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Rhodes, 280 BC: King Xerxes (Roberto Camardiel) has built a giant statue at
the entrance of Rhodes' harbour, that serves 2 purposes, firstly to worship the
god Apollo, but second & most foremost, it is also a great defense against
any conquering fleets, full of ahead-of-its time mechanisms & fancy
gadgets. Only a handful of rebels, led by Peliocles (Georges Marchal) think
their pompous monument will also be their downfall, not at least because
Xerxes, to build the colossus, has relied heavily on slavery, &, should
need arise, enslaved his own subjects ... but the rebels are too weak on their
own, so they decide to contact Greek general Darios (Rory Calhoun), who just
hjappens to be present at the unveiling of the colossus, & ask him for
help. Darios bluntly refuses, but when he tries to leave Rhodes on his own
account, he is denied a passage, later when he ties to leave with the help of
the rebels, he is even incarcerated ... but is soon freed by the reels, who at
long last know him on their side ... but there is another thing the rebels have
learned (by accident, even): Xerxes' commander in chief Thar (Conrado San
Martin) has invited a small Phenician conquering army to Rhodes disguised as
slaves, to, in the very near future, take possession of Xerxes' throne. The
rebels figure the only way to save Rhodes now is to take possession of the
colossus ... but they still have to figure out how that darn thing works ... so
Darius has a plan: He hooks up with Dalia (Lea Massari), daughter of the
colossus' creator, & persuades her to tell him the secrets of the colossus,
having convinced her that she is helping Rhodes ... or so he thinks, because
Dalia is in cahoots with Thar, tries to have Darios captured (he escapes after
a fierce battle atop the colossus), & uses the informatin Darios has given
her against the rebels ... When Darios arrives at the rebels' hideout he
finds many of them dead or captured & himself branded a traitor (which is
essentially true even if he betrayed his friends in the best of intentions). Darios
rushes to the cricus to save the rebels, who are about to be thrown to the
lions, & he even succeeds, even if he himself halls into the hands of Thar,
who has also used the opportunity to have Xerxes killed & mount the throne
himself ... Darios is about to be executed inside the colossus, but its
already too late: the rebels have in the meantime gathered sufficient citizens
& slaves to start a full scale rebellion, & then there's the
earthquake, that in the finale topples the colossus, with Darios only just
escaping - & to a better future, too ... With only 5 films (Per
un Pugno di Dollari, Per qualque Dollari in Piu, Il Buono il
Brutto il Cattivo, C'era una volta il West, Giu la Testa) has
reinvented a genre as stale & rigid as the Western, so logic dictates if
Leone does a peplum (the Italian version of sword-&-sandal movies), it
should at least be interesting ...well, not really. While Il Colosso Di
Rodi is competently directed and on a pure quality level one of the better
genre entries of its time, featuring some impressive sets, any kind of personal
approach to the material is totally amiss here, instead we get a piee of
craftmanship, ok to look at, but rather indistinguishable (& even more
boring than) peplums from other, less talented directors. Now let me get this
straight, Il Colosso Di Rodi is not essentially a bad movie, it's just
genre-fodder for those whomight like the genre.
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