Most of the other reviews are on target, I will limit myself to a couple of points needing consideration.
This was not intended as a muscleman-'sword & sandal' show, but a straight-ahead epic and a war movie. The reason this is easy to miss is because of the choice of Reeves for the lead. He actually tries hard to act in this film - but he has no capacity for it whatsoever.
In order to give him a chance to demonstrate this, the film gives Reeves an annoying romance that takes up half the film.
As an epic, the film is only half here, the second half, the battle itself. The battle sequences aren't bad at all, they are all technically correct, well mounted and nicely shot.
In fact, the visuals of the film are very striking, especially in the meetings with city elders trying to decide strategy. The print used for the DVD is an old TV copy, washed out and grainy; but remembering its original colors, and that it was made in wide-screen, a lot of this must have looked pretty awesome in theaters on first release.
However, visuals work best when the acting isn't important; besides the Reeves' problem, in fact only the central villain is performed with any gusto or skill. Everyone else walks around like cardboard on string. For the better actors involved, that may be partly because, with the exception of the romance, there's very little character-based drama involved here.
I suggest watching it for the battle sequences, and to forgive the damage done to it by the fortunes of poor preservation.
This was not intended as a muscleman-'sword & sandal' show, but a straight-ahead epic and a war movie. The reason this is easy to miss is because of the choice of Reeves for the lead. He actually tries hard to act in this film - but he has no capacity for it whatsoever.
In order to give him a chance to demonstrate this, the film gives Reeves an annoying romance that takes up half the film.
As an epic, the film is only half here, the second half, the battle itself. The battle sequences aren't bad at all, they are all technically correct, well mounted and nicely shot.
In fact, the visuals of the film are very striking, especially in the meetings with city elders trying to decide strategy. The print used for the DVD is an old TV copy, washed out and grainy; but remembering its original colors, and that it was made in wide-screen, a lot of this must have looked pretty awesome in theaters on first release.
However, visuals work best when the acting isn't important; besides the Reeves' problem, in fact only the central villain is performed with any gusto or skill. Everyone else walks around like cardboard on string. For the better actors involved, that may be partly because, with the exception of the romance, there's very little character-based drama involved here.
I suggest watching it for the battle sequences, and to forgive the damage done to it by the fortunes of poor preservation.