The 1958 version of Hercules was a staple of the peplum subgenre and started a boom of sword and sandal movies made in Italy and even around the world. There were few female heroines compared to the huge guys they hired to star in these movies, but there were also some amazons who showed up from time to time, being the very first modern rendition of the myth the ones seen halfway through this movie.
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| First amazons in modern media? |
The film was heavily criticized for being a hodgepodge of various legends and myths of greek and roman culture but thankfully that meant that we got to see some lovely amazons. These show up quite late into the film’s running time, it is a stuffed plot after all.
We follow Hercules and the rest of the Argonauts until they are ambushed by a group of warrior ladies known as the amazons, they point at the men with their spears and take them to their leader, Queen Antea, who begins a relationship with Jason.
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| The amazons prepare to shoot their arrows. |
The amazons here display their skills in archery and even in horse riding and swimming. They enjoy a good time with the men but one of the guys finds out about the amazon’s plans of killing them while they sleep. The guy warns the others and Hercules and the Argonauts escape before the women can do anything.
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| The amazonian leaders. |
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| Wanna go for an amazonian ride? |
A decent cameo by the amazons, not much action but there is some rich scenery, good costumes, memorable sequences and we also get to see some of their culture such as their dance rituals.
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| The queen wont allow men to live in her female only land. |
Not a bad subplot but it's brief and rather unimpactful. Still, it's good to see some women warriors as opposed to the usual damsels in distress and love interests peplum films tend to gear towards.
See all of their scenes here:
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