The Colossus of Rhodes (film)

The Colossus of Rhodes (Italian: Il Colosso di Rodi) is a 1961 Italian sword and sandal film co-written and directed by Sergio Leone. Starring Rory Calhoun, it is a fictional account of the island of Rhodes during its classical period in the late third century BCE before coming under Roman control, using the Colossus of Rhodes as a backdrop for the story of a war hero who becomes involved in two different plots to overthrow a tyrannical king: one by Rhodian patriots and the other by Phoenician agents.

The film was Leone's first work as a credited director, in a genre where he already had worked before (as the replacement director for The Last Days of Pompeii and as a secondary director for both Ben-Hur and Quo Vadis). It is perhaps the least known of the seven films he officially directed, and is the only one without an Ennio Morricone score.

The film is set during the time following Alexander the Great’s death (323 BC) but before the rise of the Roman empire (27 BC), known as the Hellenistic era. Most sword-and-sandal epics of the 1950s and 1960s were set in either classical Greece or even earlier (Hercules, Ulysses, The Giant of Marathon) or the later Roman period (Ben Hur, The Magnificent Gladiator, Quo Vadis). The only other films made during the peplum era to use a Hellenistic setting are Hannibal (1959), Revak the Rebel and Siege of Syracuse (both 1960).

Plot
A Greek military hero named Darios visits his uncle Lissipu on the island of Rhodes in the year 280 BC. Rhodes has just finished constructing an enormous colossal statue of the god Apollo to guard its harbor and is planning an alliance with Phoenicia, which would be hostile to Greece.

Darios flirts with the beautiful Diala, daughter of the statue's mastermind, Carete, while becoming involved with a group of rebels headed by Peliocles. These rebels seek to overthrow Rhodes' tyrannical king Serse, but so does Serse's evil second-in-command, Thar. He has Phoenician soldiers smuggled into Rhodes as slaves, and his men occupy the Colossus to secure safe entrance for the Phoenician fleet.

The rebels learn of this plan and decide to apply to the Greeks for help; Darios, who is forbidden to leave Rhodes as he is suspected a spy, is to serve as an unwitting message carrier. But as they try to exit the harbor under the cover of night, they are foiled by the Colossus's defensive weaponry and arrested. Darios is convicted as a fellow conspirator. However, just before the captives are to be executed, the rest of the rebels break them out.

In their hideout, Peliocles decides that the only way to stop the invasion is to control the Colossus and free their fellow rebels who have already been captured and sentenced to work as slaves beneath the Colossus; the release mechanism for the dungeons is located in the statue itself. Darios realizes that without reconnaissance the mission is doomed to fail and tries to enlist Diala's aid. He tells her about the rebels' hideout. Diala, who longs for power, betrays Darios and has Thar have the rebels nearly wiped out – with the exceptions of Mirte and Koros, Peliocles' sister and brother, who have hidden.

Peliocles and his men are captured and forced to provide amusement in the local arena; but just when Darios arrives to publicly expose the traitor's plot, Thar executes his coup and kills Serse and his retainers. The rebels immediately set out to carry out their plan, but the rebellion seems doomed to fail: Darios is captured while he tries to work the release mechanism to the dungeons, and Koros, who accompanies him, is killed. An all-out assault of the rebels on the Colossus is foiled by its formidable arsenal, which forces them to retreat into the city. Thar's soldiers kill Diala's father, who does not want to see his life's work abused.

An earthquake and a violent storm hit the island just as the enemy fleet is visible on the horizon. Thar and his men flee the Colossus when a tremor shakes the structure violently, only to be slain by the rebels in the city streets. Diala, plagued with remorse, frees Darios but is killed by falling debris. As the quake continues, the Colossus topples over and crashes into the harbor bay.

After the fury of nature has passed, Darios and Mirte meet Lissipu outside the ruined city. Lissipu remarks that Darios is now free to leave, but his nephew announces that he will marry Mirte and stay in Rhodes to help make the island peaceful again.

Cast

 * Rory Calhoun – Darios
 * Lea Massari – Diala
 * Georges Marchal – Peliocles
 * Conrado San Martín – Thar
 * Ángel Aranda – Koros
 * Mabel Karr – Mirte
 * Mimmo Palmara – Ares
 * Roberto Camardiel – King Serse
 * Alfio Caltabiano – Creonte
 * George Rigaud – Lissipu
 * Félix Fernández - Carete

Production
The film was originally meant to star John Derek. However he clashed with Sergio Leone and was replaced by Rory Calhoun. Derek was fired in June 1960. This resulted in a legal case.

Leone filmed exterior scenes at the Laredo harbour, Cantabria, the Bay of Biscay, the Manzanares el Real and Ciudad Encantada at Cuenca.

Reception
According to MGM records the movie made a profit of $350,000, and reviews at the time praised the visuals. Overall, however, its reviews tend to range from average to bad - in particular it is faulted for its story, acting, and length.

Retrospective reviews generally describe it as typical for its genre and lacking the distinctive qualities of Leone's later movies. Reviews of the Colossus itself as a setpiece are mixed, with some describing it as genuinely impressive and others as cheesy or overused.

Depiction of the Colossus
Although no physical references of the original Helios Colossus are known to exist, the structure is rendered in this film as being an Etruscan image of the god Apollo following the kouros style of sculpture, with a slight “archaic smile.” It is about 300 feet high (nearly three times the height of its historical counterpart) and holds a bowl at chest level with elbows raised outward, straddling the harbor entrance. It is also revealed to be a hollow metal sculpture, much on the same order as the Statue of Liberty, with an interior spiral staircase leading to a second set of stairs at the head of the statue; a chain system that runs practically the height of the statue, which controls sliding doors to a dungeon; permanent openings at the pupils of the eyes and the ears, large enough for a man to pass through; a drawbridge-style door hidden in the center chest that opens to the bowl, which can be filled with burning materials, used as an altar, and dumped on anything beneath by means of a divided trap door on its bottom; and a dodecagonal opening that allows for catapults to fire out of the top third of the statue's head.

While the statue in the film is made of iron and burnished brass (or perhaps bronze) and barefoot, barechested and bareheaded, wearing only a short men's Greek-style skirt and a headband, the original poster depicts the statue as highly polished bronze, completely outfitted with full panoply, including an attic helmet.