Reviews

I recently saw this movie again on cable - it is a wonderful mixture of period romantic adventure with examples of great comedia del'arte and... especially... the best fencing scenes ever put on film. Both Stewart Granger and Mel Ferrer were excellent swordsmen and their final confrontation is a brilliant tour de force. Watch it just for this sequence - remember it was made in 1953 and is still highly enjoyable.

No arresting story, so no emotional impact. I sat there, alongside silent fans who desperately wanted the film to work, uninvolved, appalled at the amateurish script and acting (like a bad school play), the garish sets and the plagiarized scenes (the chariot race from "Ben Hur" and the grand march from "Cleopatra"). George Lucas, who wrote, produced and directed this, proved that he is not very good at any of these jobs. What has happened to filmed entertainment?