"The greatest extravaganza of mortal combat ever staged": I guerrieri dell'anno 2072, classicism, fascism, and media consolidation in 1980s Italy

Daniel Vella

doi:10.7557/23.7928

Authors

Daniel Vella University of Malta https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8224-3801

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/23.7928

Keywords:

Lucio Fulci, dystopia, Rome, classicism, fascism, neoliberalism

Abstract

This paper examines the dystopian Italian science-fiction film I guerrieri dell’anno 2072 (Fulci, 1984), with a particular focus on the Battle of the Damned, a deadly televised contest in which condemned prisoners fight to the death in the reconstructed Colosseum in Rome. A consideration of this fictional game within the film’s dystopian future Rome will open onto three intertwined lines of analysis: the classicist impulse to conceive of a continuity between imperial Rome and contemporary Italy, the adoption of this classicism in fascist Italy, and media consolidation in the context of neoliberalism and political corruption in the 1980s. By pursuing these lines of analysis, the paper will argue that Fulci’s film functions as a critique of the national cultural moment from which it looks towards both Italy’s past and future as a continuity of authoritarianism and oppression.

References

Badan Palhares Knauer de Campos, L. (2022). Sergio Martino e a Memória da Guerra: Em Caso de Guernica em 2019 – Dopo la caduta di New York. Movimento 18, 25–44.

Bartel, P. (Director). (1975). Death Race 2000 [Film]. New World Pictures.

Beard, M. (2015). SPQR: A history of ancient Rome. Profile Books.

Canfora, L. (1976). Classicismo e Fascismo. Quaderni di Storia 3, 15–48.

Carpenter, J. (Director). (1981). Escape from New York [Film]. AVCO Embassy Pictures.

Castellari, E. G. (Director). (1982). I Nuovi Barbari [Film]. Titanus.

Cornell, P., & Hjertman, M. (2014). Style and monumental rebirth: Modernity, iteration and connection in Rome from renaissance to fascism. In H. Alexandersson, A. Andreef, & A. Bünz (Eds.), Med hjärta Och hjärna: En vänbok till Professor Elisabeth Arwill-Nordbladh (pp. 587–606). Göteborgs Universitet.

Fulci, L. (Director). (1969). Beatrice Cenci [Film]. Filmena.

Fulci, L. (Director). (1971). Non si sevizia un paperino [Film]. Medusa Distribuzione.

Fulci, L. (Director). (1972). Nonostante le apparenze… e purchè la nazzione non lo sappia… All’onorevole piacciono le donne [Film]. Fida Cinematografica.

Fulci, L. (Director). (1984). I guerrieri dell‘anno 2072 [Film]. Titanus.

Glaser, P. M. (Director). (1987). The Running Man [Film]. TriStar Pictures.

Gualeni, S., & Fassone, R. (2023). Fictional Games: A Philosophy of Worldbuilding and Imaginary Play. Bloomsbury.

Huizinga, J. (1950). Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Beacon Press.

Jewison, N. (Director). (1975). Rollerball [Film]. United Artists.

Kirk, T. (2008). The image of King Vittorio Emanuele II and the remaking of Rome. The Court Historian, 13(1), 35–49. https://doi.org/10.1179/cou.2008.13.1.004

Martino, S. (Director). (1983). 2019: Dopo la caduta di New York [Film]. Medusa Distribuzione.

Martino, S. (Director). (1986). Vendetta dal futuro [Film]. Medusa Distribuzione.

Meades, A. F. (2015). Understanding counterplay in video games. Routledge.

Mendik, X. (2015). Bodies of desire and bodies in distress: The golden age of Italian cult cinema 1970–1985. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Miller, G. (Director). (1981). Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior [Film]. Warner Bros.

Mortensen, T. E., & Jørgensen, K. (2020). The paradox of transgression in games. Routledge.

Notaro, A. (2000). Exhibiting the new Mussolinian City: Memories of empire in the World Exhibition of Rome (EUR). GeoJournal, 51, 15–22. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010893010920

Renga, D. (2011). Pastapocalypse! End times in Italian trash cinema. The Italianist 31(2), 243–257. https://doi.org/10.1179/026143411X13051090964695

Riegl, A. (1982). The modern cult of monuments: Its character and its origins (K. W. Foster & D. Ghirardo, Trans.). Oppositions, 25, 21–51. (Original work published 1902)

Rogerson, M. (2025, forthcoming). Fulci’s Inferno. McFarland.

Romagnoli, M. (2014). L’Occhio del Testimone: Il Cinema di Lucio Fulci. Kappalab.

Salvatori, P. S. (2014). Fascismo e Romanità. Studi Storici, 55(1), 227–239. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43592554

Urbina, D. A., & Villaverde, A. (2019). A critical review of Homo Economicus from five approaches. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 78(1), 63–93. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12258

Wyler, W. (Director). (1959). Ben-Hur [Film]. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.