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When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk University of Southampton Faculty of Humanities Film Heroic Masculinities: Evolution and Hybridisation in the Peplum Genre by Daniel O’Brien Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2012 1 2 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES FILM Doctor of Philosophy HEROIC MASCULINITIES: EVOLUTION AND HYBRIDISATION IN THE PEPLUM GENRE by Daniel Patrick O’Brien My area of research is the peplum, a cycle of mythological action films produced in Italy from 1957 to 1965, and its influence on both contemporaneous and subsequent filmic depictions of mythical heroes. I argue that this genre is a significant cinematic form which has been marginalised in the fields of film and cultural studies. My thesis reassesses the peplum in terms of its representations of heroic masculinity and the ways in which these relate to wider debates on masculinity. Critics such as Richard Whitehall (1963), Gianni Rondolino (1979) and Richard Dyer (1996, 1997) have noted that the cycle began with Le fatiche di Ercole (Hercules, Pietro Francisci, 1958), which established the peplum ground rules. Taking this film as my starting point, I trace the evolution of the genre through a series of case studies, including Romolo e Remo (Duel of the Titans, Sergio Corbucci, 1961), which offers contrasting forms of heroic masculinity, and counter representations of Herculean masculinity in Jason and the Argonauts (Don Chaffey, 1963), an American production made partly in response to the success of the peplum, and Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide (Hercules Conquers Atlantis, Vittorio Cottafavi, 1961). I also discuss later reconfigurations of the peplum hero in the American-financed Conan the Barbarian (John Milius, 1982) and 300 (Zack Snyder, 2007), which draw on the iconography and aesthetics of the peplum to markedly different effect. Previous peplum scholarship has characterised the genre as endorsing the value of white male physical strength in the context of a reactionary patriarchal status quo. I argue that the depiction of masculinity in these films is more varied, problematic and contradictory than this over-generalised reading would suggest. It is my contention that the peplum’s diverse representations of masculinity offer a notable contribution to ongoing debates on maleness as centred on and expressed by the body—within film studies, academia and the wider culture—that has been largely unexplored and unappreciated. My re-evaluation of the peplum also underlines the cultural value of Italian and indeed European genre cinema, fields still overshadowed in film studies by the dominant Hollywood models. 3 4 Contents Chapter One - Introduction p.11 Chapter Two - Fragmented Masculinity: Deconstruction and Reconstruction in Hercules and Duel of the Titans p.51 Chapter Three - Hercules Diminished: Emulation, Differentiation and Inversion in Jason and the Argonauts p.103 Chapter Four - Ercole e la dolce vita: Domestic Comfort and Foreign Threat in Hercules Conquers Atlantis p.141 Chapter Five - ‘Crush your enemies!’ Post-peplum representations of heroic masculinity in Conan the Barbarian p.193 Chapter Six - The Mighty Sons of Hercules: Heroic Masculinity and the Spartan Warrior in 300 p.229 Conclusion p.255 Bibliography p.269 Filmography p.295 5 6 Declaration Of Authorship I, Daniel Patrick O’Brien, declare that this thesis entitled Heroic Masculinities: Evolution and Hybridisation in the Peplum Genre and the work presented in it are my own and has been generated by me as the result of my own original research. I confirm that: 1. This work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University; 2. Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated; 3. Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed; 4. Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work; 5. I have acknowledged all main sources of help; 6. Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself; 7. Parts of this work have been published as: Material from Chapters Two and Five is referenced in ‘Peplum’, Directory of World Cinema: Italy, ed. Louis Bayman (Bristol and Chicago: Intellect, 2011) pp.176-199 Material from Chapter Two appears in a different form in ‘Hercules Diminished? Parody, Differentiation, and Emulation in The Three Stooges Meet Hercules’, Of Muscles and Men. Essays on the Sword & Sandal Film, ed. Michael G. Cornelius (Jefferson, North Carolina and London: McFarland, 2011) pp.187-202 Sections from Chapter Two appear in abridged from in ‘Hercules versus Hercules: Variation and Continuation in Two Generations of Heroic Masculinity’, Popular Italian Cinema, ed. Sergio Rigoletto and Louis Bayman (Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) [forthcoming title; page references unknown] Signed: Date: 7 8 Acknowledgements I wish to thank my supervisor, Professor Tim Bergfelder and adviser, Doctor Michael Williams for their guidance and patience. Thanks also to my fellow PhD students Dan Hickin, Cecile Renaud, Matt Nichols, Aramchan Lee, Sherry Xu, Chris Penfold, Victoria Kearley, Elena Caoduro and Beth Carroll for their insightful comments on my work at various stages of its long gestation. My fellow UKC veteran Gary Kramer cast a non-academic yet expert eye over the opening section. Special thanks to Claudia Sandberg for invaluable feedback on two drafts of my introductory chapter. My gratitude to my parents for their support and understanding. 9 10 Chapter One Introduction In A Short History of the Movies, first published in 1971, US scholar Gerald Mast argued that American investment in the Italian film industry had stimulated not only ‘art cinema’ but also ‘the cheap, trash films’.1 For Mast, a prime example of the latter was the peplum,2 a series of mythological action films produced in Italy from 1957 to 1965. He argued that the peplum represented an abandonment of qualities associated with early post-World War II Italian cinema—in terms of ideas, social comment, realistic observation and poetic imagery—pandering instead to mainstream film conventions and practices.3 In both form and content, the peplum revealed nothing of interest about the era of its production and reception, nor had it anything to offer subsequent debates in film and cultural studies. Mast’s views were perhaps not representative of 1970s English-language academic discourse on the peplum, but the absence of counter debates or debates of any kind during this period reflects a dismissive attitude towards this genre that has altered only gradually.4 In my estimation the peplum is a significant cinematic form which has influenced both contemporaneous and subsequent US filmic depictions of mythical heroes. My thesis reassesses the genre in terms of its representations of heroic masculinity and the ways in which these relate to wider debates on masculinity. I will develop and challenge previous peplum scholarship and demonstrate how aspects of this genre have been over-generalised or neglected and, moreover, why it remains important fifty years on despite its marginalisation in academic discourses. Limited conceptions of peplum masculinity have contributed to the genre’s negligible standing in film studies and restricted its engagement 1 Mast, A Short History of the Movies. Second Edition (Indianapolis and New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1976) p.364 2 Mast uses the term ‘“spectacle” films’, appearing to question even this attribute (Mast, 1976, p.364) 3 Mast, 1976, p.365 4 As recently as 2011, US academic Frank Burke argued that the peplum has still not attracted much scholarly attention , an assessment I would class as only a slight exaggeration (Burke, ‘The Italian Sword-and-Sandal Film From Fabiola (1949) to Hercules and The Captive Women (1961): Texts and Contexts’, Popular Italian Cinema. Culture and Politics in a Postwar Society, ed. Flavia Brizio-Skov (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2011, pp.17-51) p.17). 11 with and relevance to multidisciplinary studies of masculinity. It is my contention that the peplum’s diverse representations of masculinity offer a notable contribution to ongoing debates on maleness as centred on and expressed by the body—within film studies, academia and the wider culture—that has been largely unexplored and unappreciated. My re-evaluation of the peplum also underlines the cultural value of Italian and indeed European genre cinema, fields still overshadowed in film studies by the dominant Hollywood models. The peplum in the late 1950s spearheaded the resurgence of Italian popular cinema in the international market, achieving a level of exposure and commercial success not experienced since the silent era. According to contemporary accounts the most successful film at the British box-office in 1960 was Ercole e la regina di Lidia (Hercules Unchained, Pietro Francisci, 1959),5 an unprecedented achievement for a dubbed low-budget import.6 The pepla were structured around the bodies of their leading men, cast as heroes from Greco-Roman legend or ancient history.