The New Peplum

<p> Peplum or sword-and-sandal films--an Italian genre of the late 1950s through the 1960s--featured ancient Greek Roman and Biblical stories with gladiators mythological monsters and legendary quests. The new wave of historic epics known as neo-pepla is distinctly different embracing new technologies and storytelling techniques to create an immersive experience unattainable in the earlier films.</p><p> This collection of new essays explores the neo-peplum phenomenon through a range of topics including comic book adaptations like <I>Hercules</I> the expansion of genre boundaries in <I>Jupiter Ascending</I> and <I>John Carter</I> depictions of Romans and slaves in <I>Spartacus</I> and <I>The Eagle</I> and <I>Centurion</I> as metaphors for America's involvement in the Iraq War.</p>