Thursday, May 26, 2011

Greek Myth of the Month: The Minotaur in movies (week 4)

Here's a quick rundown of movies, PEPLUM and non-PEPLUM ones, featuring the Minotaur. I've posted the Minotaur from Fellini's SATYRICON as the photo of the day above, so here's the rest. Even with all these films, the definitive version of the myth of Theseus's battle with the half-man, half-bull hasn't, imo, been done yet.


Bob Mathias confronts the Minotaur in what I believe is the first film to feature the mythical creature and it's called THE MINOTAUR. Clever. The Italian title translates as THESEUS AGAINST THE MINOTAUR.


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The Minotaur in one of the CHRONICLES OF NARNIA films. Not a PEPLUM.

From THE TIME BANDITS

The Minoton in SINBAD & THE EYE OF THE TIGER

From THE LAND OF THE MINOTAUR, starring Peter Cushing. This is a horror film.

The CGI Minotaur from the Direct-to-DVD production called SINBAD & THE MINOTAUR

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

One rarely mentioned Minotaur
of the movies and television.
Was the Minotaur portrayed by
6 foot 7 inch tall champion body builder and actor
David Prowse
(who also played Darth Vader in Star Wars) in the 1972 episode
of Doctor Who THE TIME MONSTER
which aired June 1972.In it Doctor Who(Jon Pertwee) goes back in time to Atlantis.Also of note is 1970's Hammer babe Ingrid Pitt as Galleia.
Unfortantely the scene in the labyrinth with the Doctor and the Minotaur appears to have been done
tonque in cheek rather then atmosphere and chills.
Kenton C.

Anonymous said...

IIUC, the one with Bob Mathias as Theseus was also shown under the title Warlord of Crete.

And, IIRC, one of the made-for-TV Hercules movies with Kevin Sorbo was Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur.