gordon Mitchell, Dan Vadis, Brad Harris and 'Gordon Scott' who made him more important competence. Nobody, nevertheless, topped Steve in popularity .

There are some historical remarks about Julius Caesar and especially Crassus and his death . The actual events were the following ones : In 53 BC, at the battle of Carrhae , Crassus' legions were defeated by a numerically inferior Parthian force. Crassus' legions were primarily heavy infantry, but were not prepared for the type of swift, cavalry-and-arrow attack in which Parthian troops were particularly adept. The Parthian horse archers devastated the unprepared Romans with hit-and-run techniques and feigned retreats with the ability to shoot as well backwards as they could forwards. Crassus refused his quaestor Gaius Cassius Longinus' plans to reconstitute the Roman battle line, and remained in the testudo formation to protect his flanks until the Parthians eventually ran out of arrows. However, the Parthians had stationed camels carrying arrows to allow their archers to continually reload and relentlessly barrage the Romans until dusk. Despite taking severe casualties, the Romans successfully retreated to Carrhae, forced to leave many wounded behind to be later slaughtered by the Parthians.cSubsequently, Crassus' men, being near mutiny, demanded he parley with the Parthians, who had offered to meet with him. Crassus, despondent at the death of his son Publius in the battle, finally agreed to meet the Parthian general Surena; however, when Crassus mounted a horse to ride to the Parthian camp for a peace negotiation, his junior officer Octavius suspected a Parthian trap and grabbed Crassus' horse by the bridle, instigating a sudden fight with the Parthians that left the Roman party dead, including Crassus. A story later emerged to the effect that, after Crassus' death, the Parthians poured molten gold into his mouth in symbolic mockery of his thirst for wealth. It has also been documented that the severed head of Crassus was used as a prop in the Parthian adaptation of the Euripides play The Bacchae.

Sergio Corbucci's direction is pretty good. Corbucci was a notorious and prolific writer/filmmaker. He would make several Spaghetti classics : ¨The great silence¨, ¨Compañeros¨ and ¨the Mercenary¨ and other considerable Westerns : ¨Hellbenders¨, ¨Far west story¨ , ¨Johnny Oro¨ and ¨Navajo Joe¨. Furthermore , he made terror , action , comedy and all kinds of genres . Rating : 6.5/10 . Good , high recommended for Peplum fans and for others who simply enjoy watching timeless pieces with icons such as Steve Reeves.

After the international success of HERCULES, the Steve Reeves Swords-and-Sandals vehicle THE SLAVE clearly had some money spent on its production values -- good costumes and some nice sets to accent good camera lighting abound. The plot, typical of peplum movies, is a mishmosh of themes intended to take advantage of recent hits.

Reeves is a Roman centurion working for the noble Julius Caesar in Rome. He is captured by leopard-skin wearing desert barbarians working for the evil Crassus, escapes, gets captured again, is enslaved, identified as Spartacus' son (hence the movie's Italian title) and leads a slave rebellion.

Director Sergio Corbucci does his usual highly competent job, abetted by the handsome production values that Cinecitta was capable of; kudos especially to director of Photography Enzo Baroni, whose lighting suggests illustrations on parchment. Although the writing never rises above the level of silliness that such cheap epics aspired to, fans of the genre will find plenty to enjoy.

Chiseled, muscular Steve Reeves made a career out of playing Hercules, roman warriors, and downtrodden commoners. in this italian production, he turns out to be the son of Spartacus, and must prove his glory and worth, just as his father did before him. sandals. swords. sword fights. silly outfits. grand battles. it's the traditional palace intrigue, building alliances which may or may not hold. more sword fights. Directed by italian Sergio Corbucci, wrote, co-wrote and directed many a film. it's EXACTLY what you think its going to be. no big dealio.

It's 48 B. C., some twenty years after Spartacus' rebellion. Randus is a Roman soldier but unbeknownst to him, he is the son of Spartacus. He gets shipwrecked and enslaved by tribesmen. This is an Italian sword and sandal flick. It's not that bad. It's actually fair. The acting is ok. The production actually looks good. They're filming at some fitting locations. It's got good size. As these films go, this is one of the better ones.

Minus the beard and the voice that came from the large intestine., Steve Reeves is cast in this film as a Roman centurion and highly regarded aide to Julius Caesar. Yet because of an amulet he wears he's discovered to be the son of the legendary Spartacus.

