Reviews

I give 4/10 stars for the overall visual effects and the hokum-quotient. Much of this 1961 film is eminently forgettable. Yes, you can see a few of Leone's trademarks in an early format, but the film has nothing much going for it.

It seems to take its lead, in some respects, from the great 'Spartacus' of the previous year; the Holywood film is, of course, much better and has finer actors and a coherent plot. It uses a great deal of dramatic licence (its Gracchus character is an invention, using the name of a political reformer of 60 years before).

'Colossus' appears to assume no historical knowledge at all in its audiences: the sets, attitudes, weapons and names are a mishmash of everything from Greek to Persian to Roman. The history of Rhodes (in reality an important, if second-line power in the 3rd c. BC and a democracy) is hopelessly and comically garbled. The 'Phoenicians', a great trading people four centuries earlier, are brought in as the stock 'Eastern' villains and there is a touch of racism in the resulting ethnic clash.

Oh dear. Yet another film about a 'plucky, clever' American child/woman finding herself in 'Oirland' - popping back and forth between the 'fairy world' and the real; it has something to do with horses (presumably to attract teenage girls?). As usual, the director has little idea about Ireland (I mean the real country, with its myriad traditions and its imagery) and has invented 'Ireland', which is populated by gawms and stereotypes and always looks curiously like the American version of … England, only with funny accents.

Americans sans passports will love the film, as it will reinforce their skewed perspective of just about any other country.

The only plus I can think of is that parts of it were filmed in Ireland and presumably lined the pockets of a few locals.