PEPLUM Book Review : LASH!

This is a review I posted at Amazon. I gave it 3 stars out of 5. The author replied to my review

As a fan of Sword & Sandal films, also known as Peplum, I had to buy this book as a reference. Whippings is one of the biggest clichés of the Peplum genre. Hero whipped by nefarious villain. Slaves whipped into servitude. Rebels whipped by Roman Generals. Pirates being whipped after a failed mutiny, etc. The list is endless. I believed this book would be quite helpful and even though I've discovered a couple of new titles, with some titles I'll never see (the Lex Barker Euro westerns) the list is either incomplete or flawed.

There are a lot of titles that should have been listed that are nowhere to be seen. Where's the great whipping scene of Steve Reeves from Morgan the Pirate? In my view, it's much better than the one with Reeves Duel of the Titans, which is albeit unique because Reeves is strapped to a cross and he's being whipped while the cross spins. But that scene is very brief. Around 20 seconds. And it's shot from a distance so the actor on the spinning wheel might just be a stuntman, not Reeves. The whipping scene in Morgan the Pirate, we clearly witness a barechested Steve Reeves fighting three men and eventually being held by them while someone else whips him hard on his exposed torso/abdomen in front of a captive audience, under the broad daylight. It lasts much longer than the one in Duel of the Titans, and it certainly stands out for its brutality and Reeves' obvious exposed vulnerability as he struggles to set himself free. It's a standout scene and yet it didn't make it in the author's top 100 list.

Another great whipping scene occurs in Aphrodite Goddess of Love and again it didn't make the list. Other missing great whipping scenes: brief but memorable lashing in Thaurus Son of Attila; the brutal whipping from Pirate and the Slave Girl; the duels between men with whips in Perseus The Invincible, Gladiators 7 and in Kindar the Invulnerable where the two men brutally fight each other with whips for several minutes. And the whipping scene with Mark Damon in Son of Cleopatra should be listed in the top 5 whipping scenes of all time. That scene is brutal and original and yet it's listed at number 23 in the book.

The complete lack of photos also diminishes the book's impact. It would be nice to see some of the scenes too, not just read about them.

Even though this is a novelty book more than anything else I'm actually glad that there is a book out there about this subject, any PEPLUM subject, but honestly this is basically a list that should have been made for blog on the internet instead of a book. It's simply too subjective to be useful.

Lang Jeffries lashed in Alone Against Rome