Sodom and Gomorrah
With Stewart Granger, Pier Angeli, Stanley Baker.
US, 1963, 35mm, color, 154 min.
“Every director ought to get one Biblical film out of his system,” Aldrich once declared. Hence the existence of Sodom and Gomorrah, an enormously scaled dramatization of New Testament foundation myths. The story centers on Lot (Stewart Granger), ruler of the modest Hebrew people, as he initiates a journey to the Valley of Jordan with hopes of introducing his cultural virtues to the corrupted communities of Sodom and Gomorrah, a colonial imposition that only incites a series of violent skirmishes. The film’s period details are not always persuasive (Anouk Aimée, as the Sodomite Queen, sometimes looks like she belongs at Woodstock rather than in BC Canaan, for instance), yet frantic motion is sustained by the overflowing passion of the performances and the hyper-saturated opulence of the spectacle, which involves runaway floods, horse herds and lascivious dancing. Aldrich’s hand is not always pronounced (in fact, Sergio Leone took the reins on some scenes), but the film does fascinatingly suggest the director allowing himself a deluge of unrestrained creative energy before finally returning to his native country.
