Unlike most other European sword and sandal movies of this period, "The Giant of Marathon" was picked up for North American distribution by a major Hollywood studio (Metro Goldwyn Mayer). My guess is that MGM was trying to cash in on the box office success that independent studio Embassy Pictures has with "Hercules", another sword and sandal movie with the same actor (Steve Reeves). That's the only reason why I can think of, because honestly I can't see any other selling points that the movie has. Even by standards of the era, the movie is really dull for the most part; for one thing, there is almost no action in the first half of the movie. While the second half does have some battlefield action, it's not particularly well choreographed or directed; it's not that much more exciting than what happened in the first half of the movie. Most of the movie is instead talk talk talk, none it it really engaging or interesting. I'm sure audiences back then were really bored by this movie. So it's no wonder that nobody was apparently interested in renewing the copyright for the movie, since it's now in the public domain and freely available to bore a new generation of moviegoers.

A rousing Italian/French peplum adventure yarn, teaming screen legend Steve Reeves with a fine director in Jacques Tourneur and one of the best directors of photography in Italian history - Mario Bava. The combination makes for a beautifully-shot, colourful, and well paced movie, which is a bit slow to start off but soon comes into its own with imaginative battle sequences and a story which is always moving.A clean-shaven Reeves plays Phillipides, an Olympic legend who is a hit with all the ladies - and who finds himself torn between a forbidden beauty, Andromeda, and Karis, a woman ordered to seduce him by the bad guys and who ends up falling in love instead. These romantic subplots are what make up the first half of the film, interspersed with plenty of dancing, a few fights here and there and lots of sweeping spectacle thanks to Bava, who really gives the film an expensive-looking veneer.The second half of the movie concerns an invasion by the Persians, with Phillipides attempting to rally the Spartans to his cause. There's an excellently-shot hand-to-hand combat scene involving an emissary who is attacked by a gang of cut-throats, who outnumber him 5-to-1 but still end up getting beaten. Then the film culminates in an fine sea battle in which the Olympic heroes chuck burning spears at the approaching enemy ship, which retaliates by crushing their own ship with an awkward pair of pincers! At this point, there's also some great underwater photography and lots of violence as underwater attackers are shot and speared by the enemy. Finally, a battle ensues, of which you can probably guess the outcome.Reeves is as good as ever as the masculine hero, and here he's supported by a strong cast which offers some good female characters. Tourneur's direction is assured and Bava's camera-work gives the film fine visual splendour. While the plot may be familiar, even interchangeable stuff, GIANT OF MARATHON is still a fine piece of solid entertainment.

Fairly decent Greek epic starring none other than the great Steve Reeves. I've first read about Steve Reeves in Arnold Swartzenegger's book that he was the first modern body builder with perfect body symmetry. This is the first movie of his I've seen knowing that it's Reeves who's acting on the screen. I may have seen his other movies without knowing that it was him, because I've seen many Hercules movies as a child, and he might have been in it.I could see that he was a ground breaking talent who was good looking enough to be an actor even if he wasn't the Adonis that he was. Do I dare say that the Italians knew how to make male exploitation films done in good taste ? Reeves' masculine beauty is highlighted to its max in this movie. I'm sure this was not accidental.It's a pretty feel good movie, that's not a pure clash of the muscle men type of production.Steve Reeves was all that he was said to be. A great natural body builder who also had beautiful appearance.

Hopefully, one day Steve Reeves will get the justice of a really good DVD collection. He deserves no less. Although not the greatest transfer, this movie is fantastic. The battle scenes are great, particularly the underwater sequences, and they are suitably epic. Add to that a great treacherous villain, a complex femme fatale and a truly heroic central character and you have a great movie. Plus, I have to add the allure of Andromeda to my rating. Now, I'm sure that I am probably reading too much in to it, but, many of the battle scenes really evoked scenes from Saving Private Ryan for me (the bullets driving through the water). Spielberg a peplum fan? With Mario Bava holding the camera, why not?