Here the legend ends and the story begins. Who better to tell an Italian than a Roman about the history of the Eternal City? Especially at a time when Italian cinema was almost “ahead of the planet”? As the basis of his historical narrative, Sergio Cobrucci took the most common version of the brothers Romulus and Rema, made amendments to it, as much as the tension of the plot, and quickly removed all this, thus magically marking the first 10th anniversary of his filmmaking.
It turned out quite well, unless you pay attention to some points that clearly contradict the traditional history of Rome. If the question of the birth of twins more or less corresponds to the prevailing ideas over thousands of years, everything about the love story of Romulus (Steve Reeves) and Julia (Virna Lisi) is pure fiction, because, according to the most common version, Romulus was married to Hercilia (the only married woman who was among others when the Romans kidnapped Sabine women).
However, all these historical inaccuracies (like Rehm’s “crossing the mountains of fire”) do not spoil the film at all, because the director – like any creative person – can treat the “historical basis” as he sees his future creation. In this regard, the film “Romulus and Remus” looks very, very good: in terms of acting, and in terms of showing the “distant past”, and in terms of military clashes, including the final duel of Remus and Romulus. The only thing that embarrassed me throughout the viewing was the way Corbucci showed Remus: uncontrollable, crazy, overbearing. History never singled out any of the brothers, and the death of Remus is considered an accident, for which Romulus asked forgiveness from the gods, calling the new city Rome. Well, who knows?