THE FURY OF ACHILLES (1962)

The Greeks are in the tenth year of their siege of Troy, the city behind impenetrable walls. With the army stalled out, the Greek leaders (Agamemnon, Ulysses, Achilles and his close friend Patroclus) take to plundering cities along the coast, and in Lyrnessus, in addition to food and supplies, they take women, among them Criseide, a maiden at a temple to Apollo, for Agamemnon, and Briseis for Achilles. The women seem at various times to be irritated or pleased with their men, though Briseis tries to stab Achillies in the back, not realizing that he is invulnerable, and her knife strikes sparks but does not penetrate his skin—the story of him having one vulnerability (famously, his heel) crops up on occasion but never really comes into play here. An oracle has let it be known that Achilles will die at Troy but not before he kills the Trojan warrior Hector, and Briseis eventually warms to him. The father of Criseide calls on Apollo for help and Apollo sends a huge storm and several days of an unknown pestilence to the Greeks. Criseide is returned but Agamemnon takes Briseis from Achilles, which causes the petulant Achilles to refuse to fight. When Hector's men attack, Patroclus dresses up in Achilles' battle garb; Hector kills him but Achilles gets his revenge, and the movie ends with Achilles still alive and handing over Hector's dead body to his father King Priam. This film, inspired by the Iliad, is basically a high-class peplum rather than a full-fledged epic. It seems to have had a decent budget for a peplum and it's almost two hours (which is definitely too long) but it's serious in its retelling of Achilles' story. There are robes and swords and sandals, and the women are done up in way too much 60s style hair and makeup, especially Cristina Gioni as Patroclus' woman. Gordon Mitchell (Achilles) certainly has the physique for a fighter (he is shirtless at times to show this off), though his face is hard and unattractive and his acting is just adequate. Jacques Bergerac, a handsome French actor better known for romantic parts (pictured at right), is better as Hector. For the record, Mario Petri is Agamemnon and Ennio Girolami is Patroclus. There are several big battle scenes but some of the swordplay is on the weak side, with swords just glancing off the bodies of soldiers as they fall to the ground, though the Achilles/Hector battle at the end is well done. Unlike some other Trojan War films, this one does feature supernatural actions of the gods, even if we only see gods onscreen very briefly. Generally, it's impressive without being exciting or engrossing. [YouTube]