Romulus and Remus (1961)

A woman places her two baby boys into a basket in a river hoping that they will not be found. The babies are discovered by a she-wolf who raises them until they are discovered by a shepherd who takes them in as his sons. Years later the boys, Romulus (Steve Reeves) and Remus (George Scott) are visiting a religious event intending to steal horses. However, Romulus falls for a women named Julia, and although learning that she is the daughter of the Sabine King, he takes her hostage as the group flee with their horses, and is eventually tracked down and captured by the Sabine warriors. Meanwhile the shepherd has learnt that the mother of the boys is alive, a High Priestess of Vespa. Mortally wounded by an arrow during the horse stealing, he tells Remus before he dies. Remus sets out to free Romulus and they meet up with their mother who tells them of her vision that they will found a city a long journey away, but while Romulus is happy to work together, Remus feels that he should be in change of the undertaking himself and as they feud, the Sabine warriors close in again...

Co-written by Sergio Corbucci, along with Sergio Leone and a whole host of genre regulars, Romulus and Remus is a pretty typical epic film with some big battle scenes, arena fight sequences and feats of heroism. It is, as the title indicates, based on the classic legend of the founding of Rome, although only loosely based (however, many very varied accounts of the story exist). What makes the film stand-out is the solid characterisation which helps to make the feud between Romulus and Remus convincing and gives the final conflict some real emphasis, it also makes the 'villians' of the piece more than just generic bad-guys. The four-sided romantic triangle is nothing special but is fortunately unoffensive, in the background a romance hinted at between some of the minor characters goes nowhere and seems rather pointless but again it is very brief and does not harm the flow of the film.

While many of the Traditional Pepla were naturally light hearted, their Epic cousins took a more serious approach and although the script here is no rival for Corbucci's later, almost nihilistic Spaghetti Westerns, there are few light-hearted moments and several quite dark sequences. As was common with the Italian titles from the era, and compared to the sprawling modern epics, Romulus and Remus keeps itself down to just over 100 minutes so it never drags and with the strong characterisation even the dialogue scenes remain interesting (on many epics they are nothing but filler between the battle scenes). It all builds up to the inevitable, but surprisingly tense climax.

Sergio Corbucci helms his first genre title and gives a strong turn ably supported by cinematographer Enzo Barboni who would go on to work with Corbucci on such films as Django (1966) and is making his film debut here. As per the script, the film is directed with a very serious overtone, the fight and battle scenes in particular are very tense. The volcanic eruption is the only sequence that could have looked bad and does contain some rather obvious stock shots, but it generally works quite well. Italian composer Piero Piccioni gives the film a solid orchestral soundtrack backing.

The musclebound and improbably dashing Steve Reeves was the true star of the Peplum, and obvious casting for this role, his twin brother is played by the ex-Tarzan Gordon Scott, making his genre debut here. The duo give a great performance, with some impressively good acting (something for which the genre is often derided), and a solid rapport that helps to give backing to the well written storyline. The rather cliché beauty Virna Lisi gives an early performance as the love interest. There are a few familiar faces in the rest of the cast, Spaghetti Western fans will doubtless recognise Piero Lulli and performances all round are generally strong.

One of the most enjoyable Peplum historical epics Romulus and Remus focuses on an effective storyline instead of big battle scenes, but does have a couple of good action sequences as well. It comes recommended to all fans of the historical epics, and for fans of Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott, a great place to start exploring their work as well.

Anyone famous in it?	Steve Reeves - the big American Peplum star who also starred in the epic The Trojan Horse (1961). Gordon Scott - a musclebound American actor who made his name with six Tarzan movies in the late 1950s.
Directed by anyone interesting?	Sergio Corbucci - an Italian director who would become famous a few years later for the legendary Spaghetti Western Django (1966) as well as the later Hellbenders (1967) and Great Silence (1969).
Any violence/gore?	Nothing unusually violent - no blood. Some very harsh looking horse trips and falls.
Any sex?	None.
Who is it for?	Certainly for fans of Historical Epics and Pelpa as well as fans of the two musclebound leads.

Visuals	Original Aspect Ratio - 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. Colour. Strong print throughout, some grain and light speckling and scratches, but great colours
Audio	English and German mono - sounds good. The German audio is missing in a couple of scenes which are in English. The English track has some slight hiss compared to the German but it is otherwise good.
Subtitles	German - infill for the missing scenes.
Extras	The disc includes: An interview with Giovanni Cianfriglia who was Steve Reeves' body double in several Pepla. In Italian with German subs only. (7 min). English langauge trailer. (5 min) Extensive photo and poster gallery, manually scrolling. The DVD case includes a short booklet, in German only, about the background to the film.
Packaging	A cardboard slipcase containing a standard Amaray style case.
Region	Region 2 (UK, Europe) - PAL
Other regions?	None known.
Cuts?	The film is believed to be fully uncut. The print used is Italian.

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