Gladiators 7 (1962)

Very best movie i ever watch

Such a frustrating disappointment

Powerful

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

One year, A.D. , Rome rules over Greece , in Sparta governs the Eforos . A gladiator named Dario ( Richard Harrison ) getting his freedom , thanks his courage in the Roman circus ; formerly his band of fellows gladiators ( Livio Lorenzon , Tony Zamperla , Joe Marco , Enrique Avila ) flee from Coliseum . Dario returns to Sparta where governs the Eforo Hiarba (Gerard Tichy ). There discovers his father has been killed by Hiarba who also wants to murder Dario and marry to Aglaia (Loredana Nusciak , Djanjo) promised to Dario and daughter of Milone . Then Hierba orders to kill Malone and accuses Dario . After that ,they save the damsel in distress , a Eforo 's daughter . Later on, Dario escapes and join forces with the Spartans, he unites his six professional gladiators to rid itself of the scourge , they are his formers Circus partners , to fight patrician ruler . Seven Spartans are faced at every turn by enemy army . Meanwhile Dario falls in love again with his former sweet-girl named Aglaia and then must rescue her from slavery and death. The gladiators attack the detachment and the fortress where is prisoned Aglaia.Peplum or ¨Sword and Sandals¨ remake of Akira Kurosawa's classic ¨The seven samurais ¨and John Sturges's ¨The magnificent seven ¨ , it's an adventure film with all the ingredients as action , suspense , comedy , amusement and typical confrontation between good guys and bad guys . The picture allows for periods of humor and calm in which to establish characters punctuated by viscerally exciting bursts of action . It packs fights , sword-play, adventures and some touches of light humor . These culminates in the spectacular climatic battle between the Spartans and the enemies with bulls included . Ample support cast with most of the actors are relative unknowns and formed by muscle-men and regular from Western and Peplum as Livio Lorenzon , Tony Zamperla, Jose Marco and Antonio Molino Rojo , among others. As comic relief appears Bernabe Barta Barry , a sympathetic secondary playing a corpulent man . Good production values with spectacular final battle full of extras , some stock-shots and nice maquettes and scale model by Emilio Ruiz Del Rio . It's shot in the area round Madid , Manzanares and Pedriza where in the 60s were filmed several movies as El Cid , and is a co-production Spanish/ Italian produced by Italo Zingarelli . Atmospheric score by Marcelo Giombini with catching musical leitmotif . The motion picture is professionally directed by Pedro Lazaga , a Spanish craftsman who directed various film with the popular Paco Martinez Soria.It's followed by other films in similar style such as the ¨The ten gladiators¨ trilogy formed by ¨I dice gladiatori(1963)by Gianfranco Parolini with Roger Browne, Jose Greci and Dan Vadis and followed by ¨Spartacus and ten gladiators¨ and the third outing titled ¨Triumph of ten gladiators or Il Trionfo Dieci Gladiators ¨ again by Nick Nostro .

If you've seen either Seven Samurai or The Magnificent Seven, the plot of Gladiators 7 should seem familiar. Gladiators 7 is the Italian/Peplum take on this winning formula. To help him avenge his father's death, Darius (Richard Harrison) rounds up six of his gladiator buddies. They train together, laugh together, and fight together with defeating a much larger and better armed force as their ultimate goal. As I said, it's not very original, but that's just part of the problem. The biggest issue I have with Gladiators 7 is with its lead, Richard Harrison. He's so unappealing that I could have cared less about what happened to him. He's dull and incredibly hard to root for. A few original twists to the plot and a different actor playing the film's main character might have made Gladiators 7 a good movie.

Pilfering it's primary conceit from "The Seven Samurai" and "The Magnificent Seven", this sword and sandals epic depicts the collection of seven varied gladiators, bonded together to help defeat an evil Spartan king. Harrison plays the son of a respected and revered Spartan citizen. When he is blamed for the escape of five gladiators, he's placed in a Roman coliseum and forced to fight for his life against a horde of Hun-like warriors. Barely escaping death, he returns to Sparta to find that his father has been killed (made to look like a suicide) and his intended bride Nusciak is about to be claimed by a whip-wielding, deceitful king. Harrison is ambushed by hired killers but manages to lick them, with the help of a little blonde helper who has revered him since childhood. The two go off to round up the five gladiators Harrison aided who, by now, have been spread about and are leading their own separate lives. One is a rowdy drunk who's good with a knife, one makes a living as a strongman and one has married into wealth as a sort of gigolo. Another lives quietly in a village with his daughter (Badeschi) and the last one has been captured and forced to fight a bull with his bare hands in the arena. Once united, they set out to expose the ruthless and evil king and reunite Harrison with his lady love. The film features some very interesting and picaresque scenery. The budget seems to have been considerable in light of some sizable crowd scenes, a few elaborate sets and a rather extravagantly staged cattle stampede at the climax. Harrison, who was fit and handsome without being overly bulky and awkward, is a likable protagonist and has an ease about him that's appealing. Nusciak is 22 years-old, but looks twice that thanks to some severe make-up and hairstyling, none of it doing her any favors. Badeschi is quite amusing, unintentionally, as she totters and tiptoes around trying to balance a mammoth hairpiece on her head and is forever lifting the hem of her dress as if it's in the way or might get dirtied as she runs from soldiers or creeps around trying to get Harrison to notice her. The gladiators of the title are a reasonably arresting bunch, but they have a grating habit (standard for these types of films, but more prominent in this one for whatever reason) of continuously laughing heartily after every event. They constantly hop onto each other or grab each other's shoulders, which would be fine except that it's always paired with this obnoxious, needless and ear-raping laughter. In any case, the film is an acceptable entry in the genre and has plenty of variety in the settings, weaponry and action.

Darius, son of of the king of Sparta is thrown into the arena for allowing five gladiators to escape. Fighting and winning a huge victory he is freed. Returning home he finds his father dead, supposedly a suicide, but really murdered by the new King. Rounding up the gladiators he helped escape he fights to get back his throne. This is a good movie. It starts and goes right to the end with no side trips. Even the romance which normally handled badly in most films of this type doesn't intrude, although it isn't really resolved either. Its the perfect rainy day film where everything simply works.