It helps to understand the film if you've seen the Kirk Douglas classic Spartacus. If you remember the end the widow of Spartacus Jean Simmons is rushed out of Rome and out of the reach of Crassus. Presumably the kid had a good Roman upbringing and now has a career in the Roman Legion. He's come to the attention of Julius Caesar in a good way.

Which is why he's sent on a mission to Crassus who's guarding the Empire out in the East and getting richer and richer on plunder. This is where Steve Reeves discovers his real roots, kind of like the Charlton Heston as Moses discovered his roots in The Ten Commandments.

Reeves is all in sympathy with the people rebelling against Crassus and like in The Desert Song the Roman Centurion and establishment figure becomes a Red Shadow like leader. Good he could be ridding Julius Caesar of a rival figure in his quest for power, bad he is rebelling against Rome. What's a dictator to do?

Although The Slave blends elements of far better films in it, it's an all right piece of peplum product. Reeves has a decent speaking voice on his own for this film. And those pecs and abs are still outstanding.

Fun and slightly silly, Sergio Corbucci's sword-and-sandals pseudo-sequel The Slave is a highly-enjoyable matinee-flavored classic that cleverly wraps around a timeless morality play.

The Slave (aka The Son of Spartacus) fictitiously continues the story of gladiatorial slave Spartacus (originally played by Kirk Douglas in the 1960 Stanley Kubrick movie) by focusing on his son, Roman centurion Randus (Steve Reeves).

The Slave has plenty of silly action as it obviously was targeting a younger audience, but Steve Reeves sells the role. His smile is electric; his positivity contagious; and his biceps are awe-inspiring. Truly, this is the epitome of a Silver Screen-era leading man.

Likewise, the story is both simple and refreshingly deep. The action distinctly follows the plot of The Mark of Zorro (1940). Here, in similar moves as portrayed by Tyrone Power as Zorro, Randus, a strong and capable man, learns of hidden past, finds a special sword, crafts a mask to hide his face, and rather quickly, rides to take on injustice. Such acts of super-heroism are directed at the wealthy and powerful Crassus, who seeks to wrest power away from Caesar. During one prolonged action sequence where a masked Randus fights back Crassus's legions, a distinct letter "S" (for Spartacus!) is emblazoned on a wall!

However, the intrigue runs deeper. Initially, Randus is content with rescuing the attractive slave girl Saide (Ombretta Colli) and stopping Crassus' (Claudio Gora) mercenary army. Yet soon the question is posed to him: should not all slaves be free? And the wheels in Randus' melon start a'spinning. Randus, after all, is a high-ranking and highly-regarded centurion. One that even Julius Caesar (Ivo Garrani) trusts. And during the setting of this story - circa 48 BCE - slavery was simply a way of life; a life Randus would have been extremely comfortable in. Having Randus to even consider this change of life would have been radical. To actually pull it off? And fight for freedom? That is a monumental for a tiny Italian import.

The Slave might not have reached the peak obtained in Spartacus, but is suitable enough for a Saturday afternoon sit down. The Slave succeeds with cornball inspiration and super-heroic glee all with a cleverly built-in morality play.

By 1970 Son of Spartacus (now out on DVD) found itself relegated to Saturday morning matinées, which is hardly surprising since Steve Reeves here seems to be getting twice as much combat duty as in most of the other Italian epics. So much so, one could hardly miss the kiddies re-enacting his many sword fights on the way home. Grown-ups too had something to admire, especially the eye-catching Ombretta Colli who conveniently gets shipwrecked with Reeves on a beach with her costume cut to shreds. This might prove an embarrassment to Miss Colli in later years when she went into Italian politics, no doubt hoping her voters would not remember her cheesecake days.

