Sodom and Gomorrah

“Everyone should make a biblical film once,” Aldrich remarked about what was, up to that point, his biggest production: an international epic on a monumental scale that was savaged by critics upon its release and regarded as a major box office disappointment in Hollywood. In retrospect, however, SODOM AND GOMORRAH stands out as one of the finest sword and sandal films, as Aldrich once again subverts the genre and turns it on its head. Instead of the clear cut morality and spiritual idealisation found in other biblical epics, Aldrich tells a Marxist parable about the corruption of the “chosen people” and their leader Lot (Stewart Granger) by the decadent slaveholders of Sodom, gleefully embodied by Anouk Aimée and Stanley Baker as the ruling siblings. In true Aldrich fashion, the wrath of God culminates in an atomic mushroom cloud. The film circulated for a long time in various differently edited versions; we are showing the complete restoration. (C.H.)

Courtesy of the Cineteca di Bologna.