The film is the directorial debut of Julie Taymor who coproduced and wrote the screenplay. There was no real Roman Emperor named Saturninus, but during the long "period of military chaos" AD between Commodus and Diocletian there was a "fictional" "Saturninus" inserted mistakenly by the author s of the Historia Augusta or perhaps just misread as "also ruled" during the reign of Gallienus AD.
Saturninus could actually have been a co-consul with Gallienus. The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus may be Shakespeare's earliest tragedy. It depicts a fictional Roman general engaged in a cycle of revenge with his enemy Tamora, the Queen of the Goths. The play is by far Shakespeare's bloodiest, taking its inspiration from Senecan Tragedy of Ancient Rome, the gory theatre that was played to bloodthirsty circus audiences between gladiatorial combats.
Recommended, but not necessary, reading 16 Review from: William Fitzgerald, Martin M. Winkler, Alison Futrell, Sandra R. It successfully merges modern cultural critique with sound classical scholarship, and does so in a manner that is enjoyable to read and intellectually challenging.
The premise of the book is promising. The editors wish to explore the Rome that exists in the American imagination and to articulate how we have used Rome as a site of projection for modern cultural conflicts and anxieties. All the essays are good, some are outstanding, and the volume explores a wide range of expressions of popular culture. Included here are the grandiose Roman epic movies of the 50's and 60's, the parodies of that form, the BBC's I, Claudius, a film by Derek Jarman, and even the architectural wonders of Caesars [sic] Palace in Las Vegas. Each author succeeds in analyzing a modern artifact, while taking into account the various modes of production that surround it, the public response to it, and the social currents that inform that production and response.
This is cultural criticism at its best, providing us with interesting readings of modern American culture, while also exploring that oftneglected topic, the form and function of our relation to the classical world. Should I stop there in my praise I might be thought effusive. And yet there is more to praise.
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The authors of the book generally avoid jargon, and none explicitly refers to a body of theory. Each essayist, however, demonstrates a sure knowledge of modern critical approaches, and underlying the various theses here one will find the theories of intertextuality, queer theory, Marxist ideology, feminist theory, and cinema studies. Each contributor is well known as a classicist, and the authors' competence here is also evident, though the focus of the book is not on the ancient world per se.
In analyzing Spartacus, or the BBC's I, Claudius, for example, Futrell and Joshel incorporate into their readings a subtle and effective critique of gender roles, and of the ways in which the domestic becomes a safe site for the movies to explore political revolution. Wyke's treatment of Jarman's Sebastiane is also an important discussion of the eroticization of suffering, drawing on the work of queer theorists.
But none of the authors spends time justifying the theoretical stances that they take up; rather, their analyses stand on their own merits, and the authors assume that the reader is. This sure-footedness regarding issues of gender, sexuality, social class, and critical theory is both welcome and encouraging. Beyond that, the book holds together uncommonly well for a collection of essays on diverse productions across a range of media.
The authors clearly know each other's essays and have gone to some pains to cross-reference one another. There is some overlap of treatment in a few of the pieces, but generally this ends up being complementary.
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The book is attractively produced, with a solid bibliography and thorough index. In the paragraphs that follow, I briefly summarize each of the essays that appear in the volume. I have one or two quibbles with some of the pieces, but these should in no way be seen to detract from the importance of this book, or the enjoyment to be derived from reading it. Joshel, Margaret Malamud, and Wyke have written an eloquent introduction to the volume in which they outline the major lines of representation of the Roman Empire in American popular culture. Rome is a virtual chameleon as a site of projection: At other times Rome especially the Republic is America, the forerunner of our notions of law and, curiously, democracy.
In still other venues Rome is characterized by excess, either negatively, as when an emperor such as Nero demonstrates moral failure through sexual and economic profligacy, or positively, when Caesars Palace becomes a celebration of that most American of activities, going to the mall. We can identify with Rome, or distance ourselves from it; in either case, Rome becomes a safe space in which to explore anxieties about shifting gender roles or sexual identities, or America's role as a former colony of Great Britain, or as an emerging world empire. In "Oppositions, Anxieties, and Ambiguities in the Toga Movie," William Fitzgerald explores the persistent trope of Rome as a tyrannical empire that is doomed to be replaced by Christianity.
As Fitzgerald argues, the movies of the 50's especially Quo Vadis, and Ben Hur are careful to champion Christianity without showing the Christians as actually subversive. The films negotiate this bit of ideology by casting it in the domestic sphere: Thus the rough American is domesticated at the same time that the hero is able to turn away from the flawed, decadent political power of public life at Rome. Fitzgerald is also lucid on the ways in which these films present erotic relations between men in varying degrees of latency as an emotional driving force, often masked behind a spectacle of violence.
One of the more interesting translations of this analogy has the Christians of ancient Rome as the counterparts to the While Winkler comments on this oddity 64 , he does not quite theorize how it comes about in the American imagination. Moreover, at times he seems to push his evidence a bit far. Order and a desire for empire do not necessarily connote the Nazis.
Nonetheless, Winkler has a good deal of interest to say about the iconography of the Roman Eagle in Hollywood films, the depiction of Nero as Antichrist, and Frank Capra's involvement in American Office of War Information films of the 's. Alison Futrell's piece, "Seeing Red: Spartacus as Domestic Economist," is a model of cultural analysis. She traces the history of the representation of Spartacus' revolt, showing how the historical event becomes a vehicle in turn for "natural equality," nationalism, and eventually socialism in subsequent retellings.
She then shows how the famous movie version reshapes the overt Marxist motivations of Howard Fast's play by moving the political revolution to the sphere of the family. Futrell points out that the movie is itself embroiled in a somewhat quieter revolution, as the employment and crediting of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was an important step in dismantling the Hollywood blacklist. This essay, like several others in the volume, also has interesting insights into the ways in which the female lead in these movies of Rome is used to assure the "natural" superiority of its stirring hero.
