Of Muscles and Men: Essays on the Sword & Sandal Film

Introduction—Of Muscles and Men: The Forms and Functions of the Sword and Sandal Film MICHAEL G. CORNELIUS 1 Hercules, Politics, and Movies MARIA ELENA D’AMELIO 15 Hero Trouble: Blood, Politics, and Kinship in Pasolini’s Medea KRISTI M. WILSON 28 “To do or die manfully”: Performing Heteronormativity in Recent Epic Films JERRY B. PIERCE 40 From Maciste to Maximus and Company: The Fragmented Hero in the New Epic ANDREW B. R. ELLIOTT 58 Reverent and Irreverent Violence: In Defense of Spartacus, Conan, and Leonidas JOHN ELIA 75 “Civilization … ancient and wicked”: Historicizing the Ideological Field of 1980s Sword and Sandal Films KEVIN M. FLANAGAN 87 Homer’s Lies, Brad Pitt’s Thighs: Revisiting the Pre-Oedipal Mother and the German Wartime Father in Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy ROBERT C. PIRRO 104 An Enduring Logic: Homer, Helen of Troy, and Narrative Mobility LARRY T. SHILLOCK 124 “By Jupiter’s Cock!” Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Video Games, and Camp Excess DAVID SIMMONS 144 Beefy Guys and Brawny Dolls: He-Man, the Masters of the Universe, and Gay Clone Culture MICHAEL G. CORNELIUS 154 Developments in Peplum Filmmaking: Disney’s Hercules CHRIS PALLANT 175 Hercules Diminished? Parody, Differentiation, and Emulation in The Three Stooges Meet Hercules DANIEL O’BRIEN 187 About the Contributors 203 Index 207