The Ancient Times in Movies

So I wanted to start off with two movies that actually sort of parallel each other.

The first, and I'm doing this chronologically, is a 1964 movie by Anthony Mann called The Fall of the Roman Empire.

And the second is one that, well, I would think that most of you valued listeners have seen called Gladiator, right? Will I touch on Gladiator 2? Painfully, yes, I will.

But for right now, just wanted to focus on Fall of the Roman Empire

and Gladiator.

Now, both are grandiose in their own ways, but like so many of those late 50s, early 1960 movies, spectacle is part of all of the Roman Empire.

At one point, Marcus Aurelius, which actually he probably never did in real life, addresses representatives and governors from all over the empire.

Yes, they all come to... upper germania to see him including like we're talking armenians and people from egypt and africa and all this but did this really happen not really no not in this fashion but it looks really cool They're all in chariots, which, again, chariots weren't really much of a thing at this point in history.

But they're all in their chariots.

I meant outside of the Circus Maximus.

But they're all there.

They're in their splendor, different clothes.

And we are talking hundreds, if not thousands, of extras.

Because in the late 50s, early 60s, all these movies featured, whenever you did what were called sword and sandal epics, they all featured thousands of extras.

And I find this sort of interesting because the movie Gladiator begins with this epic battle scene between the Romans and Germans.

And it looks big, and it's definitely a big setting.

It's definitely filmed outside.

lots of explosions and men fighting.

But when you take a real closer look, you realize there's probably only maybe a thousand people out there.

And yet when you look at some of these epics from the late 50s and early 60s, you realize they are talking thousands with an S, maybe even 10,000.

And really in movie history since 1981's Gandhi, mostly they don't do that anymore because one, People are expensive and hard to manage, and two, we'll just CGI in them even though they don't look real.

But in any event, I digress on that part of it.

There is a weird contrast with Fall of the Roman Empire and Gladiator in a number of ways.

For example, Marcus Aurelius, the emperor at the beginning of both movies, in the one case, well, he is poisoned by a servant of his son Commodus.

Commodus is not in on the plot.

So I wanted to start off with two movies that actually sort of parallel each other.

The first, and I'm doing this chronologically, is a 1964 movie by Anthony Mann called The Fall of the Roman Empire.

And the second is one that, well, I would think that most of you valued listeners have seen called Gladiator, right? Will I touch on Gladiator 2? Painfully, yes, I will.

But for right now, just wanted to focus on Fall of the Roman Empire

and Gladiator.

Now, both are grandiose in their own ways, but like so many of those late 50s, early 1960 movies, spectacle is part of all of the Roman Empire.

At one point, Marcus Aurelius, which actually he probably never did in real life, addresses representatives and governors from all over the empire.

Yes, they all come to... upper germania to see him including like we're talking armenians and people from egypt and africa and all this but did this really happen not really no not in this fashion but it looks really cool They're all in chariots, which, again, chariots weren't really much of a thing at this point in history.

But they're all in their chariots.

I meant outside of the Circus Maximus.

But they're all there.

They're in their splendor, different clothes.

And we are talking hundreds, if not thousands, of extras.

Because in the late 50s, early 60s, all these movies featured, whenever you did what were called sword and sandal epics, they all featured thousands of extras.

And I find this sort of interesting because the movie Gladiator begins with this epic battle scene between the Romans and Germans.

And it looks big, and it's definitely a big setting.

It's definitely filmed outside.

lots of explosions and men fighting.

But when you take a real closer look, you realize there's probably only maybe a thousand people out there.

And yet when you look at some of these epics from the late 50s and early 60s, you realize they are talking thousands with an S, maybe even 10,000.

And really in movie history since 1981's Gandhi, mostly they don't do that anymore because one, People are expensive and hard to manage, and two, we'll just CGI in them even though they don't look real.

But in any event, I digress on that part of it.

There is a weird contrast with Fall of the Roman Empire and Gladiator in a number of ways.

For example, Marcus Aurelius, the emperor at the beginning of both movies, in the one case, well, he is poisoned by a servant of his son Commodus.

Commodus is not in on the plot.