A highlight of the volume, Sandra Joshel's "I, Claudius: Projection and Imperial Soap Opera," discusses the way in which the BBC's adaptation of Robert Graves' novel takes on the form and function of a soap opera. In contrast to the movies of Rome, this small-screen series reduces every aspect of the Empire to the imperial household, so that the decadence of Roman government becomes a family drama.
As in soaps, " And most important, the real threat to an orderly society in this domestic drama is a series of manipulative, greedy, lascivious women. Not coincidentally, the series depicts these women especially Augustus' wife Livia as pro-empire, where the "good" men of the series are forced to accept the empire against their desires for a return to the Republic. And finally, Joshel argues that the American showing of this drama had the particular effect of allowing us to see the Romans as "not us," because they were, essentially, British. Joshel is particularly strong on the way the medium of television itself molded this production, and on the ways in which Alistair Cooke and the reviewers shaped public response to it.
Nicholas Cull's analysis of the British camp comedies of ancient Rome does a nice job of tracing the roots of this particular genre, in this case to British military humor. There is less critique in this essay than in other pieces in the volume, as a good deal of space is devoted to simply describing the jokes and parodies in Carry On, Cleo, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Up Pompeii. Some of the most interesting material here is Cull's discussion of the way the "camp" was used to explore anxieties about sex and sexuality in the 60's.
A closing argument makes the point that the kind of "camp" used by these movies is only possible in an era of relative "innocence and repression" What seemed cheeky in the 60's is pretty tame today, and that makes it difficult to camp things up in quite the same way. Malamud explores the way that the works of Plautus themselves derivative of a Greek tradition were appropriated and recast for the Broadway stage production by Jewish comics who had cut their teeth in the "Borscht Belt.
In the movie version of A Funny Thing, however, the story takes on a different tone, as Richard Lester wanted to criticize both the Hollywood film industry and what he understood as the socially unjust world of ancient Rome. He was limited in his ability to do so, however, by producer Melvin Frank. The result is an odd mix of gritty realism a Rome populated by slaves in rags surrounded by rotting vegetables and vaudevillian humor.
Malamud is also instructive on the way in which McCullough infantilizes her characters, producing upper class Romans who are all Id. Finally, the essay critiques the marketing of the novels themselves, and the ways in which the novels re-make Roman history into a supermarket Romance. She then critiques Jarman's film, relating it both to this history and to underground gay male pornographic films some with a vague classical setting of the 50's and 60's.
In Jarman's film Rome becomes a trope for homosexual liberation, rather than homosexuality being a sign of Roman decadence and decline. In creating this representation, however, Jarman focuses not on the interior of the imperial court, but on "barren barracks life on the edges of empire" As such the film re-made both our understanding of homosexuality and of ancient Rome.
Again particularly interesting are the contemporary critics' attempts to direct and control the potential viewers of the film. A brilliant, densely argued close to the essay discusses the "potential erotic ecstasy of self-renunciation" of the film in light of our post-foucauldian understanding of homosexual identity. The volume closes with a lighthearted, and somewhat light, piece on the history and architecture of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, by Margaret Malamud and Donald McGuire. It is clear that the authors have spared no expense to research their topic, and this is in keeping with the theme of the Palace.
This is the Rome of Commerce with a capital C, where luxury and power are celebrated as part of. As with some of the camp films of the same era, Caesars Palace succeeds to the extent that it does because of a kind of willful ignorance, a willingness on the part of the consumer to wink, nudge, and roll her eyes.
In sum, Rome has never been just Rome; and the Empire in particular has been a backdrop against which modern America works out its sense of identity. Imperial Projections goes a long way towards articulating the relation between modern America and ancient Rome, and towards theorizing the many subtexts that inform that relation. I missed reference here to Eve Sedgwick, Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire.
Reference could have been made here to two standard works on popular "women's" fiction: Janice Radway, Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. University of North Carolina Press. Leslie Rabine, "Romance in the Age of Electronics: Harlequin Enterprises," Feminist Studies Well-organised and appropriately illustrated, Cyrino s lively contribution suggests itself as a suitable textbook to prescribe for such courses. This is not to say, however, that there are no problems with the work. As the title implies, Cyrino s book concentrates on the Roman side of things and excludes the Greek portion of Classically themed films -- recent films such as Wolfgang Petersen s "Troy" and Oliver Stone s "Alexander" are noteworthy omissions dictated by the study s exclusively Roman bias.
These, she explains, are the films she has tried and tested in her own film course at the University of New Mexico p. Unfortunately, the restrictions of the academic year mean that every lecturer or course co-ordinator designing a film studies module has inevitably to decide what to include and what to leave out. Nevertheless "Big Screen Rome" treats all the major and most famous Classically themed films of yesteryear and provides a solid, useful starting point for the Classics in the Movies student, who should be encouraged to build upon the basic information imparted by the study.
What gives Cyrino s work such potential as a textbook is the meticulously organised manner in which information about a number of Classically themed films is imparted. Indeed, it is clear that it is precisely as a textbook that Cyrino s book has been composed. Every chapter deals with just one film, thus avoiding unnecessary confusion, although there is some discussion of previous versions or direct predecessors of the film in question. Within each chapter the same structured organizational approach is taken.
Cyrino arranges each chapter under a number of headings that are always the same and in the same order. This predictability makes the book easy to use. For example, on the first page of each chapter, one finds important information about the film s production studio, director, screenplay, cast and so on. This provides a useful reference point to turn to if one has, for example, forgotten the name of an actor or the year in which a film was released.
Cyrino follows this, in each case, with an equally useful Plot Outline, which is detailed summary of the plot of each film. Cyrino anticipates that this will help students and lecturers place significant scenes and clear up confusion about the sequence of the narrative p. Cynics may comment that the plot summary will be of great help to those incorrigible students who, as incredible as it may seem, have failed to watch the film itself.
Next in every chapter comes a section entitled Ancient Background which describes the ancient sources or the historical background that inspired the film. In these sections, Cyrino usually delves into some recorded history of ancient Rome, concerning which the modern films can be extraordinarily cavalier. The exception to the historical approach is in Chapter 6 pp , on "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" , where the Ancient Background section focuses instead on the background to Roman comedy, the genre on which this purely imaginary film is based.
The section Background to the Film in each case discusses the more recent background to the movie, with, as Cyrino explains, an examination of other appropriations, literary or figurative, of the story or its major characters since antiquity, and in particular the use of the story or characters in other media such as novels, stage plays, and other cinematic versions p.
This section explains, in addition, the manner in which the film project came to be assigned to a particular director and provides a brief summary of the particular director s career p. Cyrino s credentials as a film buff and her impressively broad knowledge of Hollywood after all, she grew up in the neighbourhood [[2]] enable her to impart interesting and often very revealing information about other films on non-classical themes made by the directors in question.
This section also examines technical issues such as the development of the screenplay, directorial decisions about the shooting location and casting of actors, the film s artistic design, musical score, exceptional set-piece scenes, special effects and new cinematic technologies p. The final major section, Themes and Interpretations, provides in each case an in-depth analysis of the major themes of the film, as well as situating the movie in the broader social, political, and cultural context of the time of its production and release. Cyrino evaluates each film s degree of critical and commercial success, and she also looks for reasons for this.
Each chapter concludes with a potentially useful list of Core Issues take note, students! One can almost see already the garishly coloured highlighter pens coming out to underline or otherwise mutilate these questions, helpfully posed in point-form. Many of the films Cyrino discusses tell us more about the attitudes and trends in American society than about the ancient world. Cyrino is particularly good at contextualising each movie in the American society of the particular era in which it was made. She examines perceptively the degree to which each film she analyses captures its "Zeitgeist", and her book as a whole is set out chronologically so as to follow the evolution of the swords and sandals epic from its heyday in the early s to its sudden resurrection with the success of Gladiator in the year "Big Screen Rome" in effect tracks the changes in American political, religious, sexual, and cultural attitudes during the second half of the twentieth century.
Cyrino s first three chapters treat three religious-themed American epics from the s, "Quo Vadis" , "The Robe" , and "Ben- Hur" As Cyrino remarks p. Their presentations of gender, race, and class are limited by the prejudices of that era. One of the problems faced by the lecturer today is how to make these pious films, which sometimes look like walking Christmas cards, accessible to the contemporary secularly-minded and often agnostic student. Yet it is important that students are familiar with this sub-genre of epic film in order for them to appreciate the subsequent parodies of it, in films like "Monty Python s Life of Brian" On the political front, Cyrino takes care to situate these films within the tense cultural and political climate of the United States during the Cold War period, another scenario that is entirely foreign to the modern eighteen- to twenty-year-old student.
The next two chapters examine secular films about Rome made during the early s, "Spartacus" and "Cleopatra" Few film courses about the ancient world would ignore these two highly significant movies. The Roman Empire Sequence" Cyrino finishes off with a very well-written chapter on "Gladiator" , the film which launched the return of the Classically themed epic film. Contemporary audiences readily relate to and even define themselves by the onscreen portrayal of the ancient Romans whose provocative combination of dignity and decadence both fascinates and disturbs pp.
Traditionally, however, American audiences do not seem to have been encouraged to identify themselves with the Romans. In the movies on the ancient world, until fairly recently, the American actors or actors with American accents never played the evil, oppressive Romans, but rather appeared as slaves, Christians, and other innocent victims of Rome s abuse of power.
According to the Hollywood linguistic paradigm, actors with British accents that were posh -sounding to American audiences played the evil, corrupt and oppressive Romans. This all changed, as Cyrino observes p. However, the villain Commodus, played by American Joaquin Phoenix, also adopted an accent that veers occasionally into Cockney On America s shoulders, it seems, the mantle of Rome rests uneasily. Issues of power and empire suggested by the paradigm of ancient Rome have never been more significant for contemporary society, and to the rest of the world today, America is clearly Rome.
Only certain recent films, however, have made a direct link between the ancient Roman empire and its most striking contemporary parallel. In Cyrino s selection there are not enough recent films under discussion, and thus the entire focus of her book is on early material which, one anticipates, will eventually largely be replaced by later portrayals of the ancient world. Much of the more recent film material has been about Greece rather than about Rome. But even on the Roman side of things there have been many made-for-television spectacles admittedly mostly British that merit attention.
These television series have often been less flashy but more historically accurate than the Hollywood blockbusters, and in the past I have found it useful to have students compare small and large screen presentations of the same historical figure. The nature of a television series allows the scriptwriters to go into greater detail on minor background issues that of necessity are swept under the carpet in the Hollywood blockbuster. If, for example, the Cleopatra film had been a television series as opposed to a lengthy movie, there may have been a chance to show aspects of Mark Antony s early career and his relationship to Julius Caesar that had to be edited out of the film version and which may have helped explain some of his later behaviour.
While a post-modernist analysis of the multi-layered meanings of the films and their reflections on antiquity may be instructive, on a more practical level, as. What bothers me, however, is that on the whole Cyrino s attitude towards the films she has selected clearly her favourites is more approving than critical. While there is nothing wrong with enjoying the spectacles, often it is necessary to focus on the movies faults rather than their good points in order to enable our students to learn something about the ancient world from them.
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Do these films as artistic representations make any attempt at historical accuracy? To what extent could inaccuracies in these movies cause confusion or misconceptions in the minds of some of our students? How far-fetched must a film be before it loses any relevance to a study of the ancient world? Historical accuracy is what the lay person always wants to know about: I think it would be condescending and dismissive to suggest that the ordinary film-going public does not care about this.
By failing to tackle the thorny question of historical accuracy head-on, "Big Screen Rome" ultimately is unable to raise itself out of the limited level of a class textbook to the status of a more rewarding and abiding contribution to scholarship. When it comes to the visual recreation of the movie set, it has been observed, historical accuracy resides in the details of that recreation. I am not overly concerned about such legendary alleged slip-ups as the automobile in the arena or the wristwatch on the arm of a Roman soldier, amusing as these things may be to spot. Somewhat more insidious, however, is Judah s elderly servant Simonides Esther s father bumbling about in "Ben-Hur" with a "yarmulke" skullcap on his head centuries before this became the practice in Jewish communities.
In battle, after all, it was better to depend on free men rather than on slaves. Cyrino s book could have been made more useful if she had compiled a list of these anomalies. Even the minor infringements are worth noting, so that these can be brought to the students attention. A more serious dilemma, in my view, is whether Spartacus dies on a cross, as in Stanley Kubrick s movie, or in battle, as Plutarch tells us. As Classicists and Ancient Historians we need to ask why sometimes deliberate alterations to historical events and phenomena are made in modern films about the ancient world, and Having Spartacus die on the cross,[[11]] for example, is useful in dramatic terms, as it gives Kirk Douglas a Christ-like profile and a chance to have some dialogue with Jean Simmons, but knowledge of the ancient world reveals that dying in battle as a warrior and not on the cross like a slave would be the path that Spartacus himself and any other ancient with an ounce of self-respect would undoubtedly have preferred.
It is important that we use the opportunities for discussion afforded by the films inaccuracies to engage with our students, and to introduce them to the real challenges of the ancient world, in which the issues of right and wrong were not always as clear-cut as in a Hollywood movie. NOTES [[1]] With the release of "" , a dramatisation of the battle of Thermopylae, might it not soon be time for a companion volume entitled "Big Screen Greece"?
Like the Roman empire, the American empire is vastly powerful and unfathomably corrupt. Like Rome, America imposes her civilisation upon an ungrateful world. Like Rome, America needs bread, circuses and philosopher-statesmen to forestall and yet to hasten her demise "The Philosopher s Magazine", Summer I owe this reference to Susan Haskins. An excellent example of a recent mini-series, perhaps too recent for Cyrino s book, to be fair, is the series "Rome" created by John Milius, William J. Macdonald, and Bruno Heller London: Film and History" Oxford She concludes p.
A wide variety of head-coverings has been worn by Jewish men from ancient times to the present, and many regional differences used to exist. It seems that the "yarmulke" as we know it dates from Medieval times. The word is Yiddish and the practice of wearing this cap probably comes from Poland.
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It has even been suggested that the so-called Jewish garb of Poland, including even the jarmulka undercap , is simply the old Polish costume which the Jews retained after the Poles had adopted the German form of dress JewishEncyclopedia. Landels in his work "Engineering in the Ancient World" London notes that however well designed a warship may have been, it was only one half of a partnership, the other being a fit, well trained crew whose morale was high p. Where slaves were used on ancient galleys, they were apparently freed and trained first. Later designs, however, required three to seven men handling one oar, so individual skill mattered less, and from about the sixteenth century A.
From there the commonplace of a condemned galley slave made its way into literature, and what eventually became a literary tradition seems to have influenced the portrayal of "Ben-Hur". I think that this is significant; the attitudes instilled in Spartacus by his free birth may explain the indomitable spirit that enabled him to lead the slave rebellion in the first place. It is not accidental that the Roman slave-owning classes preferred the home-born slave, the "verna", to formerly free individuals captured in warfare. He, in fact, merely may have been a gladiator designated as a Thraex, one who was armored in the Thracian manner and was trained to fight with Thracian style weapons.
Throughout history, peaks of Roman Empire interest seem to be co-temporal with empire building: There are comparable German, Russian, and Italian examples. Strictly speaking and why not? Movies with a non-religious Roman setting are "Toga movies". Almost always, lessons are being taught authors and movie producers are trying to teach the audience. There is often a great difference between the intended lesson and what is "received" by the audience, and "reception", of course, is time sensitive see below. Film what people with pretensions of "culture" go to see at small "art" theaters in northwest Washington.
Movie -- what the rest of us go to see at multiplex theaters in the burbs. Flick what they usually show in places where you can also get a beer -- like your TV room. Two other words that you often hear in "film as literature" courses are "reception" and "gaze". There is great controversy about what these words mean and how they should be used.
My simplistic definitions are as follows:. The French "deconstruction" fad took this element to the extreme, saying that what the author might have intended the audience to take away had lost its relevance as soon as the author's words or producer's product were offered: This fad, remarkably, held sway throughout the West for a while, but we are now said to be in the "post-deconstructionism" phase. This is all, of course, just specialist jargon.
Gaze sometimes "look" is what the author or producer is trying to attract, to the story as a whole and to particular aspects of the story. Gaze is much more active than reception: Both reception and gaze are, of course, modified by time. The time between when the story is written down and when it becomes available to a particular audience changes both reception and gaze.
With our material, this happens several times: First, when the event happens or when the story is made up and the original recording of the event takes place. This is not always as easy to define as it might seem. Some examples with our material are: Nonetheless, it makes for a titillating story so it's repeated down through the ages.
Later intermediate retellings change the "lesson". In our material, three of the films Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Titus are based on explicit retellings by Shakespeare, who had lessons of his own to add. All of the stories in all three films were reworked by European Renaissance "humanists" i.
The Scipio film was a glorification of Italian fascist imperialism, which had been expanding in Libya "Tripolitania" and "Cyrenaica" since Mussolini's accession and which, a few months after Scipio's premier would lead to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. The intended Italian audience reveled in the idea of imperial expansion. Seventy years later we look on it with revulsion: Quo Vadis, The Robe, and The Ten Commandments were clearly "religious message" films, and, not incidentally, had post-war anti-war messages.
They are outside the scope of this course even though the first two were definitely "Roman". Ben Hur, which we will not see, was also blatantly religious, but that's not why we won't be seeing it. The choice was between Spartacus and Ben Hur, and the former has more lessons to teach both about Rome and about the societies that made the movies.
We will see the eight-minute chariot race scene from Ben Hur, however, twice: The Spartacus film also has Christian resonance, first because of the initial explicit tie-in to Christianity provided by the off-screen narrator and then because of how the Christian West reacts to crucifixion, not to mention the subtext of supposed Christian virtues that run through the whole film. The narrator's opening "Christian" remarks are not nearly as jarring to the educated ear as are the remarks supposedly the words of Augustus in a reference to his Res Gestae brag sheet at the end of the Italian Augustus TV film that refer to the birth of "Jesus of Nazareth" in the 23 rd year of his reign.
The Caligula movie was the result of several different visions some of them clearly perverted working at cross-purposes. The version we will see is the least perverted R rated with Gore Vidal's name back on the label. We'll talk about but not see the other versions. Fellini's Satyricon, based on the surviving fragmentary Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter, Nero's supposed "master of the revels", was produced to draw parallels between Dolce Vita s Italy and Nero's Rome. It's pretty tame by today's standards. What could Fellini have wrought today?
Something to think about: Gladiator is yet another big sword and sandal blockbuster. The story is pure fiction except for the names of some of the main characters. When Gladiator first lit the silver screen, several movie critics said that it was too violent and bloody, but we "Romanists" know don't we?
Taymore doesn't cringe from reflecting Shakespeare. Shakespeare scholars say that he was inspired by the "revenge dramas" of Seneca, nine "plays" intended to be read rather than performed that were written in blank verse by the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca in the 1st century AD. Rediscovered by Italian humanists in the midth century, they became the models for the revival of tragedy on the Renaissance stage. The two great, but very different, dramatic traditions of the age -- French Neoclassical tragedy and Elizabethan tragedy -- both drew inspiration from Seneca.
There are certainly "modernisms" throughout the film, but they are clearly both intentional and to the point. Taymore is better known for her design, direction, staging of "The Lion King" which, in fact, has some elements that could easily have been drawn from Shakespeare see Macbeth. Shakespeare s Titus Andronicus is, of course, fiction and does not portray any known persons or incidents in ancient Rome. However, it does reflect the way life and politics worked in the higher reaches of Rome during the crisis of the third century AD. Chariot Racing Chariot racing was one of the most popular ancient Greek and Roman sports.
Early chariot racing The chariot race at the funeral games of Patroclus It is unknown exactly when chariot racing began, but it may have been as old as chariots themselves. It is known from artistic evidence on pottery that the sport existed in the Mycenaean world, but the first literary reference to a chariot race is the one described by Homer in Book 23 of the Iliad, at the funeral games of Patroclus.
The race, which was one lap around the stump of a tree, was won by Diomedes, who received a slave woman and a cauldron as his prize. A chariot race was also said to be the event that founded the Olympic Games;. The Olympic Games In the Olympics, as well as the other Panhellenic Games, there were both fourhorse tethrippon and two-horse synoris chariot races, which were essentially the same aside from the number of horses. The chariot racing event was first added to the Olympics in BC but was not, in reality, the founding event.
The race was begun by a procession into the hippodrome, while a herald announced the names of the drivers and owners. The hippodrome at Olympia was about yards long and yards wide, and up to 60 chariots could race at one time though in practise the number was probably much lower. It was located beneath a hill, which provided standing room for possibly as many as spectators. A race consisted of twelve laps around the hippodrome, with sharp turns around the posts at either end. Various mechanical devices were used, including the starting gates hyspleges, sing.
According to Pausanias these were invented by the architect Kleoitas, and staggered so that the chariots on the outside began the race earlier than those on the inside. The race did not actually begin properly until the final gate was opened, at which point each chariot would be more-or-less lined up alongside each other, although the ones that had started on the outside would have been travelling faster than the ones in the middle.
Other mechanical devices known as the "eagle" and the "dolphin" were raised to signify that the race had begun, and were lowered as the race went on to signify the number of laps remaining. These were probably bronze carvings of those animals, set up on posts at starting line. The chariots themselves were modified war chariots, essentially wooden carts with two wheels and an open back, although chariots were by this time no longer used in battle.
The charioteer's feet were held in place, but. The most exciting part of the chariot race, at least for the spectators, was the turns at the ends of the hippodrome. These turns were extremely violent and often deadly. If a chariot had not already been knocked over by an opponent before the turn, it might be overturned or crushed along with the horses and driver by the other chariots as they went around the post. Connolly was born on April 9, She was best known for her debut role in the film The Crossing with Russell Crowe in She also starred in the Australian television series Paradise Beach as Tori Hayden in , and was Lily in the television series Breakers in Converse was born in Oregon City, Oregon, on April 3, She began her career on stage in Los Angeles while in her teens.
She soon became a leading stage actress on Broadway in such productions as Infernal Machine and Comedy of Good and Evil. She was married to actor Don Porter for 53 years until his death in Coombs was born in Lewiston, Maine, on November 26, Dressup aired from February of until Coombs also performed numerous live shows throughout Canada. British character actress Beryl Cooke died in London on August 21, She was featured in British films from the s, appearing in Lovers, Happy Lovers! Cooper was born in Philadelphia in She began her career writing plays before joining the writing staff of the Captain Kangaroo television series for two years.
Cooper later worked as a writer for People magazine. Coralluzzo died in New Jersey on July 30, , after going into a coma due to bleeding on the brain. He began working in the wrestling business in the mid—s, and remained a fixture in New Jersey wrestling throughout his life. Corso, Gregory Gregory Corso, a leading poet in the Beat movement, died of prostate cancer at his home in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, on January 17, Corso was born in New York City on March 26, He spent a troubled childhood, Dennis Coralluzzo often in foster homes or jail.
It was while in jail in his teens that he became an avid reader. It was in the early s that Corso, after meeting poet Allen Ginsberg, began his rise as a major literary figure. Corso moved to San Francisco the following year, where his early collection, Gasoline, was published. He wrote a novel, The American Express, in , and published 13 volumes of poetry during his literary career. He was born in Castrogiovanni, Italy, on March 20, , and accompanied his family to Buffalo, New York, as an infant. After his role in The Wizard of Oz, Cottonaro continued to appear in a handful of films.
Cottonaro was also a prominent restaurateur in the Niagara Falls area until his retirement in Craig was born in Pleasantville, New York, on April 25, He began working in comics in the late s and, Cottonaro, Thomas J. Cottonaro, one of the few surviving actors to play Munchkins in the fan- Thomas J. Cottonaro with his wife. Craig left comics to work as a commercial artist once EC folded. He returned to the field in the s, working at A. She began performing on stage at the age of four.
She was featured in numerous productions of Shakespeare in England and appeared on Broadway topless in the hit play Scuba Duba. During the s Craig operated the Royal Court Repertory, where she directed and wrote over 20 murder mysteries. She was also a popular performer in Las Vegas, where she had lived since Crispin was born in Paris in Television director Alan Crosland, Jr. The son of director Alan Crosland, he began working in films as an editor in the s. He also directed the film Natchez Trace and Fury River The faux band recorded two albums and were an opening act for Britney Spears.
Cuidera was born in Newark, New Jersey, in In the early s he began working at Quality Comics, where he was a creator for the long-running Blackhawk comic, which made its debut in Military Comics 1 in After the war he returned to Quality where resumed working on Blackhawk as an inker to Reed Crandall. Cuidera also served as art director for the Quality line. After Blackhawk was sold to DC comics in the mid—s, Cuidera continued to ink the comic, then drawn by Dick Dillon, until Kim Robinson, who wrestled professionally as Cookie S.
Cummings, was killed in a motorcycle acccident on August 11, Cushman was born in Marion, Michigan, on June 9, He was best known for his novel, Stay Away, Joe, that was adapted into a film starring Elvis Presley in Cushman authored numerous books set in exotic locations around the globe. Another of his novels, Timberjack, was filmed in Dan Cushman Cookie S.
Changing her name to Jenny Lewis, she began her career on the New York stage in small parts in the mid—s. Under the name Dagmar, she played the stereotypical sexy dumb blonde.
The Satyricon — Volume 05: Crotona Affairs by Petronius Arbiter, 20-66
She was one of the most prominent performers on early television, but her career largely faded away after the mid—s. Dan was born in Japan on April 7, He attended the Tokyo Academy of Music and joined the Japanese public broadcasting system as a composer following his graduation in He composed his first opera, Yuzuru, in Dan also worked in films, composing scores for over 20 during his career. Variety, May 21, , Daneman was born in London on October 29, What a Lovely War as Czar Nicholas. French actor Jean Danet died in Paris on October 15, Danet was born on January 14, Dardis was born in New York in He began working at Berkley Books, serving as editor in chief from to He was the author of a critically acclaimed work on Hollywood screenwriters, Some Time in the Sun: He also authored biographies of silent film comedians Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton.
Darion was born in New York City on January 30, Davis was born in Canon, Georgia, on July 14, He played baseball with Duke University in the late s and spent two years with the Philadelphia Athletics after college in the early s. After serving in the U. Davis was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 2, He began wrestling in and teamed with Mike Rotundo to hold the U.
Tag Team Title in Florida in They also held several other tag team belts. In the early s he wrestled in Global as the Viper. After his unmasking in May of , he wrestled as Maniac Mike Davis. He later tag teamed with his brother, Tom Davis. De Bevere was born in Coutrai, Belgium, on December 1, He began his career as a cover illustrator for the humor magazine Le Moustique in the mid—s. De Bevere, who usually signed his work under the pen name of Morris, was best known for creating the cartoon gunfighter Lucky Luke in The character was featured in the comic magazine Spirou, and over thirty volumes of collections were compiled during its run.
Times of London , July 21, , 27c. DeCamp was born in Prescott, Arizona, on November 14, DeCamp was featured in the tele-film The Time Machine. Her final film credits include the horror film spoof Saturday the 14th and A Chip of Glass Ruby Elsewhere and Murder, She Wrote.
He created the character of Josie, who was named after his wife, at Archie. The character headed a rock group in the s, Josie and the Pussycats. The popular series later became a CBS cartoon series and, in , a live-action film version was released. DeCarlo also worked on The Archies cartoon series in the s. He also created, with George Gladir, Sabrina the Teenage Witch in the s, which later became a popular television series starring Melissa Joan Hart. After 40 years with Archie Comics, DeCarlo was fired in the s after pursuing legal rights to his characters.
De Cordova was born in Manhattan on October 27, He began directing productions for the Shubert theatrical empire after graduating from Harvard Law School. In he took over as executive producer of The Tonight Show. He remained with Johnny Carson for 22 years before retiring in De Cordova authored his autobiography, Johnny Come Lately, in With sisters Milly and Eadie, Elena performed for over 60 years. They also appeared in the films Bank Robber and Twin Sitters Elena is survived by sister Milly.
Eadie died in She began working with the BBC in and soon began working with the Radiophonic Workshop division. She utilized electronic musical scores for other BBC programs and documentaries, and also worked on the films Work Is Spanish film director and writer Amando de Ossorio died in January of De Ossorio was born in Portugal in He began his film career as an actor in the crime thriller Ultimo Dia. He began directing films in the late s and was best known for helming the Blind Dead horror films in Spain.
Amando de Ossorio right, with a Templar Knight zombie. She largely retired from composing in the mid—s. Times of London , July 23, , 17a. A pioneer adult film maker from the s, de Renzy was sometimes credited as Rex Borski. The younger de Rochemont was best known for his documentary film Windjammer. Desmond was born in Detroit in He began his career on stage and appeared on Canadian television in the late s. He was also seen in the television series Manhattan, AZ. Variety, June 18, , Ninette de Valois, a leading ballerina and choreographer, died in London, England, on March 8, She began dancing after accompanying her family to England in the early s.
She quit dancing to become director of choreography at Abbey Theatre and the Old Vic Theatre in De Valois was also the founder of The Royal Ballet. She was created a Dame of the British Empire in and retired in Dever was born on March 9, Variety, May 14, , The family returned to England several years after her birth. De Vere studied art and began working with the Halas and Batchelor Studio in She joined the Guild Television Services in and crated the short animated film Two Faces in From the s she created such animated shorts as Cafe Bar , Mr. Devi was born in Bhagalpur, India.
He broke into films because of his resemblance to silent screen idol Rudolf Valentino, starring in the bio-film Valentino. He subsequently retired to Colorado, where he taught public speaking and drama at a local high school. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in She later moved to television where she worked with William Cowley to create the comic strip-based sit-com Dennis the Menace. She and Cowley also created another comic based television series, Hazel, starring Shirley Booth.
Survivors include her husband, actor Douglas Dick. Leading science fiction writer Gordon R. Dickson died of complications from asthma in Richfield, Minnesota, on January 31, Dickson was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on November 1, He moved to the United States in the mid—s and began writing professionally in the late s. He was best known for his Dorsai series which he began in He wrote eight books in the series and was at work on a ninth at the time of his death. Teri Diver Gordon R. Diver, with her husband Ron Sevant, also directed nearly fifty videos from the mid—s including Selina , Attack of the 50 Foot Hooker , Sex Bandits and Decadent Obsessions Diver was born on September 6, She was a leading adult star from the early Troy Donahue, the handsome leading man from the s and s, died of a heart attack in a Los Angeles hospital on September 1, Donahue was born Merle Johnson, 89 Jr.
A journalism student at Columbia University in the s, he left school for an acting career. He subsequently starred as Sandy Winfield in the television detective series Surfside 6 and, in , joined the cast of Hawaiian Eye for a season as Philip Barton. He briefly played R. He was also seen in the tele-films Legion and Shake, Rattle and Roll: An American Love Story Donahue was a guest at the Memphis Film Festival in In she began making commercials for Old Navy, usually accompanied by a dog named Magic. Donati was born in Suzzara, Northern Italy, in He began his career working with Luchino Visconti on stage productions in the early s.
He was again working with Benigni on a production of Pinocchio at the time of his death. Dotan began his career as an entertainer in the early s after winning an amateur talent contest. He became a leading star in Israel, best known for his one-man show based on his early life. The younger Downes began a ardent admirer of opera at an early age and, after a teaching career, succeeded his father as the Times music critic after his death in Three years later Downes became host of the Texaco Opera Quiz broadcast during intermission of the live Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts.
Downes hosted the program from to Dudu Dotan and Zohar He was chairman of the Israel Union of Performing Artists since Dove was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England, on January 7, She began working for the BBC in She earned three Emmy nominations for her work on the tele-films Ike: Edward Downes Downey, Morton, Jr. Television talk show host Morton Downey, Jr.
Angeles, California, on December 9, , the son of famed singer Morton Downey. He worked as a radio disc jockey from the s. He also was a political consultant before hosting radio talk shows in the early s. He began The Morton Downey Jr. Show for cable television in Often dealing with controversial or scandalous topics, the show became nationally syndicated the following year. His bellicose manner, both on screen and off, resulted in disenchantment by his advertisers, and the show was canceled in A Blessing in Disguise His other television credits include episodes of Tales from the Crypt and Diagnosis Murder.
Jane Dudley Dance Group in , creating dance numbers to correspond with her feelings of social protest. Dudley moved to London in , where she continued to teach dance at the London Contemporary Dance School until her retirement in New York Times, Sept. A former professional wrestler, he subsequently became a well-known referee with the NWA in Los Angeles from the s through the s. Dudley was born in New York City on April 3, Dunkel was born in Springfield, Ohio, in The Game of Kings, the first volume in the popular Lymond Chronicles series featuring the roguish hero Francis Crawford, was published in She began her second series with Niccolo Rising in She also wrote a series of thrillers featuring secret agent Johnson Johnson.
Dale Earnhardt began racing in He also made a cameo appearance in the comedy BASEketball. Eddington was born in Chicago, Illinois, on February 25, She married Flynn in August of and appeared in a small role in his film Adventures of Don Juan. The couple was divorced in July of She was subsequently married to actor Dick Haymes from until Her survivors include her daughter, actress Deirdre Flynn.
Nora Eddington with Errol Flynn. Edmonds was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on September 24, He also starred in the soap opera Young Dr. He also appeared in the film House of Dark Shadows. He began dancing while in his teens, appearing with Ninette de Valois with the Victor Wells Ballet in In the late s Edwards joined the Royal Ballet, where he spent the remainder of his career. Edwards also directed the Royal Ballet Choreographic Group for many years.
He appeared on British television in a production of Cinderella in , and was featured in the films Romeo and Juliet and Tales of Beatrice Potter New York Times, Feb. He worked as a jazz pianist in New York nightclubs before moving to Los Angeles in the early s. He worked with Judy Garland as an arranger for her television series. In Elliot was music director for the Los Angeles Summer Olympics, conducting the orchestra for the opening and closing ceremonies.
He was working as a musical director for the Henry Mancini Institute at the time of his death. Emerick, Richard Anthropologist and documentary filmmaker Richard G. Emerick died at his home in Orono, Maine, on September 30, Emerick was born in Syracuse, New York, in He received a degree in anthropology in from Syracuse University and was the head of the anthropology department of the University of Maine from the late s.
During the s Emerick made documentary films about the Havasupai natives of the American southwest and the Iglulingmiut natives of the Canadian Arctic. He had recently completed a narration of the Inglulingmiut film project. Engel was a literary agent before he began working in films. He also produced the telefilm Killer by Night.
Engel moved to Australia in the early s, where he worked as a producer for Australian television. His final film, Winter Tale, was released in Enrico was born in Lievin, France, on April 13, He also directed the film The Father for the Son, and was featured often on Soviet television. Evans, Dale Dale Evans, the widow of singing cowboy legend Roy Rogers and his leading lady in films and on television, died of congestive heart failure at her home in Apple Valley, California, on February 7, She began her career singing on local radio in Dallas and, by , she was performing on the CBS radio program News and Rhythm.
Evans had divorced her third husband in and Rogers was widowed the following year when his wife died giving birth to a son. During the s Evans, astride her buckskin horse, Buttermilk, continued to costar with Rogers in the popular television series The Roy Rogers Show. Evans also appeared with evangelist Billy Graham during the s and wrote other inspirational books. Despite their tribulations Roy and Dale remained devout in their faith. Dale had suffered from heart problems over the past several years and Roy died in July of Evans was born in London on June 4, He began his acting career as a bit player and stunt man in British films in the mid—s.
Evans played the role of Lionel Petty in the television series Coronation Street from to He was also seen in the television mini-series Poldark and Heart of the Country Evans was born in Harwood, Pennsylvania, on February 5, He began working at EC Comics in , where he was best known as the artist for the military comic Aces High. He also freelanced for Marvel and Warren. Evans was born in Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania, on April 28, He began teaming with Robert Novak in to write a political column, Inside Report. Everett was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, on November 23, She began singing gospel music at an early age before moving to Chicago in the s.
Ewing was born in Memphis in She became devoted to the stage at an early age and, in the late s, hosted a radio program for children on a Memphis station. She continued to oversee the troupe until her retirement in She was also seen in various television commercials and stage productions. Memphis Commerical Appeal, Oct. He was born in Sheffield, England, in Fahey was born in rural Maryland on February 28, He began playing the guitar at an early age and recorded his first album in Prairie, Cheers and Highway to Heaven.
Fant was also a sign language coach for the film Children of a Lesser God Fant was born on December 13, , in Greenville, South Carolina.
A hearing child of deaf parents, Fant learned sign language as a small child. He became involved with the theater and helped form the National Theatre of the Deaf in Goodbar , Resurrection , Amy and Tuff Turn Farina Mimi Farina left, with sister Joan Baez. She and her husband, Richard Farina, recorded several hit songs in the s until he was killed in a motorcycle accident in Farina later became known as the founder of Bread and Roses in , which provided free concerts to the ill and imprisoned.
Farina was featured in several films including Fools and Massive Retaliation Fennell was born in England on December 11, He began his career writing comic strips in Great Britain during the s. His work on the Supercar comic led to a script writing assignment for the television series. He remained with Fleetways until He began his career on the Italian stage and, in , formed a touring company with his wife, actress Ida Carrara.
Ferro also appeared in over two dozen films during his career, including three for director Lina Wertmuller. FitzSimons was born in Dublin, Ireland, in FitzSimons also appeared in the film as Forbes. He served as an associate producer on several films in the s including Mohawk , The Restless Breed and Courage of Black Beauty During the s he embarked on a successful solo career. The Freeway Killings Flanagan was born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 16, He began playing the piano at an early age, performing in Detroit clubs. Oscar-winning special effects director A.
Flowers died of complications from pneumonia and emphysema in Fullerton, California, on July 5, Flowers was born in Hillsboro, Texas, in He moved to California in the mid—s and was employed by MGM as a handyman and painter at the studio. He subsequently became involved in creating special effects for films and television series. He worked on the Combat! Flowers received Academy Awards for his special effects work for the films Tora! Flowers Forward, Robert H. Forward, a radio and television producer and occasional actor, died at his Los Angeles home on January 30, Forward was born in San Diego in He began his career as a disc jockey in San Francisco and was soon working as a radio announcer, producer and director.
He returned to radio in as an announcer and producer on station KMPS. Forward also appeared in Adam and The D. Foster, Gloria Gloria Foster, a leading stage and film actress, died at her home in Manhattan on September 29, During the s she performed infrequently, starring in the Broadway production of Having Our Say, and A Raisin in the Sun at the Williamstown Theatre festival in She also appeared in the film Too Much Johnson. She was featured in the films Stage Door Canteen and All My Sons , before beginning her career on television.
She hosted the television series Blind Date from to , and also served as a panelist on such quiz shows as Answer Yes or No and Prize Foxx, Chief Dave Professional wrestler David Joseph Farrar, who wrestled as Chief Dave Foxx, collapsed and died in Massachusetts after competing in a match. Foxx began his career in the late s in Knoxville, Tennessee. He wrestled throughout Tennessee, Alabama, Florida and Georgia. Francis was born Arlene Kazanjian in Boston on October 20, She remained with the program until the series ended in Steel Hour and Front Page Challenge.
She also appeared as herself in a episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. Francis was married to actor Martin Gabel from until his death in He began his career in the s playing with the Harlem-based Savoy Sultans. Francis published his autobiography, David Gets His Drum, in Freeman was born in Chicago on February 17, She began her career in films in the late s, appearing in over movies. Adventures in Slumberland , FernGully: The Klumps and Shrek Belmont in Lotsa Luck from to The Witness Killings At the time of her death she was performing in the Broadway production of The Full Monty.
She had earned a Tony nomination for her performances as a piano player in the play earlier in the year. Freeman was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on April 3, A popular nightclub performer from the s, he used his musical abilities to comic effect accompanying such artists as Rosemary Clooney and Percy Faith.
Freeman appeared as himself in the film Manhattan Memories and was featured regularly in the television satire That Was the Week That Was. Freeman was born in Hungary in and came to the United States while in his early teens. He settled in New York City and entered wrestling in He remained active in the ring through the s. Fricke was born on February 23, Frick was born in Lycksle, Sweden, in He began working in films in the mid—s, directing the films Big Business and Framed aka Strul He subsequently began directing television commercials.
The son of film executive Charles W. Fries, the younger Fries began his career working as an editor at Columbia Pictures. He served as editor on the Spider-Man television series and the mini-series The Word. Fries also served as vice president for post production for Fries Entertainment, producing the tele-film The Right of the People and the horror film Phantom of the Mall: Fuller was born in Somerset, Kentucky, on December 6, Fuller also had a small role in the science fiction film The Andromeda Strain.
He began singing with his brother Bill and sister Mary Ann in The trio earned several Grammy Awards. He was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in He began his career on stage in the s. The Tamil star was featured in over films during his career.
Los Angeles Times, July 23, , B9. Garces was born in Buenos Aires on October 13, Garmendia, Salvador Venezuelan novelist and television writer Salvador Garmendia died of complication from diabetes and cancer in Caracas, Venezuela, on May 13, Garmendia was born on June 11, , in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. In the s Garmendia was a pioneer in writing soap operas for Venezuelan television. Los Angeles Times, May 16, , B He created the strip Hapless Harry in the s and, in , began Heathcliff. The rotund cat, often sporting sunglasses and a black leather jacket, became the star of an animated cartoon series starring the voice of Mel Blanc in the s.
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