Year: 1961
Duration: 01:31:14
Directed by: Vatroslav Mimica, Mario Tota
Actors: Edmund Purdom, Giorgia Moll, Alberto Farnese
Language: Italian | Serbo-Croatian
Country: Yugoslavia | Italy
Also known as: Solimano il conquistatore,Solimán el conquistador,Soliman le magnifique,Suleiman, o megaloprepis
Description:
This large-scale legendary employs the exploits of Suleiman the Magnificent, the frontrunner of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th Century, as he attempts to overcome Europe.
Turkish intruders massacre a Germanic village and abduct the kids. Germanic leader Orlovich (Stane Potokar) retaliates and saves the kids. Suleiman’s huge military is nonetheless advancing, however, so Orlovich quickly moves his men into the greatly fortified fortress of Szigetvar.
Suleiman (Loris Gizzi) requests his basic, Ibrahim Pasha (Edmund Purdom) to ruin the fortress. Developing to the swamps encompassing the fortress, Suleiman’s military begins a series of brutal attacks. As cannons blast, the invaders mount ladders up the fortress walls but are repelled with hot guns, crossbows, rocks, oil, and just about almost everything but the kitchen sink.
At the same time the nefarious Gaspard (Alberto Farnese) jeopardise the burgeoning love of good-guy Ivan (Luciano Marin) as well as the Germanic leader’s child Vesna (Giorgia Moll), thus providing the intimate subplot. A drunken peasant who’s in love with his camel holds down the witty relief angle.
Right back in the main tale line, as the combat goes on, Pasha becomes disillusioned whenever his guys create fever from camping in the swamps. When the obese Suleiman keels over dead while being amused by a bevy of sexy dancing women, Pasha takes over command, and reluctantly has all the witnesses killed to keep the news of Suleiman’s death a secret. He then preps his men for a final attack on the fort while Orlovich’s dwindling group of troopers prepare to fight to the death. The outcomes are disastrous for both sides….
Review: This was Croatian director Vatroslav Mimica’s first live-action feature, and he turned in a tough, gritty, unconventional period piece. It’s brutal and bloody with frequent battle scenes and a couple of graphic killings. A decent effort was seemingly expended to depict the daily rituals, pageantry, weapons, and costumes of the period. Edmund Purdom, not usually known as an actor with great range, gives a fine, complex performance as Ibrahim Pasha. His character struggles between devotion to an obsessive delusional ruler, and to the men of his army.
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Really interesting movie. All our members appreciated it. Thanks