Pleasure from Bad Movies?

Linda Williams looks at what she calls the three "film body" genres (pornography, horror, and melodrama) in the article Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess in order to "get beyond the mere fact of sensation to explore its system and structure as well as its effect on the bodies of spectators" (Williams, 208). One genre that is not applied in her article that fits the mold is the Italian Sword and Sandal films. This essay will look at a few different "peplum" films and show how they fit along side the other "body genres" by dissecting the structures of perversion and fantasy apparent throughout the genre. Looking at the Italian Sword and Sandal films from the late 1950s and early 1960s will illustrate how the "peplum" fits in as another "film body" genre.

In order to connect the "peplum" with the three genres Williams writes about, it is important to find out what makes a genre a "film body" genre. She writes that the excess shared by all three are "the spectacle of a body caught in the grip of intense sensation or emotion" and also that "another pertinent feature...is the focus on what could probably best be called a form of ecstasy" (Williams, 209). The excess of violence in horror, sex in porn, and crying in melodrama compare with the excess of strength in the "peplum." As the "excess is marked by recourse not to the coded articulations of language but to inarticulate cries of pleasure in porn, screams of fear in horror, sobs of anguish in melodrama," the excess present in the "peplum" is marked by grunts of pain (Williams, 209). The grunts that mark excess are present in the first Hercules film from 1959 when the main character fights a bull and then a lion. In Hercules Unchained he fights a tiger and in Samson the titular character defeats another tiger in the same fashion. The hero in Hercules Against the Moonmen wrestles and defeats a giant bear in the same way. Other examples have the Hercules/Maciste character struggling to rip out trees or large stones from the ground in order to smash oncoming opponents.

The excess of strength acts like the excesses in the other "body genres" since it "seems to be the case that the success of these genres is often measured by the degree to which the audience sensation mimics what is seen on the screen" (Williams, 210). As Williams describes the rating system of the "peter meter" for porn or the number of handkerchief's a movie receives for melodrama, the "peplum" would receive the "muscle meter," measuring how strong the audience feels watching the main character. This feeling of connection with Steve Reeves moved Arnold Schwarzenegger enough to become a body-builder and actor. The main difference between the "peplum" and the other genres is the "primary embodiment of pleasure, fear, and pain" (Williams, 210). While porn, horror, and melodrama place the main focus on the bodies of women, the "peplum" places the focus on the body of the male. It is the male hero that walks around with the least amount of clothing and the females are usually fully clothed and not very involved in the plot. In fact, in Hercules Against the Moonmen the camera focuses on the chest of Hercules for a lengthy period of time as the femme fatale looks on with sexual desire. This difference, however, does not alter the "peplum" from being a "film body" genre because it is still a specific body that garners pleasure.

Linda Williams also brings the three "body genres" together by showing the perversion each conveys. The perversion "each offers [is] what many feminist critics would agree to be spectacles of feminine victimization" (Williams, 212). In the case of the "peplum" the perversion present must be the male victimization in order to fit with these other genres. But how can an all-powerful hero such as Hercules be considered a victim? In the book Action and Adventure in Cinema Martin Fradley writes about this victimization. He says that the white, male hero is victimized by the "eroticization of the male body, through physical punishment and near-destruction and eventually towards a process of regeneration and remasculinisation" (Fradley, 239). Examples abound in the "peplum" films. Steve Reeves in Unchained is eroticized by Queen Omphale and becomes a sex slave after drinking from the 'Waters of Forgetfulness', straying far from his presence in Hercules when he is the only man not to fall into temptation on an all-female island. This difference is articulated by Hercules when he says, "The night was made for love", totally preoccupied with sex instead of saving the lives of the "others" (weaker men, women, and slaves). Hercules is brought to near destruction because of this eroticization and is literally almost transformed into a trophy of the queen's sexual collection. Luckily for Thebes, Hercules does break free of the spell and remembers who he is in time to return and save his homeland. Strangely, his remasculinisation involves going away from sexual pleasure and towards saving others. It is not his pleasure, but the pleasure of others that concerns the masculine hero.

Samson has a similar plot outline regarding the safety of the world and the ability of the heroic white male. Unlike Hercules, Samson states that he is a man who travels wherever injustice lives. He has no background, no family, and no home to speak of. Fradley writes about these kinds of narratives and says that the hero "functions...to make sense of the world as an ever-vigilant border patrol, forever placing his own tenuous, fragile masculine identity at the centre of a beleaguered narrative of suffering, victimization, and white plight" (Fradley, 238). It is the ever-present feeling of desire for a white male savior that keeps hope alive for the "others." In Samson's case, he literally has to ring the 'Bell of Freedom', which has not rung for ages no matter who has tried. This bell leads to a slave revolt, but also "kills" Samson in the process. The revolt is not complete, however, until Samson returns to life and causes an earthquake, bringing back his over-powering masculinity. In Moonmen, Hercules (who in this film has no back story or home either) is willingly captured and placed in a death machine to the sexual pleasure of the Queen of Samar. The camera becomes fixated with Hercules' chest, creating a shot-counter-shot with the Queen's desiring face. After breaking the contraption, Hercules then pretends to be sexually interested in the Queen, only to reaffirm his masculinity by double-crossing her and finally attacking the dreaded Moonmen. Again, his masculinity is not about his own sexual pleasure, but about the safety of the "others." Fradley writes that "such narratives...expose the performativity of masculinity, the need to continually reassert and reiterate the centrality of that supposed normalcy" (Fradley, 238-239).

