Acceptable and middle-budgeted Peplum with the corpulent Brad Harris as Simone Maccabee. The setting of the book is about a century and a half after the conquest of Judea by the Greeks under Alexander the Great, after Alexander's empire has been divided so that Judea was part of the Greek Seleucid Empire . It tells how the Greek ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempted to suppress the practice of basic Jewish law , resulting in the Maccabean Revolt , a Jewish revolt against Seleucid rule led by Maccabeos Brothers . The Jews of Jerusalem are driven out by their Syrian rulers. They gather their forces, and return to drive out their oppressors. The name Maccabee in Hebrew, means "Hammer" This is properly applied to the first leader of the revolt, Judas, third son of Mattathias, whose attacks were "hammer-like". The name came to be used for his brothers as well, which accounts for the title of the book. The starring of this ¨Biblical¨ and ¨Sword and Sandals movie¨ are Juda (Nenadovic) and Simon (Brad Harris) . Our heroes are pursued by the evil ruler named Apollonio (Jacques Berthier) who govern tyrannically the city . At the beginning Simon is a good friend of the Syrians and is then accused as traitor , later on he takes the just cause and fight for his country , while he falls in love for a Syria girl (Mara Lane) . As Mattathias the Hasmonean, sparked the revolt against the Seleucid Empire by refusing to worship the Greek gods. Mattathias killed a Hellenized Jew who had stepped forward to take Mattathias' place in sacrificing to an idol as well as the Greek officer who was sent to enforce the sacrifice . Afterwards, he and his five sons fled to the wilderness of Judah.With Faith and Fire, The Armies of God Challenged the World!
Acceptable Biblic Peplum partially based on historical events with ordinary players , functional production design , atmospheric cinematography by Izzareli and evocative musical score by prolific Angelo Francesco Lavagnino. Stars the American Brad Harris , he was a hunk man who made lots of roman epic films also called ¨Musclemen movies¨. Luck's Harris changed when an Italian producer persuaded him to go overseas to star lots of swords and sandals film . Brad was an American bouncing who emigrated Italy and created a true star-system based on pumped-up heroes. He along with Steve Reeves paved the way for others actors to seek their fame and fortune in Italy playing bouncing adventurers . Other stars by the time on this type of movies are Mark Forest, Gordon Mitchell, Dan Vadis ,Rock Stevens and 'Gordon Scott' who made him more important competence. Nobody, nevertheless, topped Steve Reeves in popularity. Here Brad Harris as Simon, a Macabee rebel who after death his father and brother woo avenge , he is nice though uninspired . Brad Harris began to do stunt work, in the late 50s he traveled to Europe and he soon found himself working in Musclemen epics (Sansone,Goliath against the giants,Fury of Hercules) and he eventually moved into Spaghetti Western and spies . The film is a French/Italian co-production in the Sword and Sandals sub-genre that were largely shot during the 60s in Italy. Mediocre performances though the acting honors go to Jacques Berthier as nasty ruler .
The film is middling directed by Gianfranco Parolini or Frank Kramer. He began directing Musclemen epics as ¨Rocha¨, ¨The Macabeos¨ with Brad Harris and ¨The ten gladiators¨ with Dan Davis and Gianni Rizzo , Parolini's usual actor. After that he continued with ¨commissioner X¨ series with Tony Kendall , fantastic with ¨three supermen¨ and warlike movie as ¨5 per l'Inferno¨ with Gianni Garco (Sartana) and Nick Jordan. His first Western was ¨Johnny West¨ and later on , he directed the ¨Sabata trilogy¨ . It's followed by ¨ Return of Sabata¨ with similar artistic and technician team and ¨Indio Black ¨ .
Partially based on Bible , as The Maccabees book covers the whole of the revolt, from 175 to 134 BC, highlighting how the salvation of the Jewish people in this crisis came through Mattathias' (Carlo Tamberlani) family, particularly his sons, Judas Maccabeus (Nenadovic) , Jonathan Apphus, and Simon Thassi (Brad Harris) , and Simon's son, John Hyrcanus. In the first chapter, Alexander the Great conquers the territory of Judea, only to be eventually succeeded by the Seleucid Antiochus IV Epiphanes. After successfully invading the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, Antiochus IV captures Jerusalem and removes the sacred objects from the Temple in Jerusalem, slaughtering many Jews. He then imposes a tax and establishes a fortress in Jerusalem.Antiochus then tries to suppress public observance of Jewish laws, in an attempt to secure control over the Jews. In 168 BC, he desecrates the Temple by setting up an "abomination of desolation" (that is, establishing rites of pagan observance in the Temple, or sacrificing an unclean animal on the altar in the Holy of Holies). Antiochus forbids both circumcision and possession of Jewish scriptures on pain of death. He forbids observance of the sabbath and the offering of sacrifices at the Temple. He also requires Jewish leaders to sacrifice to idols. While enforcement may be targeting only Jewish leaders, ordinary Jews were also killed as a warning to others. Hellenization included the construction of gymnasiums in Jerusalem. Among other effects, this discouraged the Jewish rite of circumcision even further, which had already been officially forbidden; a man's state could not be concealed in the gymnasium, where men trained and socialized in the nude. However, 1 Maccabees also insists that there were many Jews who sought out or welcomed the introduction of Greek culture. According to the text, some Jewish men even engaged in foreskin restoration in order to pass as fully Greek.Mattathias calls upon people loyal to the traditions of Israel to oppose the invaders and the Jewish Hellenizers, and his five sons begin a military campaign against them (the Maccabean Revolt). After Mattathias' death about one year later in 166 BCE his son Judah Maccabee led an army of Jewish dissidents to victory over the Seleucid dynasty in guerrilla warfare, which at first was directed against Hellenized Jews, of whom there were many. The Maccabees destroyed Greek altars in the villages, circumcised boys and forced Hellenized Jews into outlawry . There is one complete loss of a thousand Jews (men, women and children) to Antiochus when the Jewish defenders refuse to fight on the Sabbath. The other Jews then reason that, when attacked, they must fight even on the holy day. In 165 BC the Temple is freed and reconsecrated, so that ritual sacrifices may begin again. The festival of Hanukkah is instituted by Judas Maccabeus and his brothers to celebrate this event . Judas seeks an alliance with the Roman Republic to remove the Greeks. He is succeeded by his brother Jonathan, who becomes high priest and also seeks alliance with Rome and confirms alliance with Areus of Sparta . Simon follows them, receiving the double office of high priest and prince of Israel. (Simon and his successors form the Hasmonean dynasty, which is not always considered a valid kingship by the Jews, since they were not of the lineage of David.) Simon leads the people in peace and prosperity, until he is murdered by agents of Ptolemy, son of Abubus, who had been named governor of the region by the Macedonian Greeks. He is succeeded by his son, John Hyrcanus.
