The Macho Movie Review: Hero Of Rome

Heroofrome
Ladies and Gentlemen; it’s my great pleasure to present our review of Hero Of Rome!

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Over the next 50 weeks, we will be discussing Macho Movies. We are currently digging through the Warriors Movie Pack made available through Mill Creek Entertainment. You can find the set for about 20-30 USD. We encourage all interested to buy the pack, and/or download the films that are public domain.

On todays show we review Hero Of Rome, then discuss our second mailbag question from BRDANZIG! Highlights from Hero Of Rome Include: Tree Throwing, Hand Burning and the Iron Fist!

For those of you following along with us in the series, please share your thoughts in the comments section!

Hydra8-1

Wintle, Plante & Nagy deem this film 8 Hydra heads out of 9!

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7 thoughts on “The Macho Movie Review: Hero Of Rome

  1. Oh I just like doing it because I am obsessed with ancient history. The more obscure, the more I become obsessed about it. Rome before the Empire and even the Republic that is like my cat-nip. Also ancient Greek philosophy. My grandfather is responsible for that. He made sure I learned some Latin and I know a little Greek. Secretive, obscure or hidden societies today like North Korea are things I cannot get enough of. This is probably going to be the last one where I can offer that perspective. Last I remember Thor did not go to the Amazon.

    I know that the censors prevented these movies from taking it an extra step but for me that is what keeps them from being perfect for me. I like having sensory overload where my head might explode.

    Also I tried to avoid calling Atticus Finch macho and tried to keep it at “being a man”. I should have been more specific. I will keep an eye out for that movie now.

  2. You’re putting more effort into this thing than we are, BRDanzig. Glad you enjoyed Hero of Rome as much as we did, and thanks again for the historical background. If getting one more person to watch Jason and the Argonauts is all we achieve, then this whole podcast will be worth it.

    I assume the lack of nudity in these films is due to the restrictions of the times. The Immoral Mr. Teas, the first pseudo-mainstream film with nudity since the the Hays code came into effect, was released only a handful of years before these films came out. Besides, these were also being packaged for American television. Nudity would have greatly limited their commercial viability.

    I did preface my take on what ‘macho’ means by saying that my ideas weren’t fully formed. Still, I think my main problem with the use of the term, at least by those people close to me, is that by being applicable to all things it loses its meaning. Case in point, Atticus Finch. Noble, sure. Hero, probably. Role model, absolutely. Macho, not a chance. ‘Subtle macho’, as Bill put it, is an oxymoron.

    Oh, and we watched and enjoyed Five Element Ninjas aka Chinese Super Ninjas last night if anyone is looking for additional recommendations from the MMR crew. At least a few of us exclaimed “This movie has changed my life” during the screening. Ninja cock block, for life.

  3. I didn’t have time to post this last night but I had time tonight and thought I would put it up. Wintle said that if I can offer historical perspective to go ahead and give it a shot. Since this is based on history like last week I will over my knowledge of the original story. Just like last week they did take some liberties with the story but it had the complete opposite result of Duel of Champions. Every change they made only made the story better. I was really fucking happy with this movie. In the original legend, Gaius Mucius Scævola, did everything in the movie up to about the half way point. He was never romantically linked to Claelia. After he sacrificed his hand, he was awarded land and treasure and many, many women would be ravished by him. That is the end of his story according to history so the liberties they took were awesome. The story of Claelia is on key to a high degree. She was used as a hostage while the peace treaty was worked out and she did lead an escape with her friends. This act of bravery pissed off King Porsinna (it was his idea not Tarquinius Superbus to take hostages) but caused King Porsinna to admire her. He demanded her return but promised to release her immediately so he could have the honor of releasing her out of respect). When he released her he let her chose a man for herself among the hostages (they had more than ten women). She chose a young boy to save him. This caused great respect because she saved a child and chose a husband that illustrated her chastity. This act caused her to be as highly regarded as Mucius and Horatius (who I thought the Hero of Rome was going to be about) and she was given a statue among the greats of Rome. Tarquinius Superbus was not killed and it is not even clear how heavily involved he was in this episode in history. In fact, Porsinna kept control the entire time but the movie did nail his character. Tarquinius Superbus was a bastard in real life but the character in the movie was an amalgram of him and his son who was the lecherous one. It was the son’s rape of Lucretia that caused the end of his rule and his expulsion. That and the fact that he was Etruscan like his grandfather, the original Tarquinius, did not help. His grandfather was not Roman but Etruscan and he was a much better king and so he was tolerated. Tarquinius Superbus was expelled after several attempts to retake Rome and eventually gave up and died in exile.

  4. I JUST CALLEed my dad and wished him best of F day…….i like to thank my dad for taking me to go see Return of the Jedi back in the days…i will always have the memory of this giant movie theatre with thousands of people waiting to get in!!!@!@!!@@!@@ Happy F day u old bastard!

  5. Sadly I am not left handed but when I broke my right arm twice I did have to learn how to use it for writing and that was tough. I feel honored to have a podcast dedicated by the three of you! I really liked the movie a lot and I do agree that Conan deserves 9 hydra heads, the only reason I am not giving this one and Colossus 9 hydra heads is because they needed to have the young nubile women get frisky and naked. That is the only thing these movies are missing to be 9’s for me. They need that extra bit of debauchery. I don’t know why not. Maybe they felt things like that are too racy for audiences and so they decided to stay classy with things like the Rape Boat. I definitely give this a solid 8 hydra heads and will join you in pushing people to see this movie.

    I agree that there is more to being macho than having excess machismo. In fact when someone asks me which role defines what it means to be a man, the first one that comes to mind is Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird. Also Cary Grant in North by Northwest. Not every macho guy is a Leonidas. Expanding the brand after the 50-pack is going to be lots of fun. Hell this podcast caused me to take a risk and order Jason and the Argonauts even though I have never seen it. I just watched and fucking loved it!

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