What are Your Favorite Sword and Sandal Films?

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum I absolutely love this film. Sword and Sandal and pure comedy gold.

Though I agree that the Heston version of Ben Hur is a great film, the silent version also made an impression on me. They kept spare slaves under the decks where the one's rowing were chained. Really emotional when they were abandoning ship, and the slaves were to be left to drown. The ones in the spare compartment were reaching through the grating/grill on the hatch begging for help.

Besides that, in the talkie version, with 4 horses side by side, the bad guy was never going to shred anybody's spokes! those blades could not come anywhere near the other guys' wheels. The chariot race was great, but for that one thing.

I remember one with Zorro/John Robinson (cannot recall his name) as the hero. This was a Saturday kids' matinee-type film, & starting on the quest, he had some two dozen soldiers with him. Every two or three minutes, one would die, in what seemed to be rather unpleasant circumstances. By the time he reached the villain's castle, or wherever, he was alone.

I saw another one on TCM a few months ago, in which the hero had been adopted by a witch, who wanted to keep him from his intended quest (to save the girl), but he somehow imprisoned her, & went on his way. Along the way, he meets several other heroes, one of which was secretly working for the villain, but who also wanted the girl for himself, & who eventually betrayed the villain. I think Sherlock Holmes actor was the villain.

Then, there was Hercules, Ulysses, & Samson!

I remember really liking The 300 Spartans when I saw it as a kid when it first came out. Haven't seen it since.

Cleopatra 1963 film with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison heading up an amazing cast. Bad luck and an various misfortunes ballooned the budget into the stratosphere The film cost 40 million to make which the equivalent of 250 million in todays money , the film the ended up grossing 22 million. It nearly put 20th Century Fox out of business. It was flop but has since become a classic .

It's a truly great film.

Gladiator 1999 Russel Crowe as Maximus was awesome. It was also Oliver Reed's Last film.

Vince W said:

I loved Jason and the Argonauts, perhaps more to do with Ray Harryhausen's work than anything else.
Spartacus. Kirk Douglas is a great actor.
The first Clash of the Titans.
Conan the Barbarian (Ahnuld's) of course.

If I think of any more I'll add them.

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Watched Jason and the Argonauts, for the first time in donkey's years! Used to be one of those Christmas Day regular offerings on the BBC alongside The Great Escape.

Anyway, it's still a terrific film, even after all these years. Decent story too! But of course it will always be remembered for Harryhausen's animation, especially for those skeletons! Scared the crap out of me when I saw this as a kid, and is still impressive in this era of tedious CGI

BAYLOR said:

Cleopatra 1963 film with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison heading up an amazing cast. Bad luck and an various misfortunes ballooned the budget into the stratosphere The film cost 40 million to make which the equivalent of 250 million in todays money , the film the ended up grossing 22 million. It nearly put 20th Century Fox out of business. It was flop but has since become a classic .

It's a truly great film.

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Did you know that before it moved to Rome for filming sets and costumes were made at Pinewood Studios. These were later put to good use in the production of Carry on Cleo.
Infamy infamy, they've all got it in for me.

HanaBi said:

Watched Jason and the Argonauts, for the first time in donkey's years! Used to be one of those Christmas Day regular offerings on the BBC alongside The Great Escape.

Anyway, it's still a terrific film, even after all these years. Decent story too! But of course it will always be remembered for Harryhausen's animation, especially for those skeletons! Scared the crap out of me when I saw this as a kid, and is still impressive in this era of tedious CGI

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I showed this film to my daughters when they were about 8 and 10, my oldest asked how can you stab a skeleton? She always comes out with the best questions.

svalbard said:

The original Conan is a classic. Loved Spartacus, Olivier was great as Crassus.

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Absolutely.

For the Conan fans don't forget Red Sonja!

Judderman said:

For the Conan fans don't forget Red Sonja!

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Bridgette couldn't act at all. The actress who played her sister would have been a better choice for that role. But the film ides have entertainment value.

Last week, I watched 300; two days later, Meet the Spartans! 300 was really interesting, as it told of Sparta's child-rearing policy: train & nurture until puberty, then send them away to either die or become men. If any should die, few tears were shed for them, as only the strong were worthy of life. Meet the Spartans directly parodied every element in 300, & I thought it had been underrated with only 1 star. I suppose having watched it only two days after 300, made it much funnier than if a longer time had passed.

I would like to see The Ten Commandments again, if for no better reason than that I like Edward G. Robinson, who portrayed Dathan, as I recall. He & Heston became friends during the filming, & remained so, until his death.

Conan the Barbarian obviously (and not that new version, which sucked), 300, Gladiator. In that order.

HanaBi said:

Agreed, although I guess things weren't helped by the apparent reticence of Douglas on most of the sets; clash of egos I suppose. But the end result was still terrifically done!

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I don't know if this is relevant but ... saw a documentary about Spartacus saying how K. Douglas was getting a lot of flack from some anti 'pinko' elements and made the film in spite of serious attempts to stop him. Future president JFK even showed his support by attending the premiere showing. I imagine normal tensions would be amplified under those circumstances.
Solidarity! I'm Spartacus!

All of the Sinbad movies were great. Golden voyage i think is the name of my favourite one.
Oh, and The Thief of Bagdad. Brilliant scene with a fight against a giant spider.

My name is Gladiator. Can't be beat.

dask said:

I remember really liking The 300 Spartans when I saw it as a kid when it first came out. Haven't seen it since.

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Sure was better than the comic book alternate universe 300 , which really butchered the Battle of Thermopylae. 300 also killed , so far, attempts to make Steven Pressfield's terrific Gates of Fire as a live action version of the Battle.

The 1956 version of Alexander the Great , with Richard Burton, is much better than the 2004 Oliver Stone film, which does not seem to know what it wanted to be about.
There is the need for a really great epic movie about Alexander but don't know if it will ever get make.

The 1960 version of Spartacus is unique in that is an ancient history movie that does not incorporate any of the Bible! (That was true of 300 Spartans and Alexander , but those films did not deal with Rome).
Also true of the 2000 Gladiator.
I right now I would love to see some more ancient history epics , a new Cleopatra has been rattling about for years.