The Fall of the Roman Empire A Must See but Flawed Film

The Fall of the Roman Empire is a wondrous film.

It was made in 1964 by the same team who made the classic adventure films El Cid and 55 Days at Peking: Samuel Bronston producer, Philip Yordan writer, and Anthony Mann director. (TFOTRE has one of the best casts ever assembled for a feature film.)

Imagine the task confronting the producers, directors, and writers when developing The Fall of The Roman Empire. They wanted to tell a story that dramatized in one feature film the key reason of why (and how) the Roman Empire fell. That is an incredibly ambitious goal. The creators, as I understand it, were influenced by Gibbon’s classic history text, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Did they succeed?

The film has many great positives, but I’ll focus on this filmmaking one:

What’s exceptionally interesting re the film (esp. in the first act) is how most if not all of the shots are riveting. Yes, they are excellent compositions, with incredible sets, and beautiful lighting. And, of course, some excellent acting. But what makes the scenes/shots especially riveting is the implications in the shots. That is, the ideas that that the observant viewer sees and which he adds together with other implications to form ideas that strongly influence his thinking and emotions. You can’t take your eyes off the scenes and actors in this film. And you can’t take your mind off the meaning of these scenes. You thus feel deeply. This is filmmaking at its highest potential.

Implication is the most advanced skill of a great writer, director, or cinematographer. Compare the wondrous lighting of The Fall of The Roman Empire, for eg, with many modern epics and their naturalistic grey palette lighting, glaring backlighting, lack of eyelights. In such a chaotic, blurred visual mess, how can we read the eyes, stance, and gestures of the characters? With such grey lighting/palette, how can we properly see the world before us and thus make the vital inductions of the implications/ideas being dramatized? (Assuming the script has something tosay.) We can’t. And thus the viewer’s interaction with the film is significantly less. If you want to see cinematography and directing at its very best watch The Fall of The Roman Empire!

Unfortunately, although the story of the film is fascinating and dramatic it also has a significant weakness.

I’ve never read Gibbon and am not a historian and have only cursorily read about his theory about the fall of Ancient Rome.

But when tackling such a huge historical event for a film, the producers would have had to boil down the great historical meaning of Rome’s fall to one main idea or theme.

But from my recent viewing of the film the exact meaning of its theme or what should have been its theme seemed lacking. I presume/suspect that the key broad reason Rome fell (and why our world today is crashing) is because of the collapse of Reason. This idea is depicted in some ways in The Fall of The Roman Empire, but unfortunately not consistently.

Like all films, the central conflict of The Fall of The Roman Empire should be between main characters representing specific ideas (implicitly or explicitly). Consider some of these characters in The Fall of The Roman Empire: The Greek scholar Timonides who represents reason. The new emperor Commodus who represents emotion and decadence. (He is beautifully played by Christopher Plummer!) There are the German barbarians who represent unreason but are also savages who could have been brought to reason and civilization. What the many other characters, especially Lucilla (Sophia Loren), portray I can’t say for certain but too often they weren’t clear expressions of a consistent theme,especially one regarding reason.

In essentials, I think the main conflict in the film is (though inconsistently) and should be the clash between those who believe in reason and those who hate or betray it. Please excuse my presumption but if this excellent film had better represented the titanic theme of Reason vs. Unreason (or some other fundamental and consistent theme) it would have been one of the greatest films ever produced. But even with its lack of thematic integration The Fall of the Roman Empire is a magnificent film achievement and a must view for any serious scholar of film and story.

Watch the film of The Fall of The Roman Empire here.

If you would like to know more about developing an audience grabbing theme in your story, let’s talk. Theme is emotion.  

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