Sex *is* Violence

Those last posters highlight the notion that, in the world of the sword-and-sandal poster, sex, in fact, is violence and vice-versa. The depictions of chained and barely clad figures, in particular - together with suggestive tag‑lines - underscores this strain of sadomasochism. On the left, the hero is (perhaps surprisingly) chained down while scantily clad women in the background writhe in shackles - it is notable that their pose is identical to other posters where women are depicted not chained but engaged in exotic, sexual, "harem"-style dances. The teasers - the word never had as much force as it does in connection with these posters - make explicit the identification of sex and violence: "See the thousand and one orgies of torture!" "The Nights of Pleasure… The Days of Terror!" These posters offer the promise of a fantasy realm - a decidedly male one - where civilized rules do not apply, a locus for indulging in and, in effect, celebrating sexual transgressiveness: the extreme, the bizarre, and indeed the illegal.

I include the poster on the right as a comparandum. These are two posters for the same movie. In other words, the license granted to the world of the poster is fluid enough to allow for characterizing these movies in highly divergent, almost contradictory ways.