Helena

Maybe the earliest big epic spectacle film I've seen even preceding Ben-Hur by a year. The sheer scope of the film might even eclipse Ben-Hur but there is not a lot of depth because it's always on to the next thing. This was crazy long at over three and a half hours but it still tried to pack in too much. The best parts of the film for me were all the striking imagery where you could just take a still and hang it on your wall.

This epic about Helen of Troy is impressive, yet so disappointing in many important aspects too. Helena is one of those grand productions that get too carried away with being spectacular in every way that it forgets to tell it's story in a simple and engaging manner. It's all about the battles, large scale shots and special effects. Manfred Noa makes it too arty in many aspects and forgets to really connect the people in it. But you can really enjoy those enormous and powerful action scenes!