The year is 1227, and the infamous Ghengis Khan has died. His power has gone to his son Ogadai, but his three other sons squabble among themselves for the scraps, always looking for an opportunity to elevate themselves through whatever means possible. And that is the basis for much of this film, which features Ghengis' three backstabbing sons trying to outmaneuver one another. Enter Maciste, or is it Hercules? Exactly what Hercules was doing alive in 1227 AD is a mystery.

We first meet Hercules as he is strolling through 13th century China. While Hercules is in China, the Mongols are kicking up a lot of dust in Europe. Ghengis Khan's sons are busy trying to oppress the masses when along comes Maciste, who must have walked from China. Maybe he did that thing the Incredible Hulk used to do where he could jump really high and far to cover long distances in a short amount of time.

Hercules kicks some Mongolian tail, then befriends the beleaguered population of eastern Europe. The sons of the Khan are annoyed that this beefy Greek has strolled thousands of years into the future to spoil their fun, but they are torn asunder over what to do with him. The obvious answer is "kill him." One of the sons decides it would be better if he tried to be buddy-buddy with Hercules and get him on the Mongol side. After all, no one really ever failed to benefit from having a demigod behind their cause. Plus, you know, they're just two beefy tough guys with a lot to tell each other about protein shakes and the finer points of Mongolian wrestling.

So they manage to capture Hercules, or rather, he sort of just walks up to them and gets captured after his tactic of going, "Hey, why not call off the conquest of the world?" doesn't pan out the way he planned. So the main Mongol puts Herc is chains but is generally pretty nice to him, hoping that Hercules will join him after the Greek hero learns a little more about traditional Mongol puppet theater and that throat singing thing.

Hercules gets to fight in a tournament, because all peplum films must have a tournament. If he wins, he gets to chose either his own freedom or the freedom of a captured European princess, who of course instantly falls madly in love with Hercules. The plan was for Herc to kick ass on the first two evil brothers but then throw the fight for his friendly captor, thus making the others look like dolts while the other one looks all cool and tough. Hercules gets carried away though and just kicks everyone's ass, thereby winning the freedom of the princess but not winning any points with his captors.

And then there's this sleazy guy who pretends to be her most faithful servant when, in fact, he is a villainous traitor working with the Mongols to kill whitey and make Hercules looks like a coward. It all results mostly in Hercules kicking a lot of Mongol ass and then strutting around heroically. At the end of the day, it has action, drama, muscles, spear-throwing, hearty laughing a-plenty, more action, and plenty of other good stuff. Throw it all in the stew, sprinkle with a healthy dose of men in loin cloths and women in revealing outfits, and you have a recipe for one fine night of entertainment.

Labels: Set: Warriors