Alan
Steel / Ed Fury / Mark Forest
During
the late fifties and early sixties a cinematic genre was established
through the genius of casting real life bodybuilders in the
roles of figures from Greco Roman mythology. The most famous
of all these bodybuilders was Steve
Reeves whose first excursion into the realm of Zeus made
him an an international star. The film was Le Fatiche
di Ercole (1958). When it was released stateside
as Hercules, the film caused a sensation at the box-office
and the peplum or sword
and sandal films became vogue. From this point on nearly
two hundred films would follow the formula established in Hercules.
Beefcake
Babylon is a collection
of original movie posters and memorabilia from many of these
films, photographs and stills of the men who played Hercules
during the height of sword and sandal craze, and rare “classic
physique” photographs of these musclemen at their
peak as professional bodybuilders.
Beefcake
Babylon
surveys the evolution of the "peplum" film beginning
with rare images from Cecil B. De Mille's pre-code
classic, The Sign of the Cross (1932)
which takes place in the Rome of Nero. In between there is Mario
Bava's psychedelic masterpiece, Hercules in
a Haunted World (1961) and the camp classic The
Crimson Executioner (1965), which straddles a
fine line between horror and peplum. We return to Nero and conclude
with the ultimate Italian peplum, Federico Fellini's own fragmented
nightmare of pre-Christian Rome, Satyricon
(1969).
Steve
Reeves / Mickey Hargitay / Dave Draper
Drkrm.Gallery
invites you to explore these cinematic worlds
of ancient mythology where images of buff, powerful
men in loincloths
deftly hurling foam boulders at three-headed dragons while challenging
demons to the very gates of Hades for their honor, have captured
our imagination. We have chosen these images for their eroticism
and beauty from the most noteworthy films which deserve reappraisal
in this overlooked genre.
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