Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Steineded How sad is this?

Crwthod A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

HotToastyRag 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.

qormi This movie had one thing going for it - incredible special effects to depict Roman architecture. The Roman fort in what is now Germany was a masterpiece inside and out. The stone work, the ramp whereby horses and chariots galloped right up to the gate, the log bridge over the gorge....looked very real. I don't know if it was historically accurate or not, but it was very impressive. The Roman temples and various government buildings in the center of Rome were fantastic - what a visual display - it was unmatched in any other toga epic. To this day, such realism has not been achieved again. The same goes for the detailed Roman legions. Now for the bad part - who exactly were the Romans up against - Barbarians or cave men? The Barbarians all had the dumbest wigs and beards. They lumbered around and seemed to fight with sticks. Then, there was the totally inane dialogue, which was more stilted than an oil rig in the Atlantic. Whenever Sophia Loren and Stephen Boyd were together, the lovey-dovey talk with reverent Biblical epic overtones was too funny. Stephen Boyd was a blond, probably so you wouldn't confuse him with Mesalah from Ben Hur. Sophia Loren was caked with oily makeup and seemed to have the same somber facial expression throughout. She seemed like a large, disoriented amphibian. Christopher Lee at least was interesting because he was evil. There were two instances where scenes from Ben Hur were revisited - the scene when Boyd and Lee reunite was very similar to when Messalah and Be Hur rekindled their friendship after many years. The chariot race from Ben Hur was revisited when Boyd and Lee raced off in a chariot "fight", whipping each other and bumping axles along the way. The film "Gladiator" with Russell Crowe borrowed half of "Fall of the Roman Empire". Same scenario where the dying emperor in Germany appoints his general over his son to succeed him. Same psychotic Commodus character. Same duel to the death as gladiators. One more thing - the musical score in Fall of the Roman Empire was very inappropriate. Seemed like the soundtrack for "The Sound of Music" or "My Fair Lady". Really bad.

mike-ryan455 I bought it because I love Roman, Greek and Egyptian history. I love the documentaries and the movies. I love The Ten Commandments to this day. This one alas was a true disappointment. It was boring. That's the best word to describe it, boring.The mistakes in history were so many and so varied that I couldn't even count them.In some ways, the plot was too politically correct. "We can all be peaceful together, Northern Barbarian and European." I guess for the height of the Cold War and the beginning of the Viet Nam war it was kind of a radical idea though. But the sledge hammer way they handled it made it boring.There goes that word again, boring. I just can't come up with anything better. Of course the act that it was almost three hours of boredom made it even worse. Perhaps if it were edited to half of that it would help.Was the plot of Gladiator stolen from The Fall of the Roman Empire? Perhaps. It is oddly similar. The difference was talent. Ridley Scott could direct a fine movie. This had the subtlety of a whale in a wading pool.

thinker1691 The history of Rome begins with it's foundations in Roman myths and fell because it no longer believed in it's own future. In this film, the audience is allowed to witness it's slow decay from the top down. The authority which was Rome's diminished it's capacity to rule and no point more so than it's leader, Commodus (Christopher Plummer). Although the empire retained much of it's prestige, it's true force of arms failed to maintain it's ability to govern. In this movie that power dissolves in General Livius (Stephen Boyd) who despite being offered the seat of power, rejects it. As a result, the audience sees through it's pomp, Majesty and star power to see this movie for what it is, a dismal failure. Despite having Steven Boyd, Alec Guinness, James Mason and Anthony Quayle in it's cast the movie is long on rambling romance and very short on historical drama. Still, there are many good scenes with much appreciated character development. However, in the end, the movie lacks heart but is listed as a Historical Classic. ****