King Minos sacrifices the 'required' virgins to the Minotaur. As his wife lies dying, she confesses that her daughter has a twin she has secreted to avoid giving one of the girls to the Minotaur. The daughter raised by Minos tries to have her twin killed, but failing in her first attempt, continues to try to have her given to the Minotaur. Theseus, the Greek hero, tries to prevent it.
Rosanna Schiaffino Bob Mathias Alberto Lupo Rik Battaglia Nerio Bernardi Carlo Tamberlani Emma Baron Nico Pepe Susanne Loret Paul Müller Tiziana Casetti Alberto Plebani Tina Lattanzi Milo Malagoli Adriano Micantoni Vittorio Vaser Amedeo Trilli Andrea Scotti Vladimiro Picciafuochi Elena Zareschi Alberto Barberito Maria Maleff Vanni Materassi
Ο Ήρωας της Κρήτης, Theseus: Held von Hellas, The Minotaur: The Wild Beast of Crete, Warlord of Crete, The Minotaur, The Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete, Theseus, Held von Hellas, Teseo e o Minotauro, El monstruo de Creta, Thésée et le Minotaure, Tezeusz kontra Minotaur
Italy
USA
Italy
USA
This one has everything! Rosanna Schiaffino as twins, one innocent and lost at birth, raised in the village, the other the evil Princess who tries to hunt her down and kill her before she regains her birthright! Two brave and practically invincible heroes, one of whom is Rik Battaglia! Underwater adventure with the Queen of the Ocean! And finally, the dreaded Minotaur of the labyrinth!
It's got everything, so why is it the most fucking boring Peplum I have ever seen? A lot of blame must fall on Bob Mathias, the most leaden and uncharismatic hero I have ever seen. Battaglia was trying to save it, but he gets dispatched halfway through. The Minotaur is only in the last three…
"Thou hath chosen to be sacrificed to the divine Minotaur."
I chose to sacrifice 96 minutes of my life to The Minotaur. It was far from divine.
For starters, all the bull imagery on display at the temple of Crete (the gold statues, the wall paintings, the dude in the horned headpiece taking part in the ritual interpretive dance) can't compensate for the fact that apart from a single shot of a big, hairy claw reaching into frame at the top of the film, the title character doesn't appear until 92 minutes in -- and it's vanquished a mere three minutes later. Furthermore, when it does show up it's a huge, hairy, lumbering thing with a mechanical face that makes it look about as threatening as one of Maurice Sendak's Wild Things. Finally, the film's Theseus, gold medalist Bob Mathias, may have been an Olympian, but he's no thespian. And that's no bull. Thank you!
These old sword and sandal movies are always so comforting to me. Feeling like something my dad would have on while snoring on the couch after mowing the lawn some Sunday afternoon in my childhood. Boring but extremely relaxing. I dub thee: Melatonin Movies
I did, however, stay awake the entire runtime of The Minotaur and was fully captivated by its deceitful twin storyline. Amazing set pieces and another terrifying creature design by practical effects master Carlo Rambaldi. It’ll certainly put most to sleep, but I was in the zone.
A surprising lack of Minotaurs in the motion picture event called… The Minotaur!!
You know there were at least three separate occasions where the Italian director said to the women in this movie “But they didn’t HAVE bras back then.”
A lonely Minotaur in a labyrinth is mistaken for a god to whom virgin sacrifices must be made. A mother on her deathbed with a secret. A hidden twin daughter, given away to peasants so as to avoid her inevitable doom as a sacrifice herself. A jealous heir to the throne, Phaedra, orders her twin to be killed. An assassin who fails at his task. Bandits who kill everyone except twin sister Ariadne. Heroes Theseus and Demetrius stepping in to save the day. Theseus falling in love with Ariadne. Swords. Sandals. A rollicking good time.
Minotaur enthusiasts may be disappointed as the object of their interest doesn’t show up until the end of the movie and then only for a couple of minutes. It also looks less like a minotaur and more like a man in an intellectually stunted adolescent bigfoot suit.
A retelling of the Greco-Roman myth of the Minotaur. Theseus romances the princess Ariadne, while the princess's jealous sister plots to kill her. After a series of events Theseus ends up in a labyrinth facing the dreaded minotaur.
As a whole the film was pretty entertaining. It didn't fall into the usual trope of peplum films where people lay/sit around and talk endlessly. There was plenty of action throughout. The scenes with The Minotaur, though brief, were actually pretty impressive. The creature effects/costume was kind of menacing surprisingly (in that goofy Italian monster kind of way), and seemed like a threat to the characters. I thought its lack of appearance was due to a lack of decent effects, but that…
This Italian-made retelling of the myth of Theseus and Ariadne is a fun and exciting entry in the peplum film genre. The sets and costumes are lavish and creative, and director Silvio Amadio always has a lot of background activity going on to augment his depiction of the civilization of Minoan Crete. The battle scenes, featuring hundreds if not thousands of extras, are quite impressive for their time, and there's even an underwater scene! Italian beauties abound, including the statuesque Rosina Schiaffino playing twin princesses. Probably the best known actor in the cast, Rik Battaglia, is relegated to a sidekick role here, and while on screen he pretty much steals the show from the blander Theseus, played by two-time Olympic…
Goofball sword-and-sandal film. It's one of these films were it shows the Title Character at the last 5 minutes of the film and ends abruptly. And there are some fun battle scenes and sword fights but it feels like three hundred hours when it's only a 90-minute movie.
Mostly boring Peplum film, I found some of the dialogue quite funny but also irritating, because ancient Greeks definitely spoke in king james, probably not the case in the original Italian, but I just put this on on prime so it was dubbed. And the Minotaur effects get a 1/10, there’s a reason you don’t get to see it till the end
Demetrius: This is my best friend, Theseus, who is my very best friend. We bathe in the river together and exercise and he’s begged me to not go home to Crete. He’s said he’ll do anything to stay by my side.
Historians: And they were roommates!