The obvious masochism in the "peplum" relates strongly with the masochism and sadism present in Linda Williams' other "body genres". As in porn, horror, and melodrama, the masochism "is always a component of either power or pleasure" (Williams, 214). The (predominately male) audience wants to be able to save the world, rip trees from their limbs, and have huge muscles like the heroes do. But this power and pleasure comes at a price...the loss of individuality and freedom to live one's own life. This is the problem that the "peplum" faces. Williams writes about the problems inherent in the three other "body genres" by saying:

[P]ornographic films now tend to present sex as a problem, to which the performance of more, different, or better sex is posed as the solution. In horror a violence related to sexual difference is the problem, more violence related to sexual difference is also the solution. In women's films the pathos of loss is the problem, repetitions and variations of this loss are the generic solution (Williams, 216).

It seems, though, that the problems in the "peplum" have two answers.

First, losing individuality and freedom is fixed by having a lack of desire. Most of the heroes in the Italian Sword and Sandal films have no desires except to help those in need. In both Samson and Moonmen the hero appears in order to help the helpless and leaves at the end in order to find other places in need. The second answer involves accepting the fact that living a life solely to save others is a curse. In both Steve Reeves Hercules movies and in Goliath and the Dragon, the main character's goal is to live a normal life without super-strength. The hero mainly accepts challenges because either he or his family is threatened. Fradley writes that "the threatened family largely functions to motivate and structure the white hero's masochistic, super individual exploits" (Fradley, 244). As with porn, horror, and melodrama, the "peplum" continually uses perversion and masochism in order to structure the audience's pleasure and reactions.

Linda Williams' final argument for the "body genres" is the structure of fantasy. She relates porn, horror, and melodrama with Freud's three stages of sexual development; seduction, castration, and returning to origins. Williams says that "pornography...is the genre that has seemed to endlessly repeat the fantasies of primal seduction...horror is the genre that seems to endlessly repeat the trauma of castration...and melodramatic weepies is the genre that seems to endlessly repeat our melancholic sense of the loses or origins -impossibly hoping to return to an earlier state" (Williams, 217). The "peplum" would seem to be the ultimate "film body" because it incorporates two of the three stages on a regular basis.

Elements of primal seduction recur in Italian Sword and Sandal films. Hercules begins the trend by sending the hero and his crew to an island inhabited entirely by women. In this film, all of the men except for Hercules succumb to the temptation of women. Of course, these women plan to murder all of the men, so it is up to Hercules to save them from this primal seduction. Unchained changes this situation around and has Hercules being seduced after losing his memory. In Moonmen, Hercules uses the Queen of Samar's seduction to receive information in order to save Samar from more sacrifices and the Moonmen. By using seduction to their advantage, the heroes can take pleasure in the sexual experience without losing the masculine qualities inherent throughout the "peplum." They always find a way to save the ones in need and don't fall in love with the seducers. This also gives the male audience an opportunity to enjoy a sexual fantasy without feeling guilty, since the character they relate with still 'saves the day'. Both of these reasons allow primal seduction to show up continually in the "peplum."

Castration is probably the most interesting stage to explore within the Sword and Sandal films. Each main character seems to function without a specific gender. This does not mean that any of them are homosexual or bisexual, but they all seem to act differently from the other men in the films. In fact, both Samson in Samson and Hercules in Moonmen don't seem interested in women at all and only use them to further their overall mission. However, Samson is the only one that never has any romantic interest at all, only acting as a 'helping hand' to help another relationship. Hercules in Moonmen and Hercules also allow for a different relationship to survive; one more sexual and desiring than their own. In Goliath, the titular character at first denies his brother's attempts to love a woman, but ends up allowing their romance to occur. This castration goes along with the lack of desire allowing these characters to defeat evil and focus on helping the "others."

Along with porn, horror, and melodrama, the "peplum" gives audience pleasure through masochism and excess. The over-powering and unrelenting strength exhibited by Hercules, Samson, and Goliath give the audience a sense of power and fantasy. Also, perversion remains a constant throughout these films casting the white male as a victim with no way of escaping. He is subject to carrying out tasks to forward the pleasure of the "others" while neglecting any pleasure for himself. This does have a strange relationship with the castration elements brought up by Linda Williams. By disregarding personal pleasure the "peplum" hero acts as a savior to the people without being distracted by factors other than 'fighting for justice.' The hero may also fight in order to save his family from danger. Freud's three sexual stages are also present throughout each "film body" genre. Different from the others, the "peplum" continually uses two of the three instead of only one. As pornography uses ejaculation, horror uses blood, and melodrama uses tears, the "peplum" uses sweat as its bodily fluid to convey an emotion. For these reasons, the Italian Sword and Sandal film fits neatly into the format Linda Williams lays out for "film bodies." It is important to understand this in order to figure out why these films were so important and so popular among audiences during their first run and nostalgic elements.