 |
The Fall Of The Roman Empire (Three-Disc Limited Collector’s Edition) Streaming.
Product: The Fall Of The Roman Empire (Three-Disc Limited Collector’s Edition)
Average customer review:
Amazon Price: Sale Price Too Low To Display
Click Below To See Amazon Sale Price
Add to cart to see discount price@

Availability: In Stock
Usually ships in 24 Hours
Free Shipping At Amazon
|
Compare Prices on The Fall Of The Roman Empire (Three-Disc Limited Collector’s Edition)
Martin Scorsese once said about THE Topple OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE that it has the beauty of a lost art. Moral, Hollywood can never film a film of this grandiose scale (nowadays CGI would replace those hundred of extras, but CGI can never be as helpful as the true thing) that deals with profound themes, usually considered to be “commercially unnatractive”. Collected, if cinema is an art execute (and the Oscar people pretentiously call themselves Academy of Motion Represent “ART” and Science), then they should sometime try to design a film like that, or at least honour them when they are made, instead of praizing such well-crafted nonsense like GLADIATOR. Hollywood has forgotten its rich history and heritage. What a shame.
THE Drop OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE is an intense, considerable drama about corruption of power. Anthony Mann’s meticulous, sharp-edged, and in this case extremely cold-blooded direction powerfully points out how the Roman Empire, at the height of its power and glory, started its degradation and eventually will descend apart. That might happen to any kind of mighty society –history has proven so–, that when a society gets too grand power, the power itself becomes the motivation for corruption and destruction. This film is not a shalow fascistic glorification of power that GLADIATOR is, but an inteligent, profound and ultimately tragic analysis of human behavior.
Not to say that it is not visually atractive. Mann was always a creator of worthy, eloquent imagery. Simply, he doesn’t waiste pictorial beauty as Ridley Scott did in GLADIATOR (or even more in HANNIBAl, for that matters) . He is one of those stout masters who knows how to amplify a advantageous myth with great imagery, to present the record even more than telling it with dialogues. So instead of filling a whole record with post-card-like images, he punctuates strong dramatic monent withe grand shots–no slay.
Buy,Download, Or Stream The Fall Of The Roman Empire (Three-Disc Limited Collector’s Edition)! Click Here
The film was shot in Ultra Panavision 70, which is an VisitaVision camera with an anamorphic lens attached to it. It was probably the most versitile system among those great format (65mm) system of the 60’s. With extraordinary image clarity, yet one could disappear the camera almost as freely as in regular 35mm. When somebody like Anthony MANN was gievn such a camera, the result is wonderful (another, arguably better example is EL CID) .
The irony is that, to describe the corruption of power, one has to indicate the power itself–in this case a great number of extras dressed as roman soldiers, The film was hot in spain, and all those extras was furnished by general Franco’s fascistic military regime. Franco loved movies, but apparently never realised that the film he helped making was a important metaphore of what he was, the “ideology” that he stood (or he pretended he did) for.
A flawed film, perhaps, but a striking, glorious part of filmmaking.
1964’s “The Drop of the Roman Empire” was the last of Samuel Bronston’s ‘epic trilogy’, three grand films (”Empire”, “El Cid”, and “55 Days in Peking”), that stand alone in their sheer opulence and spectacle. Sadly, “Empire” would fail at the box office, forcing Bronston to shut down great of his Madrid studio, but he was justifiably proud of the film, nonetheless; it tackled a seemingly impossible subject (the collapse of Imperial Rome) on a mountainous scale, with intelligence and a surprising compassion. The time frame of the film (the era of Caesars Marcus Aurelius and Commodus) would, in fact, explain so richly dramatic that Ridley Scott would return to it in “Gladiator”, which, in many ways copies “Empire” (and would obtain the ‘Best Picture’ Oscar, to boot!)
Buy,Download, Or Stream The Fall Of The Roman Empire (Three-Disc Limited Collector’s Edition)! Click Here
Buy,Download, Or Stream The Fall Of The Roman Empire (Three-Disc Limited Collector’s Edition)! Click Here
The support narrative of “Empire” is every bit as considerable as “El Cid”; this had been a pet project of Bronston’s for years, and with the backing of the Spanish government, and intelligent director Anthony Mann on board, he planned it as the follow-up to “El Cid”, creating massive sets of both Rome and northern Europe, in Madrid, and locations throughout Spain.
Bronston felt a major male superstar would be needed for the production to ‘work’, and courted Charlton Heston, so memorable as “El Cid”. But Heston felt the record paralleled distinguished of “Ben Hur”, and when he was informed that Sophia Loren (who he had not enjoyed working with, in “El Cid”) would again be his leading lady, he turned the role down. Bronston, anxious to sustain his services, then showed him the script of “55 Days in Peking” (which wouldn’t involve Loren), and he expressed interest. Bronston, amazingly, tore down ALL the “Empire” sets, and built ‘Peking’, to accommodate Heston! “Empire” would be establish on own until “55 Days” was completed.
Buy,Download, Or Stream The Fall Of The Roman Empire (Three-Disc Limited Collector’s Edition)! Click Here
The delay would result in greater financial difficulties (as the Peking film wasn’t the distinguished and commercial hit “El Cid” had been), as well as other problems. The recent choice as Commodus, Richard Harris, did not earn along with director Mann, and would be replaced by Christopher Plummer (Harris would eventually report Marcus Aurelius, in “Gladiator”) . Replacing Heston as the lead would be Stephen Boyd (after Kirk Douglas turned down the role) . While a very competent actor, Boyd lacked the charisma and star power to attract audiences. The production hit snags in a number of areas, further draining the strained budget. Ultimately, it would have needed to be a blockbuster to recoup the costs…and, sadly, it wasn’t.
Still, the film is a joy, in many ways; Alec Guinness, as Aurelius, and James Mason, as a Greek philosopher/ex-slave, are both superb; Sophia Loren is breathtakingly beautiful; Plummer is every bit as qualified as Commodus as Joaquin Phoenix would be, a generation, later; the battles and Rome sequences are visually stunning; and Dimitri Tiomkin’s lovely catch is one of his best.
“Topple of the Roman Empire” has truly grown in stature, over the years, and the Miriam Collection edition, with restored narrate and sound, commentaries, and extraordinary special features, promises to be a ‘must own’ for every film buff!
Increase Credit Score
Gamefly Free Trial
New Hostgator Coupons
Raise My Credit Score
Gamefly Free Trial