Of Muscles and Men: Essays on the Sword and Sandal Film

by Michael G. Cornelius (Editor)

Overview

Few movie genres have highlighted the male body more effectively than the "sword-and-sandal" film, where the rippling torso and the bulging muscle are displayed for all to appreciate. Carrying his phallic sword and dressed in traditional garb calculated to bring attention to his magnificent physique, the sword-and-sandal hero is capable of toppling great nations, rescuing heroines, defeating monsters, and generally saving the day. Each of these essays examines the issues of masculinity and utility addressed in the sword-and-sandal genre. The contributors offer insights on a film form which showcases its male protagonists as heroic, violent, fleshy, and, in the end, extremely useful.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786461622
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	09/06/2011
Pages:	218
Sales rank:	930,811
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michael G. Cornelius is a professor of English and director of the Master’s of Humanities program at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. He is an award-winning novelist and the author or editor of numerous scholarly works.

Table of Contents

Introduction - Of Muscles and Men: The Forms and Function of the Sword and Sandal Film Michael G. Cornelius 1

Hercules, Politics, and Movies Maria Elena D'Amelio 15

Hero Trouble: Blood, Politics, and Kinship in Pasolini's Medea Kristi M. Wilson 28

"To do or die manfully": Performing Heteronormativity in Recent Epic Films Jerry B. Pierce 40

From Maciste to Maximus and Company: The Fragmented Hero in the New Epic Andrew B. R. Elliott 58

Reverent and Irreverent Violence: In Defense of Spartacus, Conan, and Leonidas John Elia 75

"Civilization ... ancient and wicked": Historicizing the Ideological Field of 1980s Sword and Sandal Films Kevin M. Flanagan 87

Homer's Lies, Brad Pitt's Thighs: Revisiting the Pre-Oedipal Mother and the German Wartime Father in Wolfgang Petersen's Troy Robert C. Pirro 104

An Enduring Logic: Homer, Helen of Troy, and Narrative Mobility Larry T. Shillock 124

"By Jupiter's Cock!" Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Video Games, and Camp Excess David Simmons 144

Beefy Guys and Brawny Dolls: He-Man, the Masters of the Universe, and Gay Clone Culture Michael G. Cornelius 154

Developments in Peplum Filmmaking: Disney's Hercules Chris Pallant 175

Hercules Diminished? Parody, Differentiation, and Emulation in The Three Stooges Meet Hercules Daniel O'Brien 187

About the Contributors 203

Index 207