Encore, Alec Guinness!

NOTE: This is part of the tribute to Alec Guinness, organized by Knix. Please visit her site and read the other reviews concerning this brilliant actor. Thank you.

Alec Guinness played many roles during his long and distinguished career. Who can forget him as the deluded commander of the prisoners in Bridge Over the River Kwai? He was brilliant also, in Damn the Defiant!, a story of a battleship in the Napoleonic Wars.

One of my favorites, even though the role was a brief one, was as Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in director Anthony Mann's 1964 Epic Fall of the Roman Empire.

Featuring a star-studded cast, still the great Alec stands out among the crowd. Emperor Marcus Aurelius was too good a man to rule in Rome. Actually, he spent most of career up in the hostile German territories, according to the movie. But Aurelius wanted to return the Empire to Republican status. This was totally against two hundred years of history in which more Caesars had been murdered than had died natural deaths. Nonetheless, Aurelius loved virtue above all things, and he could see that his wastrel son Commodus, as much as he loved him, would never be a good emperor of the Romans. Marcus took a dangerous step: he announced his successor while he yet lived, and it was not Commodus. It was Livius, well played by Stephen Boyd of Ben Hur fame. Livius had been raised with Commodus but had virtue. He promised to change the empire back to a republic after Marcus' death.

Marcus' death came sooner than he thought it would, at the hands of a trusted slave, played by Mel Ferrer, at Commodus' behest. Now Commodus was in charge. Livius was exiled to the frontiers of Germania. His love interest, played by the incredible Sophia Loren was sold to an Eastern prince to secure an alliance for Rome.

For those of you who are thinking this sounds familiar, yes, Ridley Scott's Gladiator takes the same subject matter and treats it in a different way.

The movie continually gets better as it goes, nearly three hours in running time. While Stephen Boyd was probably not the best choice for the lead, he did a creditable job at depicting rectitude in the midst of excess and I enjoyed his performance very much. Omar Sharif played the King of Armenia, Sophia Loren's husband. Anthony Quayle played the gladiator trainer. James Mason played a Roman Senator. Cristopher Plummer played the evil emperor Commodus. John Ireland played a barbarian chieftain. The cast was absolutely brilliant with great performances all around.

The best performance of all, however, was by Alec Guinness. He set the tone for the whole experience and it did not disappoint! Even in death, as Emperor Marcus, he laid on his funeral pyre amid the flames and received the homage of the legions of the North. It was a hair-raising moment watching a Roman imperial funeral, with the eerie wails and rhythmic shield clashing of the soldiers amid the swirling snowflakes of the German Winter.

The story seems to have been well researched, with many details that help it come to life. The costumes are brilliant and well-executed. The sets are breathtaking, from Roman interiors to the far reaches of the Empire. The photography is well done, with dramatic lighting. There is plenty of action between Livius and Commodus, including chariot races and gladiatorial contests. The weapons sequences are mostly superb, with real looking armor and swordplay. Any action lover or fan of history will not want to miss this film!

Fall of the Roman Empire is a fitting feather in Alec Guinness' cap, and it is the one I choose to remember him by. Salute, Mr. Guinness!