The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
Country: US/SP
Technical: Technicolor/scope 187m
Director: Anthony Mann
Cast: Stephen Boyd, Sophia Loren, Christopher Plummer, Alec Guinness, James Mason, Anthony Quayle, John Ireland, Omar Sharif, Mel Ferrer, Eric Porter
Synopsis:
In the declining months of Marcus Aurelius Rome faces two threats, from the North and the East; when he is poisoned his renegade son Commodus sets about undoing everything he had done to avert them.
Review:
What promises to be an austere, intelligent epic soon becomes something of a drag. It can't resist borrowing more than its stars from "Ben Hur" and "El Cid", but once Marcus Aurelius is gone the rest of the dramatis personae is left fighting over the scraps in more ways than one. Meanwhile it entertains with its lavishness and its wasted supporting cast, and spouts a good deal about 'Rome'. Loren comes off the best, suffering in style, while Boyd as good guy resorts to honeyed laments. We are mostly left with Plummer's antic Emperor, chuckling at the laughter of the Gods. The three locations (all Spain, of course), topped by a magnificent forum romanum built outside Madrid, are a feast for the eyes while permitting rather too many easy commutes back and forth for the characters; the action highlights (a laughable chariot race through the Guadarrama national park, passable hand-to-hand fighting in Germania and Armenia, and an anti-climactic duel with 'pila' inside a magnificent shield arena) are perfunctory alongside those of El Cid, although the arrival of the Persian army draws a token intake of breath. Ultimately it wins admiration for what it assays more than what it achieves: a philosophic analysis of the best and worst of Rome that contrives to be entertaining at the same time.
Country: US/SP
Technical: Technicolor/scope 187m
Director: Anthony Mann
Cast: Stephen Boyd, Sophia Loren, Christopher Plummer, Alec Guinness, James Mason, Anthony Quayle, John Ireland, Omar Sharif, Mel Ferrer, Eric Porter
Synopsis:
In the declining months of Marcus Aurelius Rome faces two threats, from the North and the East; when he is poisoned his renegade son Commodus sets about undoing everything he had done to avert them.
Review:
What promises to be an austere, intelligent epic soon becomes something of a drag. It can't resist borrowing more than its stars from "Ben Hur" and "El Cid", but once Marcus Aurelius is gone the rest of the dramatis personae is left fighting over the scraps in more ways than one. Meanwhile it entertains with its lavishness and its wasted supporting cast, and spouts a good deal about 'Rome'. Loren comes off the best, suffering in style, while Boyd as good guy resorts to honeyed laments. We are mostly left with Plummer's antic Emperor, chuckling at the laughter of the Gods. The three locations (all Spain, of course), topped by a magnificent forum romanum built outside Madrid, are a feast for the eyes while permitting rather too many easy commutes back and forth for the characters; the action highlights (a laughable chariot race through the Guadarrama national park, passable hand-to-hand fighting in Germania and Armenia, and an anti-climactic duel with 'pila' inside a magnificent shield arena) are perfunctory alongside those of El Cid, although the arrival of the Persian army draws a token intake of breath. Ultimately it wins admiration for what it assays more than what it achieves: a philosophic analysis of the best and worst of Rome that contrives to be entertaining at the same time.
Country: US/SP
Technical: Technicolor/scope 187m
Director: Anthony Mann
Cast: Stephen Boyd, Sophia Loren, Christopher Plummer, Alec Guinness, James Mason, Anthony Quayle, John Ireland, Omar Sharif, Mel Ferrer, Eric Porter
Synopsis:
In the declining months of Marcus Aurelius Rome faces two threats, from the North and the East; when he is poisoned his renegade son Commodus sets about undoing everything he had done to avert them.
Review:
What promises to be an austere, intelligent epic soon becomes something of a drag. It can't resist borrowing more than its stars from "Ben Hur" and "El Cid", but once Marcus Aurelius is gone the rest of the dramatis personae is left fighting over the scraps in more ways than one. Meanwhile it entertains with its lavishness and its wasted supporting cast, and spouts a good deal about 'Rome'. Loren comes off the best, suffering in style, while Boyd as good guy resorts to honeyed laments. We are mostly left with Plummer's antic Emperor, chuckling at the laughter of the Gods. The three locations (all Spain, of course), topped by a magnificent forum romanum built outside Madrid, are a feast for the eyes while permitting rather too many easy commutes back and forth for the characters; the action highlights (a laughable chariot race through the Guadarrama national park, passable hand-to-hand fighting in Germania and Armenia, and an anti-climactic duel with 'pila' inside a magnificent shield arena) are perfunctory alongside those of El Cid, although the arrival of the Persian army draws a token intake of breath. Ultimately it wins admiration for what it assays more than what it achieves: a philosophic analysis of the best and worst of Rome that contrives to be entertaining at the same time.