Hacker Cinema
The Fall of the Roman Empire
1964 · Film · 188 min
Directed by Anthony Mann
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.
2 negative3 neutralfrom 5 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
5 comments on Hacker News
>Many of the movies you study in film school are genuinely excruciatingly slow and boring…
Case in point [1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_(1965_film)
?q=imdb.com:fall of the roman empire
It's the old form vs content debate. The average movie goer probably won't purchase a ticket and sit through hours of Andy Warhol's "Empire" or Christian Marclay's Clocks. In same the way they would go see the Coen Brothers' Scarface re-make.
Film as Art is often considered under Auteur Theory. The entire body of work is investigated. To glean a unique vision specific to the director.
One of the more popular retrospectives at MoMA pre-lockdown was the films of Mae West. Depression era escapism for the audiences of those days. But nearly a century later, they have a very different impact.
In 500 years, Super Mario Bros may be more important than Hamlet. As a society, we are on the cusp of playing games directly with our minds (via Neuralink). It's not a question of the immersion or interactivity these simulations will have. But in how they advance our understanding of our humanity.
I know it all sounds a bit snobby and elitist. But looking at some games that attempted to transcend. Bjork's Biophilia for instance. Or the CD-ROMs of Theresa Duncan. I can't help but feel the pinnacle has not been achieved yet. And is still very much up for grabs ;)
I guess it would be more interesting to watch than the film Empire by Andy Warhol. It is just a camera pointed at the empire state building for 8 hours. Then there is his 5-hour film of someone sleeping.
We'd like to believe that wasn't his choice.
"The 1964 movie Fall of the Roman Empire and the 2000 movie Gladiator both posited that he was assassinated because he intended to pass down power to Aurelius's adopted son, a Roman general.." -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius#Legacy_and_reputation