Gladiators 7 (1962)

If you've seen either Seven Samurai or The Magnificent Seven, the plot of Gladiators 7 should seem familiar. Gladiators 7 is the Italian/Peplum take on this winning formula. To help him avenge his father's death, Darius (Richard Harrison) rounds up six of his gladiator buddies. They train together, laugh together, and fight together with defeating a much larger and better armed force as their ultimate goal. As I said, it's not very original, but that's just part of the problem. The biggest issue I have with Gladiators 7 is with its lead, Richard Harrison. He's so unappealing that I could have cared less about what happened to him. He's dull and incredibly hard to root for. A few original twists to the plot and a different actor playing the film's main character might have made Gladiators 7 a good movie.

Although only a few days have elapsed since I've watched this one, I've already forgotten practically everything about it – as my memories of the film seem to have melted into all the other peplums I've been watching of late! Obviously, from the title one can gather that it's basically a transposition of the SEVEN SAMURAI (1954)/THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960) plot to the Roman Empire – and the rating suggests that I found it to be a middle-of-the-road peplum, not very good perhaps but not especially bad either. Richard Harrison is the lead here and, while he may not have much range as an actor, at least he's not as wooden as Dan Vadis; as a matter of fact, over the last week, I've watched two films – and both, incidentally, turned out to be more or less of the same quality – by either of these Euro-stars. I do recall, however, that the print utilized for the DVD transfer of GLADIATORS SEVEN was perhaps the best of all the English-dubbed peplums I rented and, surprisingly enough, it was presented in the correct aspect ratio (unlike the majority of the titles, which were available only in horrendous pan-and-scan editions).

I wasn't that interested in the "gladiator" genre but recently bought a DVD compilation - how could I go wrong with four movies for $4.99! The first movie was bad, the second better and finally the last, Gladiators Seven, turned out to be quite interesting. It benefited from what was clearly the highest budget featuring multiple scenic locations in great color. The title, while descriptive of the plot, also seems to be derivative of the Seven Samurai and The Magnificant Seven. A freed gladiator (Richard Harrison) returns to Sparta to find his father killed and his girlfriend (Loredana Nusciak) in the hands of the evil and lustful ruler (Jose Marco Devo). The gladiator gathers six collegues to take on the ruler's army. The scenes of him gathering the gladiators one by one will clearly remind you of the previous movies. Richard Harrison is not an expressive actor and his performance here remains wooden. However, from an opening arena battle onwards, he is good in most of the action sequences. However the other gladiators are all colorful characters and overshadow Harrison's acting in all the scenes. Even with dubbed dialog they convey individuality. There is a stong under current of humor and they often dispatch their enemies in a humorous manner. The movie is fast paced and speeds by effortlessly. All in all a very pleasant surprise.

The fighting in this movie looks like cowboys shooting Indians which means every cowboy or American military shoots ten Indians before he is shot. A part from this, the sword-fighting is impressive, those Spartans are real acrobats. The story is a little bit "have seen" but this movie is still worth watching it. The costumes are correct as ought to be for Greeks soldiers and the love-scenes are just as they should be with the ever-presence of beautiful women. But you wonder how even the best gladiators can match a complete army.