The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)

Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Al Pacino, Ted Levine, Wes Studi, Jerry Trimble, and Mykelti Williamson in Heat (1995)

It's a Timeline of Ancient Western History, listing 200+ Films, mostly Italian and Hollywood Productions from the 50s and 60s.                                                                                                                                                                                                       Peplum spans the mythological beginnings of the Ancient World and the fall of Civilization at the hands of the Barbarians. Watch it chronologically unfold, up until 1099 AD.                                                                                                                                  Soon, Atlantis is a sunken ruin. Babylon fights, but cannot halt the incoming Deluge. Great, peplum-clad Heroes bring progress to the Greeks. We see the decadence of the Roman emperors, with their cruel gladiatorial games. The Christians rise from rags to riches. Then, the barbarous Hordes will sack Rome repeatedly. There are many interwoven threads, long-winded and colorful, in the fabric of this peplum collection. Huns, Avars and Saracens despoil Europe. Rome is stripped of all. Then, the Vikings will open up America and Russia for further exploitation. Vae victis! Roman yarn intertwine with strands spun by vengeful Norns. At last, Peplum-clad Heroes spring forth from Hell in resurrected christian triumph. The Crusaders stand in liberated Jerusalem, at the twilight of ages.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 After the conclusion of these events, the peplum of antiquity would be refashioned. For another hundred years or so, that passé, loose tunic would linger on among the less fashionable. However, from the 12th century onward, we see more fitted garments starting to be worn by the European Aristocracy, causing a break with 12 000 years of history, as dutifully recorded here.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                1914 marked, among other fateful events, the return of the peplum. This was the release year of Cabiria, an Italian silent peplum, set in ancient Carthage and the first of its kind in cinema. Peplum-draped pop culture was to have its cinematic Renaissance in the decades that followed. By the mid-1960s, it all wrapped up, as the Italian peplum metamorphosed into the Spaghetti western of epic soundtrack fame. Until then, an impressive amount of pepla had been made. Much peplum was shown as part of double features at the drive-in theaters in America.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     After the decline and fall of classical style peplum, a previously marginalized subcategory of peplum would gain prominence. By the 80s, Conan the Barbarian brought us fantastical pepla from the Dark Ages. Predictably, the barbarian peplum was only to be a short and trashy thing. 

The legacy of peplum, I suppose, is the making of new mythology, with peplum lively billowing out and at best loosely fixed to the Greco-Roman Corpus.

Events have been dated meticulously. This Chronicle of the Age of Peplum is complete.

Peplum: The Chronological Threads of Ancient History

Peter Lorre, Edward Arnold, and Marian Marsh in Crime and Punishment (1935)

Tim Robbins in The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in The Blues Brothers (1980)

Truly the best and worst of cult cinema. Every genre, every sub genre.

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)

Kika Magalhães in The Eyes of My Mother (2016)

List of films/shows set in the past From Pre-history to the future

Historical,Biblical,Legendary,Mythological,Fairy tales Fantastical Films/TV Series,War Films/TV Series List A

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