The Fall of the Roman Empire

After the critical and commercial success of "El Cid," director Anthony Mann and producer Samuel Bronston teamed up for an even bigger, more ambitious historical epic: nothing less than an adaptation of Edward Gibbon's six-volume history. Or at least a portion of it. This three-hour-plus production focuses on the transition from Caesar Marcus Aurelius (Alec Guinness), presented here as an almost saintly idealist, to his decadent, arrogant son Commodus (Christopher Plummer), who equates power with tyranny and drives the provinces into rebellion as he transforms Rome into his kind of party town. The same figures also anchor Ridley Scott's "Gladiator," and there are plenty of gladiators to be found in this film, but the hero here is a loyal general (Stephen Boyd) who serves his inconstant Caesar despite his misgivings or his ruler's betrayals. Top billing, however, goes to Sophia Loren as Commodus' sister, who plots his overthrow from the beginning. Mann's direction is strong, and the lavish sets and costumes and massive crowd scenes are truly magnificent -- it's surely the most gorgeous period piece of its era -- but the script tries to encompass too much and Boyd hasn't the strength or the command to anchor the sprawling production. He's no Charlton Heston. The supporting cast is top notch, featuring James Mason, Anthony Quayle, John Ireland, Mel Ferrer, and Omar Sharif dominating his handful of scenes as the King of Armenia.

This second release in the Weinstein Company's "The Miriam Collection" features the complete (or near complete) road-show version of the film with original entrance, exit and intermission music (it's missing a newly discovered scene, according to a note on the disc) spread across two discs (split at the intermission). Along with commentary by Bill Bronston (son of producer Samuel Bronston) and Bronston biographer Mel Martin are the archival 1964 promotional film "Rome in Madrid" and four new featurettes. The most interesting are the half-hour "The Rise and Fall of an Epic Production," a rather messy but very informative look at Mann's working methods and the production's troubled history, and "Dmitri Tiomkin: Scoring the Roman Empire," an in-depth look at the composer and his score and style. The "Limited Collector's Edition" box set features an exclusive third disc with five short "Encyclopedia Britannica on the Roman Empire" educational documentaries that were shot on the sets of the production, plus a reproduction of an original 1961 souvenir program and six postcard reproductions of color stills.