This is a war movie !

And no mere costumed muscles epic.
Right from the beginning, the atmosphere is
bleak, no colossal warriors showing off their prowess,
with no richly-appareled bejewelled beauties to encourage them.
In fact the overall gloom is what you would expect from
a movie about one of our modern wars. The scene moves from
the smoke overhung battlefield, with the men wondering what
would come next, to the king's palace where the same ominous
uncertainty prevailed. While in the city, abject poverty
survived side by side with insolent luxury, oblivious to the
fate that would soon be their common lot.

And the credits roll on, against a background of whirling coils
of thick smoke.

Steve Reeves is superb as Aenas, but rose several notches above
his usual parts as Antiquity's bulging-biceps heroes.
Here he plays a valorous warrior, heroic and chivalrous, while
remaining a faithful husband and good father.
The producers of the time had turned out a movie with a singularly
modern view of war, which deserves to rank with the classics of the
anti-war genre.