The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
The irony of The Fall of the Roman Empire is that no one wanted to be in it. Kirk Douglas turned it down for $1.5 million, an incredible offer in 1964! If you watch the three-hour movie, you’ll understand why. Kirk Douglas was able to recognize a terrible script when he read one.
Ben Barzman, Basilio Franchina, and Philip Yordan’s script is so bad, it’s hard to believe through the dozens of drafts and rewrites all film scripts must endure, no one could have improved it before the actors started speaking. For example, Stephen Boyd sees Sophia Loren after a long absence and tells he she’s beautiful. “Beautiful?” she repeats. “What . . . does that mean?” As another example, in one of the plentiful battle scenes, Stephen tries to convince everyone to stop fighting, but the angry mob of bad guys won’t listen. “Let us die killing them!” one extra shouts. The dialogue is so stilted and mostly unnecessary, that even when the tedious fight scenes are over, you almost long for them to return.
In a film that could have easily been an hour shorter, you’d think I’d be grateful to have three hours to stare at Stephen Boyd’s handsome face. As much as I love him, and as beautiful as Sophia Loren is, Christopher Plummer ruins the movie—with help from the script and the ridiculous rip-offs from Ben-Hur. In the beginning of the film when Chris and Stephen are reunited after years of being apart, they embrace and drink a toast with their arms entwined. I realize that was a Roman custom, but since the scene was so similar to Ben-Hur, it’s hard to take it seriously. It’s the same with the chariot race, in which Chris—the Messala to Stephen’s Ben-Hur—tries to hook his wheel under Stephen’s to break his chariot. When that doesn’t work, he actually starts whipping him; sound familiar? Unfortunately, even if you’ve never seen Ben-Hur and could watch this movie with fresh eyes, Christopher Plummer still ruins the movie. He speaks nearly every line with a sing-song lilt, and he prances around as if he was a stereotypical French fashion designer, instead of a Roman leader. His performance is so horrible, it’s shocking that he had a career afterwards, let alone had to be coerced into taking the role of Captain Von Trapp the very next year.
Dimitri Tiomkin’s score earned an Oscar nod, and when you listen to the soundtrack, it sounds very pretty, exciting, and Roman. Hearing it while watching the film feels a little incongruous. Dimitri may have come up with a pretty theme, but he probably wasn’t watching the movie while he wrote it. Music buffs might not want to sit through the entire movie, and despite the supporting cast including Alec Guinness, James Mason, Omar Sharif, Mel Ferrer, John Ireland, Anthony Quayle, and Finlay Currie, movie buffs might want to either.
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on ok.ru. And thanks "2Flamco Com" for posting!
More Alec Guinness movies here!
More James Mason movies here!
Ben Barzman, Basilio Franchina, and Philip Yordan’s script is so bad, it’s hard to believe through the dozens of drafts and rewrites all film scripts must endure, no one could have improved it before the actors started speaking. For example, Stephen Boyd sees Sophia Loren after a long absence and tells he she’s beautiful. “Beautiful?” she repeats. “What . . . does that mean?” As another example, in one of the plentiful battle scenes, Stephen tries to convince everyone to stop fighting, but the angry mob of bad guys won’t listen. “Let us die killing them!” one extra shouts. The dialogue is so stilted and mostly unnecessary, that even when the tedious fight scenes are over, you almost long for them to return.
In a film that could have easily been an hour shorter, you’d think I’d be grateful to have three hours to stare at Stephen Boyd’s handsome face. As much as I love him, and as beautiful as Sophia Loren is, Christopher Plummer ruins the movie—with help from the script and the ridiculous rip-offs from Ben-Hur. In the beginning of the film when Chris and Stephen are reunited after years of being apart, they embrace and drink a toast with their arms entwined. I realize that was a Roman custom, but since the scene was so similar to Ben-Hur, it’s hard to take it seriously. It’s the same with the chariot race, in which Chris—the Messala to Stephen’s Ben-Hur—tries to hook his wheel under Stephen’s to break his chariot. When that doesn’t work, he actually starts whipping him; sound familiar? Unfortunately, even if you’ve never seen Ben-Hur and could watch this movie with fresh eyes, Christopher Plummer still ruins the movie. He speaks nearly every line with a sing-song lilt, and he prances around as if he was a stereotypical French fashion designer, instead of a Roman leader. His performance is so horrible, it’s shocking that he had a career afterwards, let alone had to be coerced into taking the role of Captain Von Trapp the very next year.
Dimitri Tiomkin’s score earned an Oscar nod, and when you listen to the soundtrack, it sounds very pretty, exciting, and Roman. Hearing it while watching the film feels a little incongruous. Dimitri may have come up with a pretty theme, but he probably wasn’t watching the movie while he wrote it. Music buffs might not want to sit through the entire movie, and despite the supporting cast including Alec Guinness, James Mason, Omar Sharif, Mel Ferrer, John Ireland, Anthony Quayle, and Finlay Currie, movie buffs might want to either.
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on ok.ru. And thanks "2Flamco Com" for posting!
More Alec Guinness movies here!
More James Mason movies here!