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Vivaldi’s rediscovered opera ERCOLE SU’L TERMODONTE was performed at Spoletto in 2006 with stiking sets and a daring performance by tenor Zachary Stains as Hercules among the Amazons. (A lion-skin is all Stains wears...when he bothers to wear it!)


ANCIENT GREECE

300 Gerard Butler (Attila) stars as Leonidas, King of Sparta. 2-disk edition is loaded with extras. Based on the graphic novel 300 by Frank Miller. Also available: 300: The Art of the Film and the 300 Soundtrack cd. THE 300 SPARTANS Classic movie about the battle of Thermopylae (subject of the bestseller Gates of Fire and the blockbuster 300), starring Richard Egan as Leonidas.
305 “The Office” (they wish!) goes to Sparta. (If you thought 300 was already a joke, go to the head of the class.) MEET THE SPARTANS Lowest of low-brow humor takes on 300 (and other Hollywood fodder). Actually stupider than the original! (And is Sean McGuire hotter than Gerard Butler?)
COLOSSUS OF RHODES Intrigue, tyranny, and a devastating earthquake rattle Rhodes in 280 B.C. Rory Calhoun stars in Sergio Leone’s directorial debut. Dazzling widescreen print! CAMP CLASSICS 4 Warner collection includes Colossus of Rhodes, plus a very young Joan Collins in Land of the Pharaohs and the lavish Biblical epic The Prodigal. Cool extras!
OEDIPUS MAYOR (Edipo Alcalde) The ancient tragedy is transposed to modern Columbia, with a screenplay by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez. OEDIPUS REX Pasolini flashes from the present to the ancient past, filming on Moroccan locations. Includes a vintage featurette on the filmmaker. “Startling and magnificent!” (LA Times)
OEDIPUS REX Sophocles’ murder mystery psychodrama performed in masks, as the Greeks did it. Watch for young William Shatner in the prologue. OEDIPUS REX The oratorio by Stravinsky and Cocteau, brilliantly staged by Julie Taymor (director of Titus), with Bryn Terfel and Jessye Norman. Seiji Ozawa conducts.
ANTIGONE Perhaps the greatest of all Greek tragedies receives a lavishly cinematic production. Was there ever a greater Antigone than Irene Papas? ANTIGONE Jean Anouilh, in Nazi-occupied France, wrote this timely, timeless version of the tragedy. Geneviève Bujold, Fritz Weaver, and Stacy Keach give brilliant performances in this 1974 production.
IPHIGENIA Before they can sail for Troy, the Greeks must make a terrible sacrifice. Michael Cacoyannis directs from the the play by Euripides; Irene Papas stars. THE TROJAN WOMEN Michael Cacoyannis directs an amazing cast: Vanessa Redgrave as Andromache, Katherine Hepburn as Hecuba, Genevieve Bujold as Cassandra, Irene Papas as Helen.
ELECTRA Murder begets murder in “the best film ever made from a Greek tragedy” (Roger Ebert). Directed by Michael Cacoyannis (Zorba the Greek), starring Irene Papas. It’s on Steven’s Top Ten List. ELECTRA, MY LOVE Greek tragedy, political fable, and spectacular rituals combine in a truly bizarre extravaganza from Hungarian director Miklós Jancsó.
YOUNG APHRODITES Sexual awakening in pastoral Greece, ca. 200 B.C. The screenplay by Vassilis Vassilikos (Z) was inspired by the Idylls of Theocritus and the ancient novel Daphnis and Chloe. JIM HENSEN’S THE STORYTELLER Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) created these darkly magical episodes based on European folk tales and Greek myths, narrated by Michael Gambon.
ALEXANDER REVISITED: The Final Cut 2-disk unrated Collector’s Edition of Oliver Stone’s most controversial movie. Also available: Soundtrack CD by Vangelis • Souvenir Program ALEXANDER THE GREAT (1956) Did the brash young Richard Burton make a more compelling Alexander than Colin Farrell? You decide!
ALEXANDER THE GREAT TV pilot from 1964 (two years before Star Trek) stars William Shatner as the world conqueror, a pre-Batman Adam West, John Cassavetes, and Joseph Cotten. WAR GODDESS Racy tale of Theseus and the Amazons from James Bond director Terence Young; story by Robert Graves (I, Claudius). Plus War Gods of Babylon (widescreen) with Howard Duff.
HERCULES Brawny Paul Telfer (of Spartacus) heads a strong cast in an engaging, thematically complex new version of the ancient myths, from the director of Augustus. HERCULES The original sword & sandal epic starring the great Steve Reeves, at last available in widescreen. Plus the very bizarre Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules with Mark Forest.
HERCULES Classic Disney animation at its peak; glorious images of ancient Greece highlight a new take on the tale of the world’s most enduring hero. SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS Greek myths and story elements abound in this spectacular Disney animated feature, starring Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones. In Widescreen or Full Screen versions.
THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES Greek myth gets a poke in the eye when the time-traveling trio match wits with King Odious of Ithaca and his brawny henchman, Hercules. Nyuk! Nyuk! MINOTAUR The myth of Theseus in the Labyrinth, recast as epic Iron Age monster movie. Starring Tom Hardy and Rutger Hauer.
CLASH OF THE TITANS Laurence Olivier plays Zeus and a buff young Harry Hamlin plays Perseus, but Ray Harryhausen’s monsters steal the show. Release the Kraken!
GIANTS OF THESSALY Italian sword & sandal epic follows the Argonauts’ quest for the Golden Fleece, with Roland Carey as Jason and Massimo Girotti as Orpehus.
STEVE REEVES COLLECTION Widescreen prints of two classics: Giant of Marathon, directed by Jacques Tourneur, and War of the Trojans (which is on Steven’s Top Ten List).
THE ODYSSEY Offbeat casting and stunning Mediterranean locations highlight director Andrei Konchalovsky’s version of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey.
TROY Brad Pitt makes an indelible impression as the brooding Achilles. In Full Screen or Widescreen versions. Also available: Director’s Cut Ultimate Collector’s Edition.
BEST OF BOYS IN LOVE includes the claymation short “Achilles” about the love of the Greek warrior and Patroclus (something you didn’t see in Troy!), narrated by Derek Jacobi.
HELEN OF TROY (1956) Inspired by The Iliad, Robert Wise directed a strong international cast in one of the best and biggest Hollywood spectacles of the 1950s.
HELEN OF TROY (2003) Revisionist miniseries stars Sienna Guillory as the willful, wayward Spartan queen whose face launched a thousand ships.

JASON & THE ARGONAUTS (1963) The quest for the Golden Fleece, with Ray Harryhausen’s special effects and a thrilling score by Bernard Herrmann.

JASON & THE ARGONAUTS (2000) Young Jason battles monsters, kings, and the gods themselves to win the Golden Fleece. Jolene Blalock plays Medea.

ALCESTE Gluck’s opera based on the tragedy by Euripides, featuring Greek-inspired designs by Robert Wilson.
IL RITORNO D’ULISSE IN PATRIA Monteverdi’s opera staged by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, with burly Kresimir Spicer as a heroic Ulysses.
MEDEA Marina Goderdzishvili as Medea and Vladimir Julukhadze as Jason in the ballet of the Greek tragedy performed by the Tbilisi State Theatre.
ORFEO ED EURIDICE Dame Janet Baker follows Elisabeth Speiser to Hades and back in Gluck’s opera, produced at Glyndebourne in 1982.


The demigod, then & now: Steve Reeves as Hercules vs. Paul Telfer as Hercules.
(For more Hercules movies, see the Sword & Sandal page.)

Go to: ROMEFORTHCOMING MOVIES DOCUMENTARIES
STEVEN’S TOP 10 MOVIES LIST SWORD & SANDAL MOVIES
ANCIENT CINEMA BOOKS HAIL SHAKESPEARE!

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