Friday, August 25, 2017

Caesar the Conqueror (1962)

Original title: Giulio Cesare, Il Conquistatore delle Gallie

Director: Tanio Boccia

Writers: Gaio Giulio Cesare, Arpad DeRiso, Giovanni Scolaro

Composers: Guido Robuschi, Gian Stellari

Starring: Cameron Mitchell, Rik Battaglia, Dominique Wilms, Ivica Pajer, Raffaella Carra, Carlo Tamberlani, Cesare Fantoni, Giulio Donnini, Nerio Bernardi, Cara Calo, Piero Palermini, Bruno Tocci, Aldo Pini, Lucia Randi, Fedele Gentile, Enzo Petracca, Alberto Manetti

More info: IMDb

Plot: In 54 B.C., Julius Caesar seeks to solidify his position in Rome by putting down a rebellion in Gaul.



My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

In the mixed bags that is the Sword & Sandal genre of the late 50s and all throughout the 60s, this one fares pretty well.  It looks good with lots of outdoor locations, nice costumes and so on.  Mitchell does a good job and he's got the looks of a Julius Caesar.  The print I watched was dubbed in English and unfortunately it wasn't Mitchell's voice on the soundtrack.  For the most part the cast does a fine job but there are a few who overdo it in a bad way.  The action scenes don't work as well as the drama mainly because the fight choreography is clumsy like some soldiers take the hit before their opponent hits them and stuff like that.  There were, though, some great kills like an arrow through a neck and another one straight into another's forehead.  I bet kids back in '62 were flipping out about that cool shit. The music works pretty well.  I'd say this film had more money behind it than most of these Roman epics from Europe at the time. It looks like director Boccia directed a bunch of these in the 60s.  I'd recommend checking this one out for fans of the genre.  It's better than average and good looking to boot. 






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