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The New Peplum: Essays on Sword and Sandal Films and Television Programs Since the 1990s
Peplum or "sword-and-sandal" films--an Italian genre of the late 1950s through the 1960s--featured ancient Greek, Roman and Biblical stories with gladiators, mythological monsters and legendary quests. The new wave of historic epics, know as neo-pepla, is distinctly different, embracing new technologies and storytelling techniques to create an immersive experience unattainable in the earlier films. This collection of new essays explores the neo-peplum phenomenon through a range of topics, including comic book adaptations like Hercules, the expansion of genre boundaries in Jupiter Ascending and John Carter, depictions of Romans and slaves in Spartacus, and The Eagle and Centurion as metaphors for America's involvement in the Iraq War.
242 pages, Paperback
Published December 14, 2017
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About the author
Nicholas Diak
16 books32 followersNicholas Diak is a pop culture scholar, specializing in Italian genre cinema (particularly Eurospy films), the sword and sandal genre (esp. neo-peplum), post-industrial music, synthwave music, and H. P. Lovecraft. He has contributed essays and reviews to various academic anthologies, journals and online magazines. He is the editor of “The New Peplum: Essays on Sword and Sandal Films and Television Programs Since the 1990s” and "Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays" both from McFarland. He holds an MA from the University of Washington and is a member of the Horror Writers Association. While part of the HWA, he co-created and co-chairs the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference. His hobbies include watching films, video gaming (both retro and modern), pinup art and photography, tiki culture, cooking, cocktail making, and comic books. He lives in Orange CA with his girlfriend Michele Brittany, (also a pop culture scholar) and their two cats, Cecily and Algernon.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 26, 2019
My experience of peplum or sword-and-sandal movies was largely confined to the Italian Hercules epics of the '50's and '60's, more often than not filtered through the distorting lens of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 TV program of the '90's. Knowing the editor's interest in the Italian "B" genres, I expected his book to deal with more of the same. How wrong I was! Based on the evidence it presents, the genre has left Italy far behind. Now it ranges from Earth to distant planets, from the mythic past to the science-fictional future. It spans the full spectrum of dramatic moods, from low comedy to high tragedy, while carrying on its brawny shoulders a mountain of metaphor and meaning. And this book covers it all.
It is not all bread and circuses. This is a collection of academic papers, and as such it is not for everyone. And while it mostly manages to make itself presentable to the lay reader, it still has its occasional lapses. One paper, "Sounds of Swords and Sandals," is a bit too technical to reward reading by anyone who is not a trained musicologist. Another, "Male Nudity, Violence and the Disruption of Voyeuristic Pleasure in Starz's Spartacus," is much too evocative, to my puritanical tastes, of The 120 Days of Sodom. But these are small parts of a very large and fascinating picture.
Readers who are already familiar with the peplum genre may come away from this book with their interest renewed. Readers who know the genre less well may want to make a viewing list from the titles in its pages. As for me, I really must track down some of those Xena episodes. I can't imagine how I missed them the first time around.
It is not all bread and circuses. This is a collection of academic papers, and as such it is not for everyone. And while it mostly manages to make itself presentable to the lay reader, it still has its occasional lapses. One paper, "Sounds of Swords and Sandals," is a bit too technical to reward reading by anyone who is not a trained musicologist. Another, "Male Nudity, Violence and the Disruption of Voyeuristic Pleasure in Starz's Spartacus," is much too evocative, to my puritanical tastes, of The 120 Days of Sodom. But these are small parts of a very large and fascinating picture.
Readers who are already familiar with the peplum genre may come away from this book with their interest renewed. Readers who know the genre less well may want to make a viewing list from the titles in its pages. As for me, I really must track down some of those Xena episodes. I can't imagine how I missed them the first time around.
March 25, 2018
I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
I knew absolutely nothing about this subject, but it's now something that I'm interested to learn more about. A really fascinating critical look at sword and sandal films and tv series. I do wish that I'd actually seen more of these programs or films, as that would definitely be helpful for understanding some of these essays, but still comprehensible and interesting to read.
(Plus anything with essays about Xena is always a win :) )
I knew absolutely nothing about this subject, but it's now something that I'm interested to learn more about. A really fascinating critical look at sword and sandal films and tv series. I do wish that I'd actually seen more of these programs or films, as that would definitely be helpful for understanding some of these essays, but still comprehensible and interesting to read.
(Plus anything with essays about Xena is always a win :) )
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews