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Reviewed by:
  • Big Screen Rome
  • Danielle La Londe
Monica Silveira Cyrino . Big Screen Rome. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2005. Pp. xiii, 274. $72.95 (hb.). ISBN 1-4051-1683-8; $32.95 (pb.). ISBN 1-4051-1684-6.

The study of cinema depicting antiquity has been gaining momentum among classicists in recent years. One of the newest additions is Monica Silveira Cyrino's survey of nine films set in ancient Rome, chronologically arranged by production dates from the early fifties to publication of her [End Page 466] book. In her introduction, Cyrino states that the aim of her book is to show how modern filmmakers use the images and characters of ancient Rome as a means to discuss contemporary issues (2–3). It is certainly difficult to select so small a group of films to focus on, but Cyrino states that personal preference and the experience of many years of teaching these films have guided her (3). This information alone is helpful to an instructor planning to use films in a course.

Cyrino specifically states that she wrote this book with instructors and undergraduates in mind, and in her introduction explains that the chapters can also be grouped thematically into religious-themed epics, secular epics, comedy, and the recent film Gladiator. Her thematic discussions of the comedies and Gladiator belie a more distinct and simple division—mid-century Roman epics and their reception. The chapters lend themselves to flexible and effective use in a course incorporating film. Each of the nine chapters is devoted to a different film: Quo Vadis (1951 version), The Robe, Ben-Hur (1959 version), Spartacus, Cleopatra (1963 version), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Monty Python's Life of Brian, History of the World, Part I (the Roman empire sequence), and Gladiator. The pedagogical benefit of this structure is that the chapters need not be read in order, but as suits the particular course goals. The chapters do build on themes mentioned in other chapters, such as representations of gender stereotypes and political ideologies, but not to such an extent that they cannot stand on their own. Each chapter is further categorized into five sections: plot outline, ancient background, background to the film, making the movie, and themes and interpretations. Further, each chapter concludes with a list of "core issues," questions intended to promote class discussions. Often, these questions can be answered merely from reading the chapters, rather than challenging the student to think critically about the movie itself, but they still provide useful starting points for discussion.

Cyrino provides a wealth of information on the ancient and modern back-grounds of each movie. At times, however, the ancient background section seems out of place and too long in relation to the more critically useful "making the movie" and "themes and interpretations" sections. For example, the ancient background sections for The Robe, Ben-Hur, and Monty Python's Life of Brian cover the same general time-period, and each section contains both repeated and new information. Perhaps the condensation of the individual sections into one that could be referred to when needed would have been more useful. Moreover, the ancient background is not consistently integrated into a discussion of each movie plot.

The ancient historical information is relevant to the discussