Movie Review: Hercules, Samson and Ulysses (1963)

This week, I wanted to give a shout out to a ripping Sword & Sandal yarn that puts together two great tastes that taste great together and that kicks more butt than you can shake a Bible at, "Hercules, Samson and Ulysses":

Exotic lands!  Dangerous women!  Evil tyrants!  Legendary heroes!  Mighty thews!  This movie has it all!

The action begins in Ithaca, where a fearsome sea monster (*cough*sea lion*cough*) is ravaging the coast.  Brave Hercules, crafty Ulysses and a few redshirts ship out to stop the beast but end up shipwrecked in Judea!  Meanwhile, Samson is hiding out from the Philistines for killing a number of their men and generally resisting their rule.

Then, there's a bit of mistaken identity when Hercules slays a lion with his barehands, since only one guy is supposed to be able to do that...

Meanwhile, the Philistine King engages in a bit of ethnic cleaning and kidnaps Hercules' friends, with the help of sexy troublemaker Delilah.  To free them, Hercules has to bring in the rebel Samson, setting up the epic no holds barred smackdown of the ages!

Made toward the end of the golden age of peplum films, "Hercules, Samson and Ulysses" is as good (or bad) as you might expect.  This is fun film about manly men and superheroes teaming up to fight evil.  It is a (mostly) lighthearted romp that is gloriously and unabashedly cheesy (e.g, there's an obvious English language dub, the "rocks" are clearly Styrofoam, etc.) but in a way that simply adds to the charm.

The story is straightforward but not aggressively stupid.

The fight scenes are good in a chop socky way and the acting is played straight is mostly effective, with some fun flirting between Hercules and Delilah.  Also, it is super nice to see real sets and animals rather than CGI!  And the ladies are easy on the eyes.

So, if you want to see big, beefy, sweaty dudes wrestling in a totally not homoerotic way, check out this classic flick!

Culture: "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" (1949)

Fundamentally, most tabletop role-playing games seek to tell thrilling yarns about heroes triumphing in the face of great odds.  So, this week I wanted to give a shout out to the seminal work of comparative mythology, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces":

Written by legendary mythologist Joseph Campbell, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" is a hugely influential study that combines modern psychology with comparative mythological analysis.  Building on work from earlier scholars, Campbell found heroic legends from all over the world and from many different periods of time shares many similar elements of plot, structure, theme and symbolism.  

This begged the question of why heroic legends possessed so many similarities, despite being separated by great gaps of space and time?  Campbell's tremendous insight was that the reason for this universality was that these heroic legends were reflections of and expressions of elements of the collective unconscious of humanity.  According to Campbell and legendary psychologist Carl Jung, the collective unconscious produces "archetypes," which form the basis of many myths.

Furthermore, Campbell was able to break down these heroic legends into a basic narrative pattern which he called the monomyth or "The Hero's Journey", which he summarized as follows:

"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man."

The concept of "The Hero's Journey" has been widely acclaimed since the 1970s.  Moreover, Campbell's ideas have been adopted and adapted repeated in popular culture, perhaps most famously in Star Wars, but also in many, many, many other works.

“In the three decades since I discovered The Hero with a Thousand Faces, it has continued to fascinate and inspire me. Joseph Campbell peers through centuries and shows us that we are all connected by a basic need to hear stories and understand ourselves. As a book, it is wonderful to read; as illumination into the human condition, it is a revelation.” - George Lucas

A Call to Adventure!

So, if you are a fan of mythology and want to learn and understand more about the hows and whys of heroic legends, check out one of best written books of the 20th century!

Gamebook Review: "Bloodfeud of Altheus" (1985)

Last year, I discussed the seminal Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) series of gamebooks and the legendary Lone Wolf series by Joe Dever.  Today, I wanted to look at another excellent, if under appreciated, RPG gamebook, the first entry in the Cretan Chronicles trilogy, "Bloodfeud of Altheus":

In the days of yore, I spent many, many hours pouring over the ancient tales from Greek mythology: the trials of mighty Heracles, the battles of the Trojan War, the foibles of various mortals and deities, the general dickishness of Zeus.  One of my favorite yarns was the story of Theseus and the dreaded Minotaur, so it's not surprising that I took a shine to this series.

In the Cretan Chronicles, things went a bit differently- Theseus has been slain at the heart of the labyrinth of Minos!  It falls to his younger brother Altheus, played by you, to finish Theseus' quest and to seek vengeance for your fallen kin.

Traveling through mythic Greece, you strive to prove yourself a true Achaean hero as you face numerous challenges, mortal and otherwise.  The gamebook also rewards knowledge of Greek mythology, as a number of familiar names pop up.

The Cretan Chronicles series is perhaps the best blending of rules and setting in a gamebook.  Unlike other gamebook series, which mostly used generic rules, the Cretan Chronicles attempted to model  the feel and pathos of Greek mythology.  For example, in "Bloodfeud of Altheus," you are supposed to role-play the titular character in a suitably heroic manner.

To "encourage" such, there's the infamous Honor/Shame mechanic, where you gain Honor points for honorable actions and you also gain Shame points for (you guessed it) shameful actions.  Most notably, you were supposed to kill yourself if your Shame exceeded your Honor- and if you didn't Zeus does it for you with a thunderbolt!

Respect My Authoritah!

This gamebook is also notable for its hint mechanic.  At numerous points in the story, you have the option of performing a non-standard action.  Be wary, for if you choose to do something that No Greek Hero would do, you will be penalized!  In addition, the book's notion of what is appropriate for a Greek Hero is sometimes very arbitrary and even bizarre- a great emulation of the source material!

Another nice detail is your relationships with six different gods and goddesses.  You select a Patron deity among them, each of which has different in-game effects, and are Favored/Neutral/Disfavored by the rest, which affects your story at various points.

So, if you are a fan of Greek myths and/or Old School gaming, grab your sword, slip on your himation and read this gamebook- or die of Shame!

Movie Review: Hercules (2014)

This week, I wanted to give a shout out to an under appreciated film that's the best Sword & Sandal romp in recent years, "Hercules":

While it did reasonably well at the box office and it does have flaws, Hercules, in my humble opinion, still hasn't gotten quite the love I think it deserves.

I'm not trying to suggest that Hercules belongs in the same category as a Gladiator (2000) or a Conan the Barbarian (1982), but as a popcorn action flick, it is more than serviceable.  Based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars, our story finds Hercules (played by the Rock) after he has completed his twelve legendary labors: Banished from Athens, he sells his sword (well, club actually, which is pretty neat since that's an underrepresented heroic weapon) for coin.  Lord Cotys of Thrace offers Hercules his weight in gold and hijinks ensue.

As you might expect, director Brett Ratner is workmanlike, and the work behind the camera is competent but not particularly noteworthy.  Set and costume design are better, and I particularly like that the film's use of CGI is more limited and subtle than it might otherwise be.  The action is solid and worth the price of admission, as is the writing, which never has any eye rolling or groan worthy moments.

Even better is the cast: Of note is Ian McShane chewing scenery with relish, but I particularly liked Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock), who apparently spent 6 months training for the movie and is absolutely jacked (selling the physicality of the titular role).  Additionally, Messr Johnson's acting has come light years from The Scorpion King, to the point where Hercules' pathos is reasonably believable.


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I know that some people were disappointed by the "twist" that Hercules is a mere mortal (though, some of his onscreen feats belie that point) and his "legendary labors" were actually military missions undertaken by he and his team and then embellished by his PR guy.  However, that didn't bother me: conversely, I thought it was an interesting and refreshing take on the character.

Plus, the movie, at its core, is a classic D&D adventure: a group of adventurers meet in a tavern, face trials and tribulations, and eventually defeat the evil king.

So, if you're looking for a ripping Sword & Sandal yarn, you could do worse than this movie.  In fact, you need go no further than the other Hercules film released that summer.