A long march, a long march, and twenty years behind

[sovay]

Look, I don't know Neil Marshall from a poke in the eye with a pilum, but all things being equal, I'd rather see The Eagle of the Ninth. No offense, but General Virilus? Does he have a very great friend in Rome named Biggus Dickus?

(Oh, movies. How is it you can beautifully realize Middle-Earth and still fuck up the Romans on a regular basis?)

Comments

[sovay]

It has a Giggling Villain of Utter Evil who is also fairly well-written and clearly-motivated, which doesn't happen often.

You might enjoy The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), which was essentially remade as Gladiator. It suffers from starring Stephen Boyd, who despite his good work as Messala opposite Charlton Heston here cannot act his way out of a paper bag, but makes up a lot of ground in Alec Guinness, James Mason, Sophia Loren, and Christopher Plummer, who is great fun to watch as Commodus. I cannot recommend all three hours of the movie equally, but the funeral of Marcus Aurelius is genuinely something from another world.

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

I can see I'll have to watch it and compare the two. Good heavens, what a marvelous lineup of actors!