Review - The Fall of the Roman Empire

I’m not completely sure the actual Roman Empire took as long as this movie’s running time to collapse. This golden oldie has at least some in common with the more recent epic Gladiator: both center around the death of Marcus Aurelius and the mis-rule of his son Commodus, and both are ultimately over-wrought costume dramas. However, this one’s a little more political and a lot more drawn-out. Christopher Plummer does an interesting job as Commodus, though especially toward the end he comes across more like Caligula than the bad emperor he’s actually supposed to be playing (which is as much the writer’s fault as it is his). Roman pageants from this era in film history are generally a bit too tame for my taste, but that aside this one isn’t too terrible. Mildly amusing