The Colossus of Rhodes (1961) on Netflix
NR19612h 7mAdventureDramaHistory
The war hero Darios arrives on Rhodes, where a giant colossus guards the harbor. He joins rebels plotting against King Serse, while Phoenician agents work toward their own coup.
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- IMDb5.8/104,995 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes56%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 280 BC, the Greek war hero Darios sails to Rhodes to visit his uncle Lissipu. The island has just completed a colossal statue of a god to guard its harbor, and its king, Serse, is negotiating an alliance with Phoenicia that would work against Greece. Darios flirts with Diala, whose father Carete designed the statue, and falls in with a group of rebels led by Peliocles who want Serse removed. Serse's second-in-command, Thar, is working against the king as well, bringing Phoenician soldiers onto the island as slaves and posting his men inside the Colossus to open the way for a Phoenician fleet.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Colossus of Rhodes (1961)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- John Derek was originally meant to star, but on set he clashed with Sergio Leone and the crew, refusing to rehearse scenes and interfering with Leone's directing duties; he was fired in June 1960, which led to a legal case.
- Rory Calhoun replaced Derek as the hero Darios; Leone had considered Calhoun the better fit all along, because of his comedic approach to the material and his "tired nonchalance".
- Leone first planned to give the film's Colossus the face of Benito Mussolini, then chose a less explicit political metaphor, basing the design on the Stadio dei Marmi statues produced under Italy's fascist regime.
- The Colossus of Rhodes was Sergio Leone's first film as a credited director, after he had worked in the same genre as replacement director on The Last Days of Pompeii and as a secondary director on Ben-Hur and Quo Vadis.
- It is the only one of the seven films Sergio Leone officially directed that does not have a score by Ennio Morricone.
