The Fall of the Roman Empire is a 1964 American epic historical drama film directed by Anthony Mann and produced by Samuel Bronston, with a screenplay by Ben Barzman, Basilio Franchina and Philip Yordan. The film stars Sophia Loren, Stephen Boyd, Alec Guinness, James Mason, Christopher Plummer, Mel Ferrer, and Omar Sharif.
When the filming of El Cid (1961) had finished, Anthony Mann saw a copy of Edward Gibbon's 1776–1789 six-volume series The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire inside Hatchards bookshop. He pitched a film adaptation of the book to Samuel Bronston, who then agreed to produce the project. Philip Yordan was enlisted to write the script while Charlton Heston was initially set to star. However, Heston backed out of the film and agreed to star in 55 Days at Peking (1963). Prominent actors were cast to portray multiple roles in the film. The final screenplay was written by Ben Barzman and Basilio Franchina with a prologue written by historian Will Durant. Filming began in January 1963 and wrapped in July. The film featured the largest outdoor set in the history of film at that time, a replica of the Roman Forum.
The film's name refers not to the final fall of the Western Roman Empire, which did in fact survive for centuries after the period depicted in the film, but rather to the onset of corruption and decadence which led to Rome's demise. It deals extensively with the problem of imperial succession, and examines both the relationship between father and son on the background of imperial politics, as well as the nature and limits of loyalty and friendship.
On March 24, 1964, the film premiered at the London Astoria. Critics found the script lacking in emotion and humanity and the direction misguided, but accorded a degree of praise for the large spectacles. The film was a financial failure at the box office, earning $4.8 million on a budget of $16 million.
Plot In the winter of 180 AD, the ailing Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius fights to keep Germanic tribes from invading his northern territories on the Danube frontier. His deputies are the Greek ex-slave Timonides and the stern and honest general Gaius Livius. Privately Aurelius holds egalitarian ideals, and wants a successor who will reform the empire and grant equal rights to all its subjects; this disqualifies his son Commodus, who prefers to rule by force. Instead, Aurelius decides to nominate Livius, Commodus's closest friend and the lover of the emperor's daughter Lucilla.
Before Aurelius can announce his plan, he is poisoned by Commodus's crony Cleander, who with his allies hope to secure their own political future by ensuring Commodus' ascension. Feeling that a plebeian such as himself would never be accepted as emperor without Aurelius's explicit backing, Livius lets his old friend take the position instead. Commodus is not part of the murder plot, but nonetheless hates his father for trying to deny him the throne. He dedicates himself to undoing all of Aurelius's policies of equality, and to extracting heavy taxes from the provinces to enrich the city of Rome.
Meanwhile, Livius's army defeats the Germans on the frontier. Among the captives are the chieftain Ballomar and his court. Timonides and Lucilla convince Livius to advocate for mercy towards the conquered barbarians, thus perpetuating the legacy of Aurelius. Timonides wins the Germans' trust by successfully undergoing an ordeal, having his hand held in the flame of a torch without crying out, and they agree to submit to the judgement of the Roman Senate. Despite hostility from Commodus, speeches by Livius and Timonides persuade the senators to let the German captives become peaceful farmers on Italian land, thereby encouraging their fellow barbarians to cooperate with Rome instead of fighting it. Thwarted, Commodus sends Livius back to the northern frontier and Lucilla to Armenia, with whose king, Sohaemus, she shares a loveless political marriage.
Lucilla joins a revolt in Rome's eastern provinces, where a famine has been exacerbated by the new taxes. Commodus sends his northern army against the rebels, knowing that Livius will put aside personal feelings and fight to preserve the unity of the Empire. As the opposing Roman armies meet for battle, Sohaemus arrives and attacks Livius with both the Armenian army and troops borrowed from Rome's archenemy, the Persians. The rebels patriotically decide to fight Persia instead of Rome, joining with Livius and helping him to vanquish Sohaemus. As a reward Commodus declares Livius his co-emperor, but only on condition that the northern army inflicts harsh punishments on the rebellious provinces.
Rejecting this piece of brutality, Livius and Lucilla take their army to Rome, intending to make Commodus abdicate. The emperor responds by bribing away the soldiers' loyalty and massacring Timonides and the population of the German colony. Lucilla tries to hire Verulus, Commodus's gladiator bodyguard, to assassinate her brother; Verulus declines, confessing that he slept with Aurelius's wife and that Commodus is his illegitimate son.
The Senate declares Commodus a god, and Livius and Lucilla are sentenced to be burned alive as human sacrifices to the new deity as the Roman citizens drunkenly celebrate. In consideration of their former friendship, Commodus offers Livius a duel for the throne. The two fight with javelins in the Roman Forum, where Livius eventually runs Commodus through. At last Livius is free to become emperor, but he has lost faith in Rome's ability to reform. He departs the city with Lucilla, as Commodus's old advisers fight over the throne and offer competing bribes to the army in an attempt to gain military support.
A voice-over epilogue states that though the Roman Empire did not fall immediately, internal corruption led to its eventual collapse.
Cast
Sophia Loren as Lucilla Stephen Boyd as Livius Alec Guinness as Marcus Aurelius James Mason as Timonides Christopher Plummer as Commodus Mel Ferrer as Cleander Omar Sharif as Sohaemus, King of Armenia Anthony Quayle as Verulus John Ireland as Ballomar Eric Porter as Julianus Finlay Currie as Senator Andrew Keir as Polybius Douglas Wilmer as Pescennius Niger George Murcell as Victorinus Norman Wooland as Virgilianus
Production Development The idea for The Fall of the Roman Empire originated with Anthony Mann who had just finished directing El Cid (1961). In London, while waiting for a taxi cab, he spotted an Oxford concise edition of Edward Gibbon's six-volume series The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire near the front window at the Hatchards bookshop. Mann never read the entire edition but he pitched an adaptation having "no idea what the story was going to be". Samuel Bronston, who had wanted Mann to direct another epic for him, allowed Mann to further develop his idea. In July 1961, Bronston told The New York Times that The Fall of the Roman Empire would be his next project, but he had also ruled out filming on location in Rome. He stated that upon "checking I found the Eternal City was not the 'city' of the time of the fall of the empire, so we'll build our 'Rome' in Madrid." Additionally, Philip Yordan had been tasked to write the script while Charlton Heston was being offered the role of Marcus Aurelius.
In September 1961, Bronston formally announced he was planning a trilogy of historical spectacles in Spain, which included The Fall of the Roman Empire with Mann and Heston returning to direct and star in. Filming was initially set in February 1962, with the production design for the recreated Roman Forum supervised by Veniero Colasanti and John Moore. Months later, by December 1961, Heston had disliked Yordan's script for the film. At the premiere of El Cid (1961), in Madrid, Heston told Bronston associate Michael Waszynski that he was not interested in The Fall of the Roman Empire. On the next day, during a jet flight back to Los Angeles, Yordan, who was seated next to Heston, and director Nicholas Ray pitched 55 Days at Peking (1963) to him. Subsequently, 55 Days at Peking went into production while Roman Empire was placed on hold. The elaborate sets for Roman Empire were then pulled down and replaced with the Forbidden City sets for 55 Days at Peking.
Writing
In April 1963, Mann explained to the Los Angeles Times that while the film was not a direct adaptation of Gibbon's volume series, the focus on a fifteen-year period from Marcus Aurelius's reign to Commodus's death was backed by historians as "the turning point in the history of the empire and by concentrating our story on it we can keep the same group of characters within the range of our drama." Having selected a focal point for the film, screenwriter Basilio Franchina was hired for his broad knowledge of the period while Ben Barzman would handle the actual writing of the script. Together, they subsequently wrote a 350-page film treatment.
After this, Mann consulted with the screenwriters on further developing the characters, in which they wrote six drafts in total. The sixth draft was developed during filming. Mann later explained, "The writing took us more than one year. We did not have artists in mind when we were writing; but we wanted characters with memorable scenes to attract artists of the calibre of Guinness to want to play them."
As the script was being written, the Roman Forum was constructed on Bronston's studio backlot although their script had made no mention of it. Under Yordan's supervision, the action was re-written for scenes they had not written for the Forum to occur there, which brought much dismay from Barzman. In January 1963, it was reported that historian Will Durant had written a prologue for the film.
Casting It was envisioned that Heston was cast as Livius, but he turned it down. The part had also been offered to Kirk Douglas, who turned it down as well following an offer of $1.5 million. In 1971, he later said he regretted this "because with $1.5 million there are lots of things you can do that you want to." In May 1962, it was announced that Stephen Boyd, who had played opposite to Heston in Ben-Hur (1959), was cast as the lead opposite Gina Lollobrigida as Lucilla. In September 1962, it was announced that Sophia Loren had been cast as Lucilla, in which she was paid $1 million.
In August 1962, it was reported that Alec Guinness had been cast as Marcus Aurelius, while Richard Harris, Albert Finney, John Gielgud, and Terence Stamp were being considered for other roles. Later that same month, it was reported that Harris had been cast as Commodus. However, in January 1963, he was replaced by Christopher Plummer who had pulled out of The V.I.P.s (1963) to do so. Harris later portrayed the role of Marcus Aurelius in the similarly themed 2000 film Gladiator. By the time filming was set to begin, Anthony Quayle, Omar Sharif, John Ireland, and Mel Ferrer had been cast in supporting roles.
Filming Principal photography began on January 14, 1963. Marcus Aurelius's winter camp on the Danube was shot on location in the snow along the Sierra de Guadarrama in northern Madrid. By the next month, filming in the area was suspended due to a severe blizzard. The battle sequence between the Romans and Persians involved 8,000 extras, and was shot on an undulating plain near Manzanares el Real, which allowed for legions of soldiers to be visible over a long distance.
Meanwhile, Yakima Canutt was hired as the second unit director at the insistence of Mann. As previously done in El Cid (1961), Canutt performed his own stunts while his son Tap served as the stunt double for Stephen Boyd. Jack Williams served as the body double for Christopher Plummer. Among the first scenes shot was the chariot race sequence between Livius and Commodus. Canutt was also tasked to gather 1,500 horses from Spain and Portugal, for which they were trained to fall safely during the battle sequences.