@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 05/12/00 -- Vol. 18, No. 46
Chair/Librarian: Mark Leeper, 732-817-5619, mleeper@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper, 732-332-6218, eleeper@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell, robmitchell@lucent.com
HO Chair Emeritus: John Jetzt, jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian Emeritus: Nick Sauer, njs@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-447-3652 for details. The Denver Area Science Fiction
Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of every month at
Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
===================================================================
1. THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, Anthony Mann, 1964
At this writing the film GLADIATOR is soon to be released. It
tells the story of how a gladiator named Maximus [sic] kills the
tyrant Roman emperor Commodus, the mad son of Marcus Aurelius. It
occurred to me that the story of Commodus had been done previously
as what now looks like an attempted cinematic epic film, one with
an all-star cast, but one that few people have ever heard of. I
could not even find a review on the Internet. So I saw the film
again. I did not learn much about history, but I did find out why
so few people have seen this somber, plodding, awkward film.
X. This film is somber, plodding, and awkward.
IX. This film could never hope to live up to its title. The fall
of the Roman Empire took three centuries or more. At most the film
could attempt to do dramatize one small chapter. The narrator
rationalizes that this is the beginning of the fall.
VIII. Historical accuracy is rarely to be found in the script. For
example, unlike what happened in the film, Marcus Aurelius named
Commodus his heir. Lucilla was a murderer and an adulterer. A
wrestler Narcissus strangled Commodus in his bath. None of this
was accurate.
VII. Marcus Aurelius's thoughts are spoken voice-overs, a style
touch that does not seem to work. Towards the end his daughter
Lucilla seems to have inherited the same talent.
VI. Sophia Loren's expertly-tailored furs look like bad 1960s
fashion.
V. Tiomkin music just does not have the feel of antiquity. It
sounds good for the 1800s but not the 180s. The title theme starts
with a sepulchral organ somehow evocative of church music but with
no feel of ancient Rome.
IV. Stephen Boyd is too smarmy to be a hero and he creates a vacuum
that leaves the film lacking a center.
III. This film is incredibly talky.
II. The film whitewashes Commodus, showing him little worse than
any Caesar, making one of the weirdest men in history merely dull.
I. Sophia Loren and Steven Boyd have together all the chemistry of
horseradish and kiwi fruit. [-mrl]
Mark Leeper
HO 1K-644 732-817-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
No degree of dullness can safeguard a work [of
art] against the determination of the critics to
find it fascination.
-- Harold Rosenberg