After his successful outing in historical adventure flick AVENGER OF THE SEVEN SEAS, Richard Harrison appeared in this, his first bona fide peplum epic. He must have enjoyed the success of this film, because he returned for two more pepla with director Alberto De Martino, MEDUSA AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES and GIANTS OF ROME. I'm quickly growing to learn that these two guys were among the best in their field when it came to film-making. Harrison is a youthful, courageous hero, athletic and powerful in the many action scenes, and always convincing as the rebel gladiator. De Martino really seems to know his work as director and he handles the proceedings with aplomb, bringing many moments of style. Watch out for the bit near the end where he hides one character's identity by pointing the camera at their legs as they escape from prison, kill a guard, let the other prisoners out... more of a 'who is it?' than a 'whodunit?' and a cut above the third-rate hacks who would later churn out these muscleman outings.
The plot starts off on an unusual footing, offering up a FULL twenty-minute fight scene as various gladiators duke it out in the arena! Packed with brutal death, great weapons and armour, and enough extras to resemble a crowd, this is as much as you could want from a gladiator flick. Clearly, De Martino had a bigger budget than most and it really shows. Harrison soon rises from the ranks and becomes a soldier, which leads to a gratuitous pitched battle between mounted bandits and the Romans, which looks like it was shot in the mountains in Spain. More good work here, although those arrows the Romans fire do look a little dodgy... anyhow, our hero soon realises he's on the wrong side and joins forces with the rebels, which is where the film becomes more predictable for the latter half.
You know, seen-it-all-before type stuff, with red-hot irons, a pretty blonde princess locked in a prison cell, an utterly evil ruler, and more lurking gladiators and soldiers than you can shake a stick at. Still, there's stuff here worth looking out for, including a great supporting character who trains the gladiators (the bald guy who gets the best line at the end), the aforementioned unusual camera-work, a fighter who looks like Tong Po from KICKBOXER, a nice pole fight to top things off and a good, tragic subplot involving Harrison's gladiator buddy, played by Livio Lorenzon. I didn't really care for Luisella Boni as the icy love interest, but the rest of the cast are fine, especially Leo Anchoriz's dastardly villain who reminded me of the traitor guy in 300. THE INVINCIBLE GLADIATOR is a decent enough genre effort, not too dissimilar from all the rest, but well made and entertaining throughout.
The plot starts off on an unusual footing, offering up a FULL twenty-minute fight scene as various gladiators duke it out in the arena! Packed with brutal death, great weapons and armour, and enough extras to resemble a crowd, this is as much as you could want from a gladiator flick. Clearly, De Martino had a bigger budget than most and it really shows. Harrison soon rises from the ranks and becomes a soldier, which leads to a gratuitous pitched battle between mounted bandits and the Romans, which looks like it was shot in the mountains in Spain. More good work here, although those arrows the Romans fire do look a little dodgy... anyhow, our hero soon realises he's on the wrong side and joins forces with the rebels, which is where the film becomes more predictable for the latter half.
You know, seen-it-all-before type stuff, with red-hot irons, a pretty blonde princess locked in a prison cell, an utterly evil ruler, and more lurking gladiators and soldiers than you can shake a stick at. Still, there's stuff here worth looking out for, including a great supporting character who trains the gladiators (the bald guy who gets the best line at the end), the aforementioned unusual camera-work, a fighter who looks like Tong Po from KICKBOXER, a nice pole fight to top things off and a good, tragic subplot involving Harrison's gladiator buddy, played by Livio Lorenzon. I didn't really care for Luisella Boni as the icy love interest, but the rest of the cast are fine, especially Leo Anchoriz's dastardly villain who reminded me of the traitor guy in 300. THE INVINCIBLE GLADIATOR is a decent enough genre effort, not too dissimilar from all the rest, but well made and entertaining throughout.