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The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
Rate:
3
Viewed:
3/16
3/16:
The Fall of the Roman Empire had a budget of $19 million but grossed approximately 5 million dollars,
bankrupting producer Samuel Bronston's company.
Therefore, the film should be renamed as The Fall of the Bronston's Empire. Some of the scenes are apparently
ripped off from Ben-Hur,
Lawrence of Arabia, and El Cid. Too
much familiarity is also produced by bringing cast members together from these epic masterpieces: Stephen Boyd
of the first one; Alex Guinness, Anthony Quayle, and Omar Sharif (who hardly has any screen time, delivering
only four lines) of the second; and Sophia Loren of the third. Why not go for broke by also getting Charlton
Heston and Peter O'Toole? Now, that'll be the epic of rip-offs.
Throughout the lavishly made film, I had a hard time staying awake. Despite the good-looking in/exterior
sets and the sheer number of extras, the script makes no sense and is mind-numbingly boring. It's like everybody
showed up on the set with no preparation for their characters and was given a bunch of lines to recite before
calling it quits for the day.
Neither Stephen Boyd nor Christopher Plummer fits the bill as a leading man; that's why I didn't realize until
the last hour they were the principal stars. The trouble with Sophia Loren is her nonexistent acting ability.
A better fit for Italian soap operas, she has to resort to many phony acting tricks to convey her feelings. It's
clear at that point Sophia Loren had no theatrical training of any kind. Here are some notable trivia from IMDb:
"Stephen Boyd blamed the massive commercial failure of The Fall of the Roman Empire for ruining his
movie career."
"Alec Guinness admitted that he never saw more than twenty minutes of the completed film."
"Sophia Loren was the highest paid cast member at $1 million."
"It was envisioned that [Charlton] Heston would be cast as Livius, but he turned it down after finding out that
Loren would be the leading lady."
All in all, The Fall of the Roman Empire presents what can go wrong in a Roman epic picture.