Classical Masculinity and the Spectacular Body on Film: The Mighty Sons of Hercules - Hardcover

"Daniel O'Brien's work here is both foundational and invaluable. Perhaps his most profound statement about these films is his most simple: that the strongman figure, embodied in Hercules, is part of our masculine mythopoesis as surely as the intellectual problem-solver, the suave secret agent, and the mysterious foreign count. This figure thus represents our desire to supersede the bonds of our own masculinity, reflecting not the dominant arm of the patriarchy, but that which surpasses it - the mythical, mystical link between human and deity, bound up in bodies too large to readily codify. This is a text that any scholar, critic, or fan of sword-and-sandal films will want readily available for repeat consultation." - Michael G. Cornelius, Wilson College, USA

"Forget the unwieldy title and just marvel at the fact that academic writing on film can be as lively and stimulating as this! Daniel O'Brien produces a remarkably allusive study of the cinema's treatment of the muscular male physique (with particular attention to the Hercules movies directed by such talented auteurs as Vittorio Cottafavi and Mario Bava, as well as lesser talents such Pietro Francisci, responsible for the two Steve Reeves Hercules movies). O'Brien examines the fascinating subtexts of this oft-despised genre and its contradictory approaches to masculinity. What's more, O'Brien performs a particularly impressive feat of prestidigitation, couching complex notions within prose that is always supremely readable. Classical Masculinity and the Spectacular Body on Film - both for its complex, prodigal ideas and its counterintuitive clarity - should be required reading both for afionados of genre cinema and for those academics unable to write anything but clotted, impenetrable prose." - Barry Forshaw

'Peplum films' [were] the trashy, kitsch and camp mythological romps popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This lowbrow epic genre is the focus of Daniel O'Brien's book, and he rightly argues that it is a subject worthy of study." - Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, THE

The cinema has often showcased the muscular male body, most notably in genres invoking classical Greco-Roman culture, whether peplum, epic or sword-and-sorcery. This book reassesses the classically-inflected action film as a significant cinematic form, often marginalized in media studies, that transcends such reductive labels as camp or kitsch. The focus is on the depiction of heroic masculinity, often characterized as reactionary or fascist, yet far more varied and contradictory, especially in relation to femininity and non-whiteness. These diverse representations of masculinity offer a major contribution to debates on maleness within and beyond academia that has been largely unexplored. In particular, Hercules in his many incarnations is one of the most important mythopoetic figures, on a par with King Arthur, Robin Hood, Tarzan and James Bond, informing popular cultural interpretations of manliness and the exaggerated male form.