The Slave

Moviecut—The Slave

From Sergio Corbucci, director of the classic spaghetti westerns "The Great Silence" and "Django," comes a routine, but serviceable Italian sword-and-sandal epic staring Steve Reeves, best know for his many Hercules films. This was Reeves final on-screen appearance in this particular genre, later moving onto pirate and western films. "The Slave" has Reeves cast a Roman soldier who discovers he's actually the son of Spartacus, a slave turned gladiator turned rebel leader against the Roman Empire. Like his father, Reeves ends up leading a slave revolt. Unlike the Stanley Kubrick version of Spartacus, this film is minus interesting characters, dialogue, and narrative. However, Corbucci does bring strong visuals to the film and the production values of "The Slave" is better than most Italian sword-and-sandal pictures, which makes this film worth checking out for fans of these admittedly silly films.

After the international success of HERCULES, the Steve Reeves Swords-and-Sandals vehicle THE SLAVE clearly had some money spent on its production values -- good costumes and some nice sets to accent good camera lighting abound. The plot, typical of peplum movies, is a mishmosh of themes intended to take advantage of recent hits. Reeves is a Roman centurion working for the noble Julius Caesar in Rome. He is captured by leopard-skin wearing desert barbarians working for the evil Crassus, escapes, gets captured again, is enslaved, identified as Spartacus' son (hence the movie's Italian title) and leads a slave rebellion. Director Sergio Corbucci does his usual highly competent job, abetted by the handsome production values that Cinecitta was capable of; kudos especially to director of Photography Enzo Baroni, whose lighting suggests illustrations on parchment. Although the writing never rises above the level of silliness that such cheap epics aspired to, fans of the genre will find plenty to enjoy.

A thing should be what it is, and "The Slave" fulfills all the requirements of a sword and sandal movie. There are, of course, plenty of fighting and beautiful girls in settings worthy of the big screen. You couldn't want more lavish costumes (or more revealing of female--and male--pulchritude). So, a lot of fun! When you remember what was going on in America in 1962, however, the film goes from gladiator movie to political allegory. A story about the son of the slave Spartacus trying to free slaves from an empire divided between the honorable military man Caesar and the "crass" and Greedy Crassus, who cares about nothing but gold, is a version of America. If the great Julius Caesar can show mercy to freed slaves, then so can the American Caesar. And as the son of Spartacus returns his sword to its spot at the grave of his crucified father, we are told it lies there only to be taken up to fight slavery anywhere. There is your heroic lesson, America! Of course, you might argue that this is rather simplistic, and it is, but allegory is often simplistic because it has to be to get its message across. And when you consider its original audience (I first saw it in 1962 when I was 9), simplicity is a pretty good strategy. So, The Slave deserves credit for working on two levels--escapist fantasy and political commentary. It was rather progressive for its time, I'd say. 55 years later, we could use another such movie in this summer of Trump. Until we get it, I suggest you check out The Slave.

Steve Reeves plays a high-ranking Roman centurion who finds out he's the son of the infamous rebel slave leader and spearheads a revolt, of course, in one of the better "sword & sandal" entries. Mixing the backstory of Moses (instead of a swaddling cloth, an amulet gives him away) with the exploits of a comic book superhero (Reeves sneaks off every now and then to shuck his tunic for dad's face-covering armor), director Corbucci took the tale and ran with it, producing some impressive mise-en-scène amidst his unexpectedly inventive camera-work. Gianna Maria Canale as Crassus' cougar wife does little more than lounge around on divans and ogle our hero but no matter, it's always a pleasure to see her in peplum like this.

One of the better Sword and Sandal movies from the golden era of the genre (the 1960's). Awesome to see Steve Reeves in his prime. If this movie had been made in the 1980's, no doubt Schwarzenegger would have been the lead. Beautifully shot on location in Egypt, the setting really does seem to improve the movie. Lot's of action, plenty of sword fights and cool set pieces. I think what stood out to me the most about this movie was the similarities to the "Zorro" story. Reeve's character is a bit like a super hero, darting off out of view to change in to a costume (son of Spartacus) that hides his true identity. Zorro would leave his mark, a "Z" carved with his sword. Son of Spartacus leaves an "S" carved or painted in to shields and walls to terrorize the abusive governor. It really did strike me as "Zorro" set in Roman times and happening in Egypt. Check out the size of the mole on the neck of the guy that played Caesar. Holy crap, he should have had that thing surgically removed. It was like a vestigial twin living on his shoulder/neck. Grotesque! Overall, a good sword and sandal movie that I would have loved when I was 8 - 12 years old. Somehow I only just saw this movie for the first time now that I am 45 years old, but I still enjoyed it.

This is far away from historical facts crassus died between war of carhe from the most genius parthian general ''sourena'' at 53 B. C. ............ So that after he escaped to Damascus, he was captured and killed on the way, and his head was sent to the ruler of Parth-Ard in a golden dish. And ceasar killed at capitol of rome that year 48 B. C. too......And in history, there is no mention of the survivors of Spartacus..... It's a pity that in that golden age of cinema, historical events were shown like this, of course, political considerations were not without influence at that time either.....Thank you for your reading.

"The Slave" (aka Son of Spartacus) is a an excellent action Reeves film with a good story line to borrow from (the original Spartacus). Reeves learns of his heritage after being captured by a band of slave drivers in the Egyptian desert - also tagging along is a beautiful slave girl who along with Reeves survives being dumped overboard by a ship which hits a barge in the River. Great scene,when Reeves doubtful that he is Spartacus's son walks slowly into a small catacomb and finds the helmet and sword of Spartacus and muses for several minutes about his heritage - linking a medallion he has worn since birth with the same emblem on the sword handle of Spartacus. Also great action scene when Reeves rescues a band of prisoners of Ceasar Crassus who are tied into a large moat with water rushing in to cause a drowning execution. Excellent sword and action with several bad guys being wiped out by Steve, looking like an adonis with a metal helmet on in a great swashbuckling scene.....Reeves as a tribune of Ceasar finally realizes as did his dad, Spartacus, that the Roman empire cannot survive as a slave empire.....reluctantly Ceasar realizes it also and gives Reeves and his slave followers their freedom. Good cloak and dagger role for Steve as he poses as a tribune working for Caesar and also as the Son of Spartacus - wearing an impressive full head helmet to complete his disguise. good

Chiseled, muscular Steve Reeves made a career out of playing Hercules, roman warriors, and downtrodden commoners. in this italian production, he turns out to be the son of Spartacus, and must prove his glory and worth, just as his father did before him. sandals. swords. sword fights. silly outfits. grand battles. it's the traditional palace intrigue, building alliances which may or may not hold. more sword fights. Directed by italian Sergio Corbucci, wrote, co-wrote and directed many a film. it's EXACTLY what you think its going to be. no big dealio.

Probably due to the fact that it got backing from a major Hollywood studio, the Italian sword and sandal movie "The Slave" is one of the best looking examples of the genre that reigned in theaters in the 1960s. The shot in Egypt backdrop looks haunting and spectacular, the sets look gigantic and authentic, and the costumes are also first rate. It's a pity then, however, that the feel of the movie is less of a grabber (and much less fun) than many other sword and sandal movies that were churned out on much lower budgets. The story is kind of slow and talky, and the action not only often takes a long time to come, its choreography and direction is strictly routine at best. Another big problem with the movie is the depiction of the main character. There is somewhat less focus on the protagonist than you might think, and as a result he doesn't feel up front and center. It's also hard to figure out what exactly pushes him to embrace his heritage. As the protagonist, Steve Reeves somehow has less charisma and screen presence than he had in other movies of this kind. I wouldn't say this movie is terrible, but it wastes a lot of potential, and I would only recommend it to people who are really into the sword and sandal genre.