It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Crappy film

I have only seen this film one time, but, being an enthusiastic fan of classic biblical epics, I must admit that this is a well-made, entertaining, international biblical epic. I found it visually compelling; the magnificent sets, outstanding cinematography, and epic scenes are all worthy to watch.Performances are very, very good. The whole cast gives believable portrayals. Anouk Aimée's portrayal of the Queen is subtle and flawless; she lends elegant beauty and regal grace to the extremely evil villain. I was fascinated with the brilliant character motivation that the screenwriter and director created for Ildith, Lot's wife, excellently played by a gorgeous Pier Angeli. It gives the character more depth and is, by far, the best characterization of Lot's wife in a film.I highly regard this film as one of the best biblical epics of all time. If has everything associated with the genre: romance, drama, disaster, and religion.

Robert Aldrich directed some classic films, like WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE, but he also directed not so great classics, like the stunningly bad but entertaining LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE. SODOM AND GOMORRAH is neither a good nor entertainingly bad film. It's just plain bad. The production values, though sorta grand, are awful. Everything looks grubby. The actors are totally miscast. The characters are not memorable or even interesting at any level whatsoever. The acting is awful. The action scenes are overdone and do not seem to gel with the rest of the leaden drama. The movie is all around sloppy and it's filled with many technical goofs, like visible tire tracks in the desert. No one, and I mean no one's heart was into this project. And it shows on screen.The mesmerizing Anouk Aimée is totally miscast as the evil Queen. Playing a lesbian, she wasn't believable on any level, as a Queen or someone evil or as a lesbian. Stewart Granger was blah (certainly compared to his excellent turn as Apollodorus in CAESAR & CLEOPATRA). I suspect Aldrich hated either the character or Granger the actor because Lot came across as someone virtuous and yet totally stupid. Like some sort of Dudley Do Wrong.Aldrich's penchant for things crude and quasi-trashy are in evidence throughout the movie. He certainly loves showcasing evil lesbians in his films (LYLAH CLARE, KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE, etc) and changing the actual ruler of Sodom from a King to a Queen, in order to indulge in his fetish, pointed to me that the director wasn't interested in anything to do with facts or creating a compelling dramatic story. Because of this, this grand epic looks no grander than your average Sword & Sandal film. In fact, Peplums are more fun than this because they rarely take themselves as seriously as this misguided project. There are some moment of great unintentional cheese/camp here but the film is way too long and tedious to make it worthwhile. Skip it.

This really was terrible. I have seen a lot of Biblical epics and of course they get a lot of it wrong. But this didn't get anything right!First of all we have Lot moving his family and goods away from his Uncle Abraham, because the land couldn't support them all. In the Bible we are told that Lot picked the lush, fertile land; leaving the arid land to his uncle. In this film Lot gets an arid place as well but builds a dam. Then there is the battle. Lot does valiantly, although he has to destroy his dam in order to attain victory. Could have sworn he was taken captive in Genesis and Abraham had to come and sort it.Sodom had a king - not a queen.Only 4 people left the city after the angel of Lord informed Lot that it would be destroyed. In the film the 'exodus' would have done Moses proud. With the number of people willing to leave, it's a wonder God destroyed it at all.I could go on but you get the idea.But I'm really amazed that several of the other comments I've read about this film state that the Bible doesn't specifically mention homosexuality as the sin that displeased God. It does, loud and clear. Perhaps these contributers are not aware that the King James Version "Where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us that we may know them." does not refer to going out for a game of darts and a pint of lager at the pub. The word "know" in the Biblical sense, means to have sexual intercourse.I had to give this a 1 because zero wasn't an option.

I love biblical epics and this is one of them, over two and one half hours long. Stewart Granger plays Lot, the Hebrew leader, who somehow is a salt miner and brings the tribe into Sodom where he is unable to persuade those naughty urbanites to behave according to Jehovah's commandments. The result, of course, is a spectacular Hollywood finale where S&G are destroyed by a meteor shower and Lot's wife is turned into a condiment. Lot and his two beautiful daughters escape. For those expecting Biblical authenticity, good luck. Actually after Lot's escape he, while drunk, is seduced by the girls and produces two incestuous bastards, Moab and Benjamin. This might be an idea for the sequel.