05-07-2009, 09:57 PM
Hi
Film makers like to remake films that have a proven track record rather than take a chance on anything completely new. In these cash strapped days it is a wonder they would even contemplate making an epic of any kind so for that we must be grateful. However I am always struck by the fact that a Roman film has to be an 'epic'. A bit of clever scriptwriting could easily portray many small scale events or fictional stories set in Roman times. 'Centurion' might just fall into this category. An old BBC drama call 'Red Shift' was another. 'Dog Soldiers' could easily have been a contuburnia of Romans fighting werewolves!
As pointed out it is unlikely that an accurate version of Ben-Hur will ever me made because the story itself is so inaccurate! Do not get Jasper started on the navy, what with all those slave powered ships!
Anyone tossing tiles on a passing Governor, which should in fact be the Prefect, would probably have been crucified straight away! As far as I know Romans had no large prisons. Thus removing the entire rest of the plot at a stroke. If you ended the story there, perhaps with just a few ammendments it could indeed be very accurate but a lot shorter!
In the famous film version there is a mention of 'two more legions' arriving and presumably adding to an existant Legionary force, a brutal occupation force of course, without which Ben-Hur would not have been able to enrich himself through the trade routes, protected by said brutal occupaton force! In fact we know the Roman force in Judaea at that time consisted of little more than six Auxiliary Cohorts.
Charioteers of course also rode in teams, not as individuals representing various nations of the empire and I have never come across a serving military tribune taking part in the races.
Compared to these errors, the odd leather breastplate here and there is probably going to be a minor fault.
Graham.
Film makers like to remake films that have a proven track record rather than take a chance on anything completely new. In these cash strapped days it is a wonder they would even contemplate making an epic of any kind so for that we must be grateful. However I am always struck by the fact that a Roman film has to be an 'epic'. A bit of clever scriptwriting could easily portray many small scale events or fictional stories set in Roman times. 'Centurion' might just fall into this category. An old BBC drama call 'Red Shift' was another. 'Dog Soldiers' could easily have been a contuburnia of Romans fighting werewolves!
As pointed out it is unlikely that an accurate version of Ben-Hur will ever me made because the story itself is so inaccurate! Do not get Jasper started on the navy, what with all those slave powered ships!
Anyone tossing tiles on a passing Governor, which should in fact be the Prefect, would probably have been crucified straight away! As far as I know Romans had no large prisons. Thus removing the entire rest of the plot at a stroke. If you ended the story there, perhaps with just a few ammendments it could indeed be very accurate but a lot shorter!
In the famous film version there is a mention of 'two more legions' arriving and presumably adding to an existant Legionary force, a brutal occupation force of course, without which Ben-Hur would not have been able to enrich himself through the trade routes, protected by said brutal occupaton force! In fact we know the Roman force in Judaea at that time consisted of little more than six Auxiliary Cohorts.
Charioteers of course also rode in teams, not as individuals representing various nations of the empire and I have never come across a serving military tribune taking part in the races.
Compared to these errors, the odd leather breastplate here and there is probably going to be a minor fault.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