However, it is film music fans who have most to cheer, with a score derived from no less than three of the top Italian film composers. While Son of Spartacus was being filmed in Egypt during March and April of 1962, veteran maestro Carlo Innocenzi sadly died (on March 24). His stirring main title can still be heard in the M-G-M release, and it's an impressive full orchestral version of the slow execution march for Princess Elea in Goliath Against the Giants (1961). For the opening scenes M-G-M simply recycle Innocenzi's battle music from Goliath Against the Giants, but the opening narration is accompanied by the lovely "Glauco e Antonino" track from Lavagnino's Last Days of Pompeii (1959). For the rest of the score we get a mixture of new music by Piero Piccioni (a haunting desert tune and a rousing finale march when Reeves ultimately triumphs), plus some prior Piccioni material from Duel of the Titans (1961). The Italian language version (also available on DVD) is scored by Piccioni throughout, with a different main title adapted from "Amulio" in Duel of the Titans. Piccioni's entire score, including some unused cues, can be enjoyed on a CD thanks to those dedicated vault raiders at Digitmovies

This is far away from historical facts crassus died between war of carhe from the most genius parthian general ''sourena'' at 53 B. C. ............ So that after he escaped to Damascus, he was captured and killed on the way, and his head was sent to the ruler of Parth-Ard in a golden dish. And ceasar killed at capitol of rome that year 48 B. C. too......And in history, there is no mention of the survivors of Spartacus..... It's a pity that in that golden age of cinema, historical events were shown like this, of course, political considerations were not without influence at that time either.....Thank you for your reading.

"The Slave" (aka Son of Spartacus) is a an excellent action Reeves film with a good story line to borrow from (the original Spartacus). Reeves learns of his heritage after being captured by a band of slave drivers in the Egyptian desert - also tagging along is a beautiful slave girl who along with Reeves survives being dumped overboard by a ship which hits a barge in the River. Great scene,when Reeves doubtful that he is Spartacus's son walks slowly into a small catacomb and finds the helmet and sword of Spartacus and muses for several minutes about his heritage - linking a medallion he has worn since birth with the same emblem on the sword handle of Spartacus. Also great action scene when Reeves rescues a band of prisoners of Ceasar Crassus who are tied into a large moat with water rushing in to cause a drowning execution. Excellent sword and action with several bad guys being wiped out by Steve, looking like an adonis with a metal helmet on in a great swashbuckling scene.....Reeves as a tribune of Ceasar finally realizes as did his dad, Spartacus, that the Roman empire cannot survive as a slave empire.....reluctantly Ceasar realizes it also and gives Reeves and his slave followers their freedom. Good cloak and dagger role for Steve as he poses as a tribune working for Caesar and also as the Son of Spartacus - wearing an impressive full head helmet to complete his disguise.



good

From Sergio Corbucci, director of the classic spaghetti westerns "The Great Silence" and "Django," comes a routine, but serviceable Italian sword-and-sandal epic staring Steve Reeves, best know for his many Hercules films. This was Reeves final on-screen appearance in this particular genre, later moving onto pirate and western films. "The Slave" has Reeves cast a Roman soldier who discovers he's actually the son of Spartacus, a slave turned gladiator turned rebel leader against the Roman Empire. Like his father, Reeves ends up leading a slave revolt. Unlike the Stanley Kubrick version of Spartacus, this film is minus interesting characters, dialogue, and narrative. However, Corbucci does bring strong visuals to the film and the production values of "The Slave" is better than most Italian sword-and-sandal pictures, which makes this film worth checking out for fans of these admittedly silly films.

Steve Reeves plays a high-ranking Roman centurion who finds out he's the son of the infamous rebel slave leader and spearheads a revolt, of course, in one of the better "sword & sandal" entries. Mixing the backstory of Moses (instead of a swaddling cloth, an amulet gives him away) with the exploits of a comic book superhero (Reeves sneaks off every now and then to shuck his tunic for dad's face-covering armor), director Corbucci took the tale and ran with it, producing some impressive mise-en-scène amidst his unexpectedly inventive camera-work. Gianna Maria Canale as Crassus' cougar wife does little more than lounge around on divans and ogle our hero but no matter, it's always a pleasure to see her in peplum like this.

This is one of Steve Reeve's best ever films and possibly the last one in which he was in a tribune or Roman centurion costume...... Italian director Sergio Corbucci conconted up an idea to continue the life of Spartacus with Reeves as his son gaining a large measure of revenge on corrupt Roman counsel Ceasar Crassus who is running an illegal corrupt empire right in the heart of roman territory....In fact Crassus is getting so powerful that Ceaser himself sends Reeves to investigate what Crassus's methods are and report back to Caeser. Along the way on his trip to see Crassus the ship that Reeves is in hits a river barge and dumps him and a lovely Italian slave named Saida into the river. Reeves survives and he and Saida walk through the roman desert unaware that slave drivers are rounding up all the slaves they can to be bought and sold. Reeves and his gal are captured and Reeves breaks loose from the pack and wreaks his revenge on slave leaders with some dazzling sword work, wiping out a flock of slave drivers. One of the members of the slave band recognize a medallion worn by Reeves as the symbol of Spartacus, since the slave member was a member of Spartacus's force twenty years earlier. Reeves initially is unconvinced that he is truly the son of Spartacus and muses in a catacomb about his true identity. He sees the sword handle of Spartacus and it is the same talisman as his medallion. Reeves recognizes his true heritage and goes to work on wiping out Crassus and his evil empire......raid by raid Reeves and his band wipe out Crassus's gang all the while maintaining his identity as a roman centurion from Caesar.....in the end Reeves is caught and given a death sentence by Crassus....his followers then free him and Caesar must make a decision as to whether or not Reeves followed his orders as a true centurion. Caesar gives Reeves a death sentence but Reeves followers come to his rescue and Caesar relents. Good love story and the beautiful Ombretta Colli is Reeves's love interest. After this film Reeves became "Sandokan" and made one western in 1966 before retiring for good. I just love this film and Reeves had that marvelous physique that made any man drool!!!!! The immortal Steve Reeves, what a face and a body......

I will never forget this film it was brilliant, ok, just another Cowboy and Indian style film, but it worked, and maybe it was terrible after Kubrick's version of Spartacus, but hey, this was a completely different film, and it was aimed at kids of my age, you can't say that of Spartacus. No, the masked man was great, 40 years on, I still think about it, all I wish is I could see it again, never been able to get a copy.

The fight of Spartacus continues: With Steve REEVES at the pyramids

With this film, proto-Hercules Steve REEVES (1926-2000) said goodbye to the pure sandal genre. After that there were two more adventure films as Sandokan and a spaghetti western, then REEVES' film career was history. Before that, we went to Egypt with director Sergio CORBUCCI. And that's where a really good peplum action film was made.

Steve REEVES plays a Roman centurion who gets caught up in the power struggle between Caesar (Ivo Garrani) and Crassus (Claudio Gora). Then it turns out that he could be the son of Spartacus, who was executed long ago. Of course, this leads to conflicts of loyalty and exciting arguments in which REEVES can flex his muscles.

Basically, this is a clever (but historically incorrect) continuation of Stanley KUBRICK's classic "Spartacus" (1960). Other roles include Gianna Maria Canale (as Crassus' wife), Renato Baldini and of course Giovanni Cianfriglia as REEVES' double. In West Germany, the film attracted 903,000 visitors to the cinemas.

Really good sandal film! It's worth it!

Roman Centurion Randus is sent by Julius Ceaser to Egypt to keep an eye on the evil Crassus. However he is ship wrecked on the way and is mistaken for a slave and captured by some of Crassus's auxiliaries, while kidnapped a Gladiator tells him that he is in fact the son of Spartacus and that it is his destiny to finish what his father started.

The Slave, a somewhat unofficial sequel to Spartacus, is shot partially on location in the Egyptian desert and is given real depth by the use of wonderful widescreen cinematography. Visually it's all very impressive. It stars Steve Reeves, who does well in the title role, a Roman centurion who learns that he's the son of Spartacus. He's quite sincere in the role. From the beginning, the pace is brisk, it's an old school sword and sand tale told with much colour, gusto, skill and enthusiasm. Hardly a dull moment, something I can't say about Spartacus (1960 film is very good with great action scenes and strong narrative drive but it has dull spots and too much talking). The production values are top notch and so is the acting. It's got well-staged action sequences, the sword fighting in particular is good with a clear sound of steel clashing, but it also has some intelligent and philosophical dialogue.

Crassus is a really power-mad villain, sending slaves to their death at the drop of his helmet, Gianna Maria Canale plays his wife who has eyes for Reeves and Ombretta Colli is beautiful as Saida, the slave girl and Reeves' love interest.

I also liked the fact that Caesar wasn't a scrawny young man a la Jay Robinson, but a middle-aged man who sprouts philosophical lines and comes across world-weary. Definitely one of Steve Reeves best film.