The Fall Of The Roman Empire (1964)

In 180 A.D., the benevolent Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (Alec Guinness) dies and the succession falls to his son Commodus (Christopher Plummer) who does not have the best interest of Rome at heart. Thus begins the slow but inevitable decline of the Roman Empire. Directed by Anthony Mann, this is one of the most intelligent and literate of the Hollywood spectaculars along with SPARTACUS and the 1963 CLEOPATRA. The look of the film is simply astounding. Ancient Rome was literally rebuilt in Spain (reputedly the largest outdoor set in film history) and it literally has a cast of thousands (ten thousands would be more accurate). The film is pre-CGI so when thousands of people gather among the massive structures, they are humans and not computer generated images. The Roman Forum sequence is jaw dropping with the production and set design of Veniero Colasanti  and John Moore, thousands of costumed background and Dimitri Tiomkin's superb underscore pounding away! Stephen Boyd is on the weak side as commander of the Roman army in a role that would have been perfect for Charlton Heston. But there are strong performances by Guinness, James Mason and especially Plummer. With Sophia Loren as Lucilla, the daughter of Marcus Aurelius, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quayle, Mel Ferrer and John Ireland.