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Post by politicidal on Sept 20, 2017 1:49:36 GMT
Watched it on TCM as a recording. Rereading the troubled production, Nicholas Ray's health problems, Ava Gardner's unprofessionalism, budget issues, etc. Apparently they built a 60 acre recreation of circa 1900 Peking with 4000 Chinese extras for $900,000;which would be $7m today. What on Earth happened to movies like this? Aside from Titanic and Troy and Kingdom of Heaven, there really hasn't been a film on that scale in ages.
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Sept 20, 2017 2:04:52 GMT
Samuel Bronston made his films in Spain-and you can see he reused the basic stage area for Fall of the Roman Empire. Economical but what a grand scale!
I think FOTRE bankrupted him. They sure had lavish set design and the stories weren't bad either.
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Post by politicidal on Sept 20, 2017 2:19:04 GMT
Samuel Bronston made his films in Spain-and you can see he reused the basic stage area for Fall of the Roman Empire. Economical but what a grand scale! I think FOTRE bankrupted him. They sure had lavish set design and the stories weren't bad either. I know! With stuff like this you can see the money on screen. Not a green screen for once. To his credit, Ridley Scott did make several efforts to revive the genre. But it flamed out pretty soon after Kingdom of Heaven or Alexander (2004). One of those two that flopped. |
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Sept 20, 2017 2:31:59 GMT
Gladiator was similar to Fall of the Roman Empire but MUCH dumber and the CGI was ugly (some of it has aged very badly-the flyover of the arena--you can see the digital pieces slipping out of sync with the motion).
I have been meaning to rewatch K of H. I cant recall which version I watched.
The elephant-horse confrontation in Alexander was a neat juxtaposition.
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Post by vegalyra on Sept 21, 2017 17:34:12 GMT
These are my kind of films. They aren't made anymore unfortunately. 55 Days at Peking needs to have a US bluray release as well as Fall of the Roman Empire and El Cid. It's a terrible shame I can't enjoy them in HD at home. FOTRE and El Cid had fairly good DVD's issued years ago and 55 Days was supposed to join them but the rights fell through (or something). I have to rely on my very old laserdisc in widescreen to enjoy it.
I long for a return to films made on an epic scale such as these. I saw Troy, Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven in the theaters. I wished I had seen Alexander but missed it (it only was screened for a short period of time where I lived). KoH was a mess that the Director's Cut greatly improved.
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Post by teleadm on Sept 21, 2017 17:42:52 GMT
It's been so long since I've seen it. Found this pic show a long street, impressive sets, no green screen, no cgi:  |
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Post by taylorfirst1 on Sept 21, 2017 21:43:45 GMT
I love movies like these. I also love "55 Days at Peking" especially. "The Alamo" 1960 is another good one. They actually built an entire life sized replica of the Alamo for that movie. "Cleopatra" is another example. They certainly don't make them like that anymore.
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Post by OldAussie on Sept 22, 2017 0:35:50 GMT
The region B Blu-rays of the Bronston epics -
Fall of the Roman Empire
El Cid
King of Kings
55 Days at Peking
- are excellent. I can't understand why there's no American release. It's worth getting a multi-region machine just for these.
They are light years superior to the old DVDs I had.
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Post by politicidal on Sept 22, 2017 0:39:56 GMT
I love movies like these. I also love "55 Days at Peking" especially. "The Alamo" 1960 is another good one. They actually built an entire life sized replica of the Alamo for that movie. "Cleopatra" is another example. They certainly don't make them like that anymore. Found another one! The last big budget movie that bothered making a giant set was apparently DEEPWATER HORIZON (2016). They actually built a oil rig. But the movie bombed pretty bad. |
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