Wednesday, May 8, 2013

PEPLUM Cliché : St-Andrew's Cross

It's pretty common to see people nailed or bound to a cross in PEPLUM films: most of them are directly inspired by Biblical stories which of course the crucifixion being the central symbolic imagery of Christianity. But the majority of films from the genre are not Biblical films and the use of the crucifixion goes beyond simple religious symbolism, as they're used to torture our heroes or heroines, to demonstrate heroism in the face of evil or sometimes even falling into the kinky S&M category. To make matters even more convoluted there are several different types of crosses but in this example of a PEPLUM cliché I'm showing the prevalent use of the St-Andrew's cross (pictured in the last image). This is just a small sample.

Posted at the PEPLUM Cliché page.

COLOSSUS AND THE AMAZON QUEEN

DUEL OF THE TITANS

HERCULES THE INVINCIBLE

CONQUEROR OF CORINTH

GLADIATOR OF ROME

TRIUMPH OF THE TEN GLADIATORS

TERROR OF THE BLACK MASK

THE BARBARIAN MASTER

The Martyrdom of St. Andrew painted by Bartolome Esteban Murillo

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