It was once said of Augustus Caesar that he took an empire built of clay and molded into one built of stone. If that's the case, the emperors that followed Augustus managed to dismantle that empire one brick at a time. If you've seen "Gladiator", you've seen a film that was no doubt inspired by "The Fall of the Roman Empire". Both films share a very similar plot and the epic vision of one of the best directors of two different generations. An ambitious, sprawling film that manages also to be great popular entertainment, "The Fall of the Roman Empire" is a classic road show film that fans that enjoy films like "El Cid" and "Ben Hur" (much less "Gladiator" or "Troy") will find involving, larger than life and filled with terrific action sequences. ***

"The Fall of The Roman Empire" is, indeed, epic and producer Samuel Bronstein intended for Anthony Mann's film to be the follow up pairing the late Charlton Heston with Sophia Loren for the first time since "El Cid". Bronstein's plans fell apart. Eventually Bronstein settled on Stephen Boyd who despite some impressive performances in the past (notably opposite Heston in "Ben Hur"), clearly isn't completely at home in the role. His line readings are often stiff perhaps it has as much to do with how poorly realized and memorable his character is in comparison to the others. Sophia Loren isn't much better in her role opposite Boyd and I can only imagine that if Heston had played the role that his larger-than-life persona would have given Loren inspiration. Don't get me wrong, Boyd isn't bad it's just that he is miscast as Livius in the film. Even Kirk Douglas would have brought his distinctive personality to the role making up for the shortcomings of the underdeveloped stock character. ***

The plot shares a lot of similarities with Ridley Scott's "Gladiator". When Marcus Aruelius (Alec Guinness in a role that was played by Richard Harris in "Gladiator" and, who was, in turn originally cast as Commodus in THIS film but was replaced by Christopher Plummer) near death decides to turn the Empire over to Livius (Boyd) rather than his own son Commodus, arrangements are made to have Aruelius murdered so that Commodus can take the throne. Commodus sister Lucilla (Loren) is married off to a prince (Omar Sharif) but is in love with Livius. If the plot sounds familiar, that's because as I mentioned earlier it shares many plot points with "Gladiator". "Gladiator" plays almost as a remake of "Rome" but that film does eventually spin off in its own direction focusing on the revenge aspects of the plot. Although largely fictional, writer and historian Will Durant worked as a consultant on the film to insure that what we saw on screen from the costumes to the sets themselves and the behavior of an average Roman was accurate. ***

Sadly, this would be the next-to-last epic that Bronston produced although he was involved either as a credited or uncredited producer of"Savage Pampas", "Circus World", "El Fantastico Mundo Del Doctor Coppelius", "Brigham" and "Fort Saganne" all films that were mere echoes of Bronston's best work as a producer. In many respects, this film represented the fall of the Bronston epic empire. ***

An expensive, lavish looking film "The Fall of The Roman Empire" looks impressive and director Mann makes the most of the rich production design. The film does betray its era with the use of pop zooms and other production touches but that's not a bad thing just something that 21st century audiences will have to get used to. The film benefits from the massive budget and lovingly detailed production design giving it the epic quality of a late 50's historical adventure film and rivaling the rich look of William Wyler's "Ben Hur". The musical score by Dimitri Tiomkin provides strong underpinning to the dramatic action seen on screen. Whatever short comings the film may have the vision of Mann and Bronston manages to overcome most of them. ---

Image & Sound:

"Empire" looks extremely impressive in its first ever DVD release. The film elements, however, haven't aged all that well with the colors having faded with time and image quality occasionally soft. Nevertheless, the colors are quite good even if the reds tend to be muted and muddy looking. Still, I doubt that "Empire" could look much better without a massive face lift by a restoration expert like Robert A. Harris. Still, the film looks very impressive and probably hasn't looked this good since the 60's when it premiered. ***

Audio sounds extremely good with a 5.1 remastered soundtrack that rivals some of the best work I've heard in other older films with remastered 5.1 mixes. I did notice that there was ---

Epic is an under statement about the special features that make up this 3 DVD set. The collector's edition includes a reproduction of the original souvenir program and six production stills both exclusive to the "Collector's Edition". ***

We get the original 1964 promotional film shot about the film "Rome in Madrid". There is also a trailer gallery, still galleries and filmographies included on the first disc. The best special feature, however, is the audio commentary by Bill Bronston, M.D. the son of producer Samuel Bronston and author Mel Martin who wrote a book about Bronston entitled The Magnificent Showman. Bronston who also did the audio commentary track for the re-issue of "El Cid" provides us with a lot of trivia and his memories about shooting the film in Madrid in 1963. ***

The second disc continues the film and also has some outstanding featurettes on its production including "History vs. Hollywood" which examines the historical accuracy and the liberties that Mann and Bronston took to tell their story. Featuring interviews with people like Neal M. Rosendorf, Ph.D. who is a biographer of Bronstein and a historian, Dr. Peter Heather a historian who accurately points out that its meant to be entertaining and NOT a documentary. As one historian points out the main inaccuracy visually is the pristine look of Rome's Forum when the reality was that it was a messy often dirty looking part of the city (as more accurately portrayed in "Rome" from HBO). Ironically, the authors of the screenplay Ben Barzman and Basilio Franchina didn't use any of Durant's work as a reference (according to Barzman's widow Norma who is interviewed in the extras). Durant's involvement was minimal compared to the Spanish historians that the two writers used as their reference. As with "Gladiator" the idea that Marcus Aurellias would have given the empire to someone other than Commodus is pure fabrication. ***

The most outstanding though are the "Encyclopedia Britannica" films "Life in Ancient Rome", "Julius Caesar: The Rise of the Roman Empire" and "Claudius: Boy of Ancient Rome" produced by William Deneen (who also appears in a new introduction discussing how he became involved in creating this notable and larger-than-life educational film) that were shot on the film's standing sets are included along with the original introduction that Deneen shot for the trio of featurettes. Deneen used footage shot for the film with the help and co-operation of "The Fall of The Roman Empire" producer Samuel Bronstein along with new footage used to illustrate the history of Rome. The film looks surprisingly good given the age of the footage but not surprisingly the colors have faded a bit with reds fairly muddy looking although skin tones are pretty accurate. ***

"The Rise and Fall of An Empire" is a solid featurette that examines the fascination that we have with Rome and the society they built. ***

"The Rise of An Epic Production" focuses on how and why Bronston assembled the film. We find out that Charlton Heston refused to sign on to the production because he and Sophia Loren absolutely detested each other. Mann still thought that they could pull it off with Boyd. Despite the gaping hole represented by Boyd's character which comes across as a stock hero, "The Fall of The Roman Empire" manages to reach the audience based on sheer spectacle. ---

Final Words: