The Fall of the Roman Empire

The Fall of the Roman Empire is currently streaming in the US on Kanopy and Hoopla, and in the UK on BBC iPlayer, and it rewards the patience it asks of you. It says what it needs to say in one sitting, no filler. 225 people have weighed in on TMDB, and the verdict leans heavily positive. Sophia Loren sets the tone, and the rest of the cast matches it scene for scene. There is no real reason to keep putting it off — it is right there on Kanopy.

There is a reason The Fall of the Roman Empire keeps coming up in conversation. The writing in The Fall of the Roman Empire treats its characters as people first, plot devices second. In the year 180 A.D. Germanic tribes are about to invade the Roman empire from the north. In the midst of this crisis ailing emperor Marcus Aurelius has to make a decision about his successor between his son Commodus, who is obsessed by power, and the loyal general Gaius Livius. Sophia Loren and Stephen Boyd lead a cast that brings real weight to the material. It was released in 1964. The performances in The Fall of the Roman Empire do a lot of work in the silences between the dialogue. There is real craft here, even in the moments that do not fully land.

The Fall of the Roman Empire is what you recommend to people who say they do not really watch much. It does not lean on comparisons to make its case. The complete film is available and best experienced without too much prior knowledge of where it goes. Sophia Loren's work here is the kind that gets referenced in career retrospectives. It makes everything else feel thin by comparison.