Scipio the African is an Italian costume drama which takes endless dialogue scenes and throws them into a slow-moving historical story. I'm not sure why it's listed as a comedy as apart from a bit of irony and comparison with 20th century history and the occasional scene of raspberry-blowing there's little here that could be defined as such.
Instead what we get is a bunch of middle-aged and older Italian actors standing around and discussing the important issues of the day while Woody Strode cameos as a tribal chieftain. The thrust of the plot is a political battle of wits between Marcello Mastroianni's Scipio and Cato the elder statesman, but the whole film seems utterly devoid of the basic film-making techniques of editing, suspense, and style to give it an 'oomph'. Instead it just feels staged and like a filmed play. I found it a snooze-fest.
Instead what we get is a bunch of middle-aged and older Italian actors standing around and discussing the important issues of the day while Woody Strode cameos as a tribal chieftain. The thrust of the plot is a political battle of wits between Marcello Mastroianni's Scipio and Cato the elder statesman, but the whole film seems utterly devoid of the basic film-making techniques of editing, suspense, and style to give it an 'oomph'. Instead it just feels staged and like a filmed play. I found it a snooze-fest.