Sunday, May 13, 2012

File Under: Bizarre Translated PEPLUM Title


This Belgium poster translates into DEATH IN THE ARENA, which is as generic as you can get. The English title is COLOSSUS OF THE ARENA which is also generic as you can get.

This is one of my pet peeves with Euro PEP films in that they were often not very creative with titles, translated or non-translated. I mean, DEATH IN THE ARENA can be the title for 2 dozen films which take place in the arena. There's just nothing distinctive about it. And COLOSSUS OF THE ARENA, even if it's better than the Belgium title, is the same thing: the Peter Lupus film, CHALLENGE OF THE GLADIATOR, could also be called COLOSSUS OF THE ARENA because Peter is a colossus and the story takes place in and around an arena. You know what I mean? Anyway, it's probably one of the reasons why the genre gets little respect, because titles are difficult to attach to a specific film or it can be attached to multiple films, except for HERCULES or something like that.

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