The Fall of the Roman Empire (film)
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| The Fall of the Roman Empire | |
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 Original film poster |
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| Directed by | Anthony Mann |
| Produced by | Samuel Bronston Jaime Prades (associate) Michal Waszynski (associate) |
| Written by | Ben Barzman Basilio Franchina Philip Yordan |
| Starring | Sophia Loren Stephen Boyd Alec Guinness James Mason Christopher Plummer Mel Ferrer Omar Sharif Finlay Currie |
| Music by | Dimitri Tiomkin |
| Cinematography | Robert Krasker |
| Editing by | Robert Lawrence |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 26 March 1964 |
| Running time | 188 min. |
| Country | US |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US $20m |
| IMDb profile | |
The Fall of the Roman Empire is a 1964 epic film made by Samuel Bronston Productions and The Rank Organisation, and released by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Anthony Mann and produced by Samuel Bronston with Jaime Prades and Michal Waszynski as associate producers. The screenplay was by Ben Barzman, Basilio Franchina and Philip Yordan. The cinematography was by Robert Krasker and the original music score by Dimitri Tiomkin. The historian Will Durant was engaged to advise on period detail and plot.
The film starred Sophia Loren (Lucilla), Stephen Boyd (Livius), Alec Guinness (Marcus Aurelius), James Mason (Timonides), Christopher Plummer (Commodus), Mel Ferrer (Cleander), and Omar Sharif (Sohamus, King of Armenia) with Finlay Currie (Caecina), Anthony Quayle (Verulus), John Ireland (Ballomar), Eric Porter (Julianus), Andrew Keir (Polybius), Douglas Wilmer (Niger) and George Murcell (Victorinus).
The film was a financial failure at the box-office. However, it is considered unusually intelligent and thoughtful for a film of the contemporary sword and sandal genre.
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[edit] Plot
The film loosely portrays historic events of the Roman Empire in the late 2nd century, particularly the career of Roman Emperor Commodus, his succession to his father Marcus Aurelius, and his clash with childhood friend Livius (NB an invented character). Following a plausible interpretation of the historical records, Commodus is depicted as over-compensating for emotional vulnerability and soon descends into instability and corruption. The film culminates in a symbolic battle of good versus evil, a gladiatorial combat to the death between Livius and Commodus. It also depicts the debate the Romans were confronted with concerning the Barbarians, whether to fight and maintain cultural superiority but possibly lose everything, or give in to their demands in the face of overwhelming numbers, but still maintain independence. The Christian faith of the philosopher Timonides is contrasted with the Stoicism of Marcus.
[edit] Production
It was one of Samuel Bronston's superproductions in Spain, with Marcus Aurelius's winter camp on the Danube shot in snow in the Sierra de Guadarrama, northern Madrid. The 'Battle of the Four Armies' involved 8,000 soldiers including 1,200 cavalry and was shot on an undulating plain at Manzanares El Real which allowed large numbers of soldiers to be visible over a long distance. The film's reconstruction of the Roman Forum at Las Matas near Madrid, at 400 x 230 meters (1312 x 754 feet) holds the record for the largest outdoor film set. The various ancient Rome settings covered 55 acres.
[edit] Relationship to history; major characters
The plot may be termed a fantasia on various historical events and characters in the years 180-192, which are taken as the moment when the Roman Empire ceased to rise and begun its ineluctable decline, under the disastrous rule of the unhinged Emperor Commodus. The death of Marcus Aurelius is shown as being due to poison, as rumoured at the time. Commodus's liking for gladiators and for fighting as a gladiator himself is historically attested: it led to rumours that he was actually the bastard son of a gladiator who had been the lover of Marcus's wife Faustina - this story is alluded to, and made dramatic use of, since towards the end of the film it emerges that his gladiator trainer, Verulus (Anthony Quayle) is his real father: unable to bear this, Commodus kills him. His sister Lucilla's opposition to his rule is also historical, though her political marriage to the King of Armenia is not, nor is her surviving his reign. (In fact, she was executed following a botched attempt on his life.) The 'Battle of the Four Armies' between loyalist and renegade Roman legions, Armenians and Persians is not a historical event, indeed the Sassanid Persian empire did not currently exist at this time (they are standing in for the historical Parthians). The scene near the end, when Julianus and other senators attempt to bribe the military to make one of them Emperor, while Commodus and Livius are fighting below them, refers to events three months after Commodus's death (he actually died by poisoning and/or strangulation) when Didius Julianus bribed the Praetorian Guard to proclaim him Emperor, outbidding his rival Claudius Pompeianus - a character not shown in the film, though it was he, not a King of Armenia, who actually married Lucilla. A number of minor characters are (approximately) historical - Commodus's corrupt chamberlain Cleander (represented in the film as a blind man), his courtier Niger (to be identified no doubt with another posthumous claimant for the throne, Pescennius Niger), and Livius's comrade Victorinus, probably based on the general of the period named Aufidius Victorinus. Other characters of similar rank in the film seem however to be complete inventions. Though highly spectacular and intelligently scripted, the failure of the film may be partly attributable to the remarkably wooden performance of its central actor, Stephen Boyd, as the loyal general Livius (himself an invented character). On the other hand the highly charismatic performance of Christopher Plummer as the unstable Commodus helped to create his star reputation (it was only his third appearance on film), and the part of Marcus Aurelius is very well portrayed by Alec Guinness, notably in a long soliloquy (for which composer Dmitri Tiomkin said he found it impossible to write any music) largely created out of quotations from the Emperor's own philosophical work, the Meditations.
[edit] Music
Tiomkin's award-winning score is one of the notable features of the film. He composed over 150 minutes of music for large orchestra with an important part for organ, and several sections are extended compositions in their own right. These include the sections Pax Romana in which Marcus Aurelius summons the governors of all the Roman provinces (claimed by Christopher Palmer to be a march; it is actually a bolero), The Roman Forum accompanying Commodus's triumphal return to Rome as newly-installed Emperor, a percussive scherzo for a barbarian attack, and the Tarantella danced by the Roman mob on the evening presaging the gladiatorial combat between Livius and Commodus (which seems to be modelled on the Tarantella movement from the Piano Concerto of Tiomkin's teacher Busoni). The score was recorded at Shepperton Studios and produced by George Korngold, son of Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
[edit] Awards
- Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score (nominated & won)
- Academy Award for Best Music, Score - Substantially Original (nominated)
[edit] Novelization
A novel based on the film is The Fall of the Roman Empire by Harry Whittington (Fawcett Publications, Inc. & Frederick Muller Ltd., 1964)
[edit] Trivia
- At US $1m, Sophia Loren was the highest paid cast member
- Richard Harris was originally cast as Commodus, but was replaced by Christopher Plummer. Harris would later play the role of Marcus Aurelius in the 2000 film Gladiator which reuses several of the narrative elements of Fall of the Roman Empire in combination with elements from Spartacus.
- Charlton Heston was originally destined to play Livius, but was replaced by Stephen Boyd
- The Fall of the Roman Empire was a costly financial failure for producer Samuel Bronston who, after making such epics as John Paul Jones (1959), King of Kings (1961), El Cid (1961), and 55 Days at Peking (1963) had to stop all business activities. He announced his return with a planned epic about Isabella of Spain, but the film was never made.
- One of the few Ultra Panavision 70 films not exhibited in Cinerama.
[edit] See also
- List of Roman Emperors
- The Five Good Emperors, of which Marcus Aurelius was the last
- Decline of the Roman Empire
