David and Goliath

By Giuseppe Prigiotti for UIUC ITAL 470 (Prof. Robert Rushing)
http://www.giuprigio.altervista.org
'Copyleft' GPL 2008, version 1.0 (Oct. 19, 2008)
“Davide e Golia”
Italia 1960
David and Goliaht
USA 1961
Do you want to know more?
See IMDB
Directed by
Ferdinando Baldi
and
Richard Pottier
Movie and trailers
Movie: Warriors 50 Movie Pack Collection
(Mill Creek Entertainment, USA 2006)
Movie on internet for streaming or download
trailer (by SomethingWeird Video, 1:30)
trailer with fake dialogues (by zhofaum, 6:27)
The plot
In this peplum film, the mythological reference
comes from the Bible but the screenplay, as in every
peplum film, is freely adapted.
So the following plot regards the movie.
In the XII sec. BCE, Saul is the king of Israel and
Philistines are a real threat in the area.
The profet Samuel denounces the corruption of
Saul's kingdom and God's will to choose another
king.
The designed king is David, a shepherd that in the
film, of course, is a peplum hero. David,
consecrated by Samuel, goes to Jerusalem, the
Holy City, and sees just violence and corruption.
David decides to go into the royal palace and
Saul, unexpectedly, invites the shepherd to stay
and play the harp for him. David becomes friend of
the prince Jonathan and the princess falls in love
with him.
The best weapon of the Philistens is Goliath, a
giant of “six cubits and a span” (in the biblical
book of Samuel as in our movie).
David fights against Goliath with a simple
slingshot and wins!
The little stone goes into the eye of Goliath, who
falls down. David takes Goliath's sword and kills
him.
After a moment of prayer, David takes the sword
and goes to the royal palace.
David enters again the royal palace, this time with the
sword, sign of the victory. Abner, the cruel minister, is
going to murder David with a spear but Saul kills him
with an arrow. After this, Saul receives Goliath's
sword. He offers his daughter's hand to David and
proclaims him the new king of Israel with great joy of
the crowd.
Some contrasting ideas
through a lot of screenshots from the movie
David, a 'peplum' shepherd in love...
... or David, the future king,
in love with the princess?
Goliath, the caveman...
... or an armed Goliath destined to lose?
How to convince the rude to go out
from the cave to combact against
the Philistines? Promising a show
with beautiful girls!
Is it a show or a pagan worship?
David wins because he is consecrated
to be an image of the merciful
and powerful God of Israel...
... or David wins because he is
a peplum hero that increases
his strength stripping?
Peplum: in other words...
Peplum: the less dresses the hero wears,
the better it is!
Peplum: the hero's second woman is
more sensual than the first, but another
woman in the movie is the most sensual
Peplum: laugh is a must
Peplum: power means corruption
Peplum: everywhere torches and candles
Peplum: the hero in the royal palace,
the king behind the columns, the throne
Peplum: homosexual allusions
Peplum: crowds' consent
Slingshot and stone...
a punching bag!
A strange column...
David reversed and the sword!
David AND Goliath: two faces of the peplum hero?
• Strong like a semi-god
• Attracted by women
but not passionate
• Rude and clumsy
• Intelligent and muscular
• Appealing both to women
and men
• Piercing look
Credits
This presentation, created with NeoOffice2 / OpenOffice2,
can be shared and transformed according to
the principles of GPL open licence.
The last version is downloadable here:
http://www.giuprigio.altervista.org
The images are taken from the movie just for study
purposes, every illegal use should be avoided.