A rousing Italian/French peplum adventure yarn, teaming screen legend Steve Reeves with a fine director in Jacques Tourneur and one of the best directors of photography in Italian history - Mario Bava. The combination makes for a beautifully-shot, colourful, and well paced movie, which is a bit slow to start off but soon comes into its own with imaginative battle sequences and a story which is always moving.
A clean-shaven Reeves plays Phillipides, an Olympic legend who is a hit with all the ladies - and who finds himself torn between a forbidden beauty, Andromeda, and Karis, a woman ordered to seduce him by the bad guys and who ends up falling in love instead. These romantic subplots are what make up the first half of the film, interspersed with plenty of dancing, a few fights here and there and lots of sweeping spectacle thanks to Bava, who really gives the film an expensive-looking veneer.
The second half of the movie concerns an invasion by the Persians, with Phillipides attempting to rally the Spartans to his cause. There's an excellently-shot hand-to-hand combat scene involving an emissary who is attacked by a gang of cut-throats, who outnumber him 5-to-1 but still end up getting beaten. Then the film culminates in an fine sea battle in which the Olympic heroes chuck burning spears at the approaching enemy ship, which retaliates by crushing their own ship with an awkward pair of pincers! At this point, there's also some great underwater photography and lots of violence as underwater attackers are shot and speared by the enemy. Finally, a battle ensues, of which you can probably guess the outcome.
Reeves is as good as ever as the masculine hero, and here he's supported by a strong cast which offers some good female characters. Tourneur's direction is assured and Bava's camera-work gives the film fine visual splendour. While the plot may be familiar, even interchangeable stuff, GIANT OF MARATHON is still a fine piece of solid entertainment.
A clean-shaven Reeves plays Phillipides, an Olympic legend who is a hit with all the ladies - and who finds himself torn between a forbidden beauty, Andromeda, and Karis, a woman ordered to seduce him by the bad guys and who ends up falling in love instead. These romantic subplots are what make up the first half of the film, interspersed with plenty of dancing, a few fights here and there and lots of sweeping spectacle thanks to Bava, who really gives the film an expensive-looking veneer.
The second half of the movie concerns an invasion by the Persians, with Phillipides attempting to rally the Spartans to his cause. There's an excellently-shot hand-to-hand combat scene involving an emissary who is attacked by a gang of cut-throats, who outnumber him 5-to-1 but still end up getting beaten. Then the film culminates in an fine sea battle in which the Olympic heroes chuck burning spears at the approaching enemy ship, which retaliates by crushing their own ship with an awkward pair of pincers! At this point, there's also some great underwater photography and lots of violence as underwater attackers are shot and speared by the enemy. Finally, a battle ensues, of which you can probably guess the outcome.
Reeves is as good as ever as the masculine hero, and here he's supported by a strong cast which offers some good female characters. Tourneur's direction is assured and Bava's camera-work gives the film fine visual splendour. While the plot may be familiar, even interchangeable stuff, GIANT OF MARATHON is still a fine piece of solid entertainment.