Best Movies Set in Rome

[Graham Sumner]

That whole speech given by Marcus Aurelius in which he promised eventual universal citizenship would've been unthinkable at that time - even though it happened 30 years later.

Hi Jaime

You have to remember when the film came out. Whole generations of movie goers from the fifties brought up on movies like 'Quo Vadis', 'The Robe' and 'Ben-Hur' made only a few years previously, when in all of them the Romans are the heavies. So how do you suddenly turn the Romans into the good guys not only to an established audience but to a younger 60's audience who view Imperialism with the establishment. Simple make the empire through Marcus Aurelius promise equality for all "wherever they live, whatever the colour of their skin".

This film showed Stephen Boyd's lack of any acting ability. The only reason he came off as being a decent actor in Ben Hur was because the director (William Wyler) kept drilling him over and over, shooting take after take until he got a decent performance out of him. But Antony Mann didn't do too many takes with his leading man for FOTRE and his film was greatly diminished, hence its somber reception by the movie-goers.

I think the moviegoers had had enough of epics by the time this film came out whoever was in the lead role. Boyd was visually very impressive but there was no chemistry between him and Loren and their dialog is appalling. It IS probably the most accurate Hollywood version of Ancient Rome ever made to date not appreciated at the time and was very similar in some respects to 'Alexander'. It suffered a similar fate which almost adds to the poignant story it tried to tell on screen.

The music (so important !) was completely incongruous with almost every scene, especially during the action sequences.

Well it certainly is not the usual Miklos Roza score everyone normally associates with Roman epics. It does actually take some getting used too but the prelude to the battle in the forest is really beautiful although ironically it does not feature on the soundtrack CD. Another irony Jaime is that Tiomkin's score was actually nominated for an Oscar!

The acting by the non-British actors was atrocious, IMO,

Loren is probably the main non British actor unless you count Plummer, actually Canadian as non-British so there were not many non-British actors in major roles. Otherwise I agree with you, Jaime. Alec Guinness had the best role but I also like James Mason in this, Anthony Quayle, and especially Douglas Wilmer and Eric Porter who both have excellent supporting roles.

The film generally gets better reviews now than it did at the time, yearning for a lost era perhaps. I saw this film in London when it came out on the big screen It was an inspiration to me age six and you can see the influences in my artwork to this day.

BTW, by my count it seems that the Spanish Army was used to play Roman legionaries in three major epics - Spartacus (1960), FOTRE (1964), and Cleopatra (1963). Any others I missed ?

I am not sure Spanish troops were used in Cleopatra but I will check. The other possibility is 'King of Kings'. also from the Bronston Studio. Spanish troops were used so often by film-makers at that time, that apparently one day when General Franco wanted to go on a tour of inspection his embarrassed generals said he could not because his army was making a film for Samuel Bronston!.
Graham.