Sword and Sandals: My Five Favourite Roman Empire Films

Christians thrown to lions, chariot races, gladiators, battles, and what-is-Rome pontification

The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964). Credit: Paramount

Warning: Contains spoilers for some of the films discussed

In Hollywood of yesteryear, big Roman Empire films were all the rage. In films such as The Robe (1953), these epics were Tinseltown’s answer to the challenge of television; shot in glorious technicolour, bigger, longer, and wider. The Robe was the first Cinemascope film, for example. Several of these movies were released, with varying degrees of success, until eventually they became too expensive to produce. However, that changed a few decades later with the advent of CGI.

Since Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II is out this weekend, I thought it timely to list my top five Roman Empire films, in order of personal preference. I’m avoiding films directly about the life of Jesus, or comedies by Monty Python (or the Carry On gang for that matter). I prefer to list my favourite Jesus films separately and comedies are another subject entirely.