The Fall Of The Roman Empire (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (The Miriam Collection)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alec Guinness, Christopher Plummer, James Mason, Sophia Loren, Stephen BoydBrand: Genius
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 179 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-04-29
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 80397
Studio: Genius Products (TVN)
Movie Reviews of The Fall Of The Roman Empire (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (The Miriam Collection)
Movie Review: Unique Uplift from Bronston's Last Major Epic
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Fall of the Roman Empire" (1964) suffers from the absence of Charlton Heston, who turned down the lead role of Livius. Producer Samuel Bronston next turned to Kirk Douglas, who seems to later regret also refusing that role in his autobiography "The Ragman's Son". Without either of epic cinema's two central heroic actors, "The Fall" was crippled from the start. Although Irish actor Stephen Boyd fills the role of Livius with the requisite authority and discipline, he lacks expressive passion and the vivid gap between himself and heroine Sophia Loren as tortured lovers is the major disconnect in the entire film. However, what remains is surely one of the most stupendous epic films ever created. Last in the tetralogy started in 1959 with "John Paul Jones" from Samuel Bronston (Trotsky's nephew), "The Fall" was directed by Anthony Mann and beautifully filmed by Robert Krasker - the duo also responsible for Bronston's greatest achievement "El Cid". With masterful performances by Alec Guinness as Emperor Marcus Aurelius and James Mason as his Greek advisor, the acting standard is led by Canadian Christopher Plummer as the megalomaniac Emperor Commodus. Colasanti and Moore, one-time designers at Milan's la Scala, deliver collosal sets reproducing Rome's frontier fortresses, her imperial palaces, temples and metropolitan Forum. To the background of magnificently lush music supplied by Dimitri Tiomkin, the largest sets in the world bring an audacious liveliness and credibility to the project. Mann shows what he may have done with "Spartacus" had he been kept on that earlier project by delivering a dark film-noir first half dominated by imperial family intrigue, snowy shadows and menacing forests. An obvious influence on "Star Wars" as well as the clear model for "Gladiator", "The Fall" was lauded by Martin Scorcese as having the beauty of a lost art. The funeral pyre of Aurelius, shot outdoors in real snowfall, is a peak in epic filmmaking, as the eerie keen of massed legionnaires fills the screen. With an ill-advised marketing campaign, financial strain after the enormous investment as well as bad timing after the Kennedy assassination and the relative failure of "Cleopatra" at the box office, "The Fall of the Roman Empire" was Bronston's last major effort. In just five short years, he had progressed the epic tradition of Griffith and DeMille and delivered lasting historical visions of epic grandeur. None more grand than "The Fall of The Roman Empire". Had Heston or Douglas filled the role of Livius with human depth and passion, that tradition might have reached even higher things. As it stands, "The Fall of the Roman Empire" is a magnificent ruin, as worthy of constant revisiting as the physical archaeology it so brilliantly rebirths. Short of perfect in acting and story development, it is without question superb in directing, photography, sets and design, music and cinematic maturity. After "The Fall", cinema itself declined for many years. This was the last of old Hollywood, ironically created by Samuel Bronston away from Hollywood in Franco's Spain. With twenty lost minutes to be added at some point hopefully in the future, these remastered discs are the best of what English-speaking epic cinema has now to offer.
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Summary of The Fall Of The Roman Empire (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (The Miriam Collection)
Anthony Mann directs this "giant-size, three-hour, sweepingly pictorial entertainment" (Daily Variety) that chronicles the peace-loving Caeser, Marcus Aurelius (Guinness) and his corrupt son, Commodus, (Plummer) who covets his throne. Featuring epic battles, breathtaking sets and locations, and a chariot race that easily rivals Ben Hur, Fall of the Roman Empire charts the greedy miscalculations that led to this civilization's collapse at the bloody hands of the Barbarians.The second and last of Anthony Mann's historical epics is a smart, handsome spectacle of the decadence, corruption, and intrigue that tears apart the greatest empire the world has seen. The sprawling story spreads itself thin over a number of characters and stories. At the center are handsome but stiff Stephen Boyd as Livius, the loyal soldier and symbolic son of the aging emperor (Alec Guinness), and Christopher Plummer as Commodus, the corrupt heir to the throne--boyhood friends turned enemies when the latter accedes to the throne and sells out the values of his father for greed and hedonistic pleasures. The three-hour running time is filled out with the tales of Sophia Loren (as the beautiful Lucilla in love with Livius but coveted by greedy Commodus) and a gallery of heroes and villains that includes James Mason, Mel Ferrer, Anthony Quayle, John Ireland, Omar Sharif, and Eric Porter. The film is highlighted with spectacular scenes (a grandiose funeral fit for an emperor, brutal battles in the provinces as the barbarians threaten the empire, and a climactic duel to decide the destiny of Rome), which Mann weaves into the shadowy intrigue of the halls of power. Like his previous epic El Cid, The Fall of the Roman Empire remains one of the best of the 1960s epics: well written (and largely historically accurate) with strong performances and a consistently elegant style, but it lacks a central core and the magnetic hero of its superior predecessor. --Sean Axmaker
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