The Revolt of the Slaves - Kino Lorber (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1960
Director: Nunzio Malasomma
Writers: Daniel Mainwaring, Stefano Strucchi, Duccio Tessari
Cast: Rhonda Fleming, Lang Jeffries, Darío Moreno, Ettore Manni, Wandisa Guida, Gino Cervi, Fernando Rey, Serge Gainsbourg

Release Date: December 4th, 2018
Approximate running time: 103 minutes 23 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: N/A
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: $29.95

"In this biblical action-adventure, set during the waning years of the Roman Empire, Fabiola (Rhonda Fleming, Jivaro, Bullwhip), the beautiful daughter of a wealthy patrician, falls in love with a Christian slave, Vibio (Lang Jeffries, Alone Against Rome)." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 3.25/5

The Revolt of the Slaves comes on a 25 GB single layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 21.7 GB

Feature: 20.5 GB

Though the source used for this transfer looks clean. There are some minor instances of print debris. Colors are inconsistent, black levels are at best adequate, and image clarity generally looks good.

Audio: 2.75/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in English. Though the dialog comes through clearly enough to follow. This track sounds flat and lacks range. There are no subtitles.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer for The Revolt of the Slaves (2 minutes 9 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles) and trailers for Those Redheads from Seattle, The Vikings, Kings of the Sun, and David and Bathsheba.

Summary:

Before Spaghetti Westerns, Gialli, or Poliziotteschi, there was Peplum, the first Italian genre cycle that was spawned in response to a successful Hollywood film. And though Peplum was a film cycle that roughly spanned seven years, It is also an Italian film cycle that’s largely forgotten, outside of the Hercules films.

Made at the height of the Italian Peplum film cycle, The Revolt of the Slaves has solid production values, which should not come as a surprise since most of these films shared and/or recycled sets and costumes. That said, there were many sub-genres within the Italian Peplum film cycle, and The Revolt of the Slaves would fall into films that were knock-offs of Spartacus.

Though the title of this film is The Revolt of the Slaves, a more appropriate title would be The Revolt of the Christians. Since the Romans are more concerned about them being Christians, and their being slaves is secondary to the story at hand. In fact, the bulk of the narrative revolves around a character named Corvino, who’s been given the task of rounding up Christians.

From a production standpoint, The Revolt of the Slaves does a good job of maximizing its resources. And though the premise covers familiar ground, the narrative does a good job of moving things forward. The Totalscope showcases the grandeur of the sets and the spectacle that unfolds. The performances are best described as adequate. The most memorable performance was by Serge Gainsbourg (Samson) in the role of Corvino. Ultimately, The Revolt of the Slaves is a middle-tier peplum that fans of this genre will get the most mileage out of.

The Revolt of the Slaves gets a serviceable audio/video presentation from Kino Lorber.

Written by Michael Den Boer