Il colosso di Rodi (The Colossus of Rhodes)

Feature Film France Italy Spain 1961

King Xerxes and his court are celebrating the wondrous statue erected at the entry to the port of Rhodes. The machine is designed to protect the island by spitting burning pitch at enemy vessels. Oppressing the local populace is the scheming counsellor, Tyreus, who is also plotting against the king. Vacationing on Rhodes is Darius, the hero, who falls in love with Diala, the statue’s designer. In a series of heroic feats, Darius saves the king and Rhodes from the insurgent rebels. This film is officially considered as Leone’s directorial debut (unofficial accounts cite The Final Days of Pompeii). Before going on to revamp westerns, Leone recast the historic epic genre with irony and sensationalism, sadism and film citations (Hitchcock’s North by Northwest in this instance).  

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