There's no question that PEPLUM movies, from Hollywood or Italy, had a lot of beefcake and cheesecake. But the emphasis was centered on men and their bodies, which is why so many bodybuilders and physique models where cast in leading roles. The success of HERCULES (1958) confirmed this. In a subtle, or not so subtle way, not only were these movies focused on muscular bodies and quickly became a selling point but the characters within the movies also enjoyed the muscle. This page will spotlight these moments.
Reminder: I didn't create these scenes. They are there to be seen in the movies themselves. And I've already written posts on this for specific movies (such as SANDOKAN - PIRATE OF MALAYSIA) already, which I'll repost here. It's not a new topic for the blog.
For example, CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) made a point of this in the scene below, which I wrote about 13 years ago: the friendly Priest (Jack Taylor) takes an admiring look at chest/body of Conan (Arnold). The pretext was to verify if Conan had any tattoos of the cult but its played more on a lascivious level.
Priest: Afraid to bare yourself? Why? You're so big and so well grown. You should be proud of your body. How do you expect to reach emptiness without knowing your own body
The scene toyed with the mainly male crowd's innate distrust of any other man attracted by the obvious physical beauty of men. But it's a statement on how the filmmakers perceived old PEPLUM movies: a pretext to ogle attractive men's physiques, which the director, John Milius, clearly stated he was against while filming the movie. Milius failed spectacularly since people went to watch the movie to check out Arnold's 'impressive' sculptured body. This scene was uploaded to Youtube (oops...video was removed) and the comments prove this point. The Priest is killed by Conan (he is a barbarian after all) for admiring Conan's body all the while the mainly male audience in theatres are safe as they admire Arnold's physique.
Priest: Afraid to bare yourself? Why? You're so big and so well grown. You should be proud of your body. How do you expect to reach emptiness without knowing your own body
The scene toyed with the mainly male crowd's innate distrust of any other man attracted by the obvious physical beauty of men. But it's a statement on how the filmmakers perceived old PEPLUM movies: a pretext to ogle attractive men's physiques, which the director, John Milius, clearly stated he was against while filming the movie. Milius failed spectacularly since people went to watch the movie to check out Arnold's 'impressive' sculptured body. This scene was uploaded to Youtube (oops...video was removed) and the comments prove this point. The Priest is killed by Conan (he is a barbarian after all) for admiring Conan's body all the while the mainly male audience in theatres are safe as they admire Arnold's physique.
The perception of PEPLUM movies from Hollywood was made fun of for years, certainly after the hilarious AIRPLANE (1980) scene in which the pilot (Peter Graves) asks a kid if he loves gladiator movies. The obvious subtext was anyone who watches these movies is sus.
Fortunately, the stigma, even it's still there to a certain extent, was dismissed gradually after the huge success of GLADIATOR (2000) and certainly 300 (2006) and the SPARTACUS TV series, which all unabashedly displayed male physiques.
There are many such 'lascivious look' scenes in PEPLUM movies, no matter how brief they are. They're like Rorschach tests: how a person perceives a scene. Many won't see it. But to others, like me, they are quite obvious.
Fortunately, the stigma, even it's still there to a certain extent, was dismissed gradually after the huge success of GLADIATOR (2000) and certainly 300 (2006) and the SPARTACUS TV series, which all unabashedly displayed male physiques.
There are many such 'lascivious look' scenes in PEPLUM movies, no matter how brief they are. They're like Rorschach tests: how a person perceives a scene. Many won't see it. But to others, like me, they are quite obvious.
The correct word to describe this subject would be 'homoerotic' since most of the attention our beefy Heroes get are from other men even if some of this attention also came from women as well, certainly with love-starved evil Queens and rulers (which I'll be including), but it doesn't compare. I won't use that word because I find it silly.
This is an on-going article and I'll be updating it from time to time at its permanent page: link.
This is a companion piece with THE REAL PEPLUM X and WARDROBE MALFUNCTIONS.
1 comment:
The lascivious look of the camera was beyond my awareness as a boy when enjoying classic peplums on TV, but as an adult those long lingering close-up shots over the muscular body of the hero during feats of strength now seem to be rather overindulgent and awkward/embarrassing.
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