Friday, July 17, 2009

Sodom and Gomorrah (1962)


Who can say no to violence, sword, sandals, half-naked men and women and mega-gigantic-mass-scenes of destruction and a cast of thousands?!

Sodom and Gomorrah was one of my strongest childhood memories. I never saw it, but I saw the cover in the video store. Directed by Sergio Leone it said - a fact not that correct (he was uncredited second unit) - and those übercool letters shaped like stone. As it should be on an biblical epic.

Stewart Granger, looking like a combination between a Las Vegas-entertainer and a TV-preacher is Lot, the good, nice and handsome Lot. His people, the hebreews, follows him everywhere. They die for him. The pour burning oil on other people for him. They watch him became decadent and they even belive that his word about how sinful it is to paint the toe-tails is true. So of course god almighty must punish them all. And he does. In a grand way.

This is a fun movie. Maybe not a good movie, but fun. And quite wellmade. Granger is very miscast and you actually feel more fo the Sodomites than the fanatic Hebreews. But what the heck. There's a fantastic big battle that combines swordfighting, burning oil, arrows and of course an enormous amount of water. Great. Violent. And a bit cheesy.

Then there's some nice torture, some praying to god, some bearded angles, some lesbianism and the ultimate destruction of Sodom - which is a very wellmade and wellexecuted event. Lot's of cool distasterscenes. People getting crushed by falling buildings. Fire coming from the ground. More people getting crushed. People stabs each other to get some gold with 'em. And a lot more.

So it's well worth buying the german release. It's good cheesy trashy fun with a budget and some cool actors (Stanley Baker... what a dude!). The print is spliced together from a very good and clear print and from a bad videomaster, so but it's very complete and it's easy to forget the change in quality. It's a good movie for the whole sleaze-family.

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