The Colossus of Rhodes

1961

2h 9m

Adventure

History

Drama

List

56%

Tomatometer

9 Reviews

30%

Audience Score

500+ Ratings

When soldier Darios (Rory Calhoun) arrives in Rhodes, King Serse (Roberto Camardiel) has commissioned a larger-than-life statue of Apollo meant to protect the harbor. Darios immediately falls for a young maiden, Diala (Léa Massari), who is the daughter of the statue's maker. In aligning himself with Diala, Darios also becomes involved with Peliocles (Georges Marchal) and his rebels, who seek to overthrow the tyrannical king. As the revolt gets underway, so does an earthquake.

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Maxine Dowling

New York Daily News

In spite of beautiful settings, the picture has little excitement and the romance is unromantic.

Rated: 2/4

Sep 22, 2021

Full Review

Time Out

It was a film remarkable enough, at a time when the peplums had just about reached the end of their particular line, to warrant good notices for its crowd and spectacle scenes.

Jun 24, 2006

Full Review

Howard Thompson

New York Times

What a place! For that matter, what a picture!

Rated: 3/5

Jun 15, 2005

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

A costume epic well-served by Leone's previous experience with the genre.

Rated: 3/4

Aug 10, 2021

Full Review

Tim Brayton

Antagony & Ecstasy

It's not that any of this is specifically and irredeemably bad. It's just that none of it is very much good.

Rated: 5/10

Aug 13, 2011

Full Review

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

...Leone's first credited film as a director, and it shows clearly the course he was charting as a filmmaker.

Rated: 5/10

Jun 21, 2007

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Blu B

It's disappointing how middle of the road this is considering the director. The only real good thing is the second half is better with more action, better pacing, and more things happen resembling a story. There is big production value behind this also with quite a bit of epic wide shots with massive scale and scope. The story is interesting also. The problem is somehow everything is just ok. The acting isn't anything special, even the main guy Dario just sort of blends in with everyone else. No one really sticks out in this. Second, it feels like things just sort of happen leading up to the rebellion and fall of the city and none of it is really heavily character driven. This is arguably the bieest issue that this needed more development of it's characters. The story is ok enough but there is no human touch to it. This leads to a very uneven pacing especially in the first half as it feels it just meanders along without really any focus at times until the second when it gets more focused. Even than though certain shots can go on way too long as sometimes this falls victim to the common trap of epics of self indulging in it's own excess to much. I can't really recommend this to anyone because it doesn't have any of Leone's hallmarks despite being a epic. Skip This.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

12/04/23

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s r

So bad I turned it off.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

ashley h

The Colossus of Rhodes is an amazing film. It is about Athenian war hero Darios who becomes involved in two different plots to overthrow the tyrannical king while on holiday in Rhodes. Rory Calhoun and Lea Massari give incredible performances. The screenplay is well written. Sergio Leone did a great job directing this movie. I enjoyed watching this motion picture because of the adventure and drama. The Colossus of Rhodes is a must see.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Sergio Leone is one of m all-time favorite directors and I'd actually never seen his first film, which I'd always read was nothing special and this sword-and-sandal epic lived up to that reputation. There are glimpses of the great filmmaker Leone would become with his next film "A Fistful of Dollars" with some nicely framed shots and some well staged action sequences, but this film is missing the elegance of his later films and also some of his more outlandish camera movements and zooms. Overall, it's a pretty standard sword-and-sandal flick that's only slightly better than average.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

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Audience Member

one of the better Italian sword n sandal epic

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The Sergio Leone movie you've never seen. As a Peplum, its one of the better in the genre. Compared to "real" movies it's very average and not very memorable. Despite being directed by Leone there's only a few scenes where I recognized his style. An attempted poisoning early on at a party feels a little like a Western shootout, and there's a chase scene at night with people on horses, like Fistful of Dollars. A few other scattered moments, but that's it. Compared to other Peplum movies this one has no magic or fantasy qualities. MST3K fans won't have much to riff on. Although there are a plethora of secret passageways, weird torture methods, and moving gears and pulleys inside the colossus to keep you giggling. There's a scene where the colossus shoots spaghetti sauce out of his head, which turns into corrosive powder, which is also used to torture people (?). Very little humor in this one besides that - for the most part it tries to be a serious historical drama film like Ben-Hur or Spartacus. The characters are pretty thin and one-dimensional. I suppose Darios has a bit of a character arc because he learns to "take risks" by the end of the movie. However, the set design and battles in this movie are very well done. The massive colosseum fight at the end and then the final battle at the colossus with the earthquakes was the best part of the movie, although it was mindless action. Certainly not a low-budget movie. Overall, this movie feels like a made-for-TV movie: very watchable, but not very memorable. Also note that I saw the complete 143 version in Italian.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

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Sergio Leone

Director

Rory Calhoun

Darios

Lea Massari

Diala

Georges Marchal

Peliocles

Conrado San Martín

Thar

Ángel Aranda

Koros

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Synopsis

When soldier Darios (Rory Calhoun) arrives in Rhodes, King Serse (Roberto Camardiel) has commissioned a larger-than-life statue of Apollo meant to protect the harbor. Darios immediately falls for a young maiden, Diala (Léa Massari), who is the daughter of the statue's maker. In aligning himself with Diala, Darios also becomes involved with Peliocles (Georges Marchal) and his rebels, who seek to overthrow the tyrannical king. As the revolt gets underway, so does an earthquake.

Director: Sergio Leone
Production Co: Procusa
Genre: Adventure, History, Drama
Original Language: Italian
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 1, 2012
Runtime: 2h 9m

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