The Great Steeve Reeves stars in this lavishly produced peplum film as Aeneas, a great hero of the Trojan war who would go on to establish the site of Rome (yet one who has curiously little media dedicated to him).
This is an entertaining movie, made with hundreds of extras and big sets, and although I can't seem to find much about its making (it was thought lost for many years), it is obvious that this had a massive budget for the time.
There are some good battle scenes, and some decent one-on-one fights featuring Reeves defending his honour and his city.
The story is a loose adaptation of the epic, with Helen being a scheming, evil witch in this one, and Paris being much the same. A sad little coward of man that wants glory but is too much of a wimp to fight for it.
There's a touch of love story. A touch of tragedy. And some political arguments. All in all, a decent peplum film, well directed and acted and staged.
But at its heart - still just a peplum in a sea of them.
I will say, however, that I prefer this to the awful Hollywood version of the tale, which was huge and overblown and just downright bad.
Funny how an old Italian film made to cash in on a trend was more entertaining to me than a multi-million dollar epic made with the latest tech, which bored the tits off me. Make of that what you will.
This was followed by a direct sequel, also starring Reeves, that followed him as he fought to set up a site for the dispossessed Trojans.
A site that would later become the Immortal Rome.
That is also worth watching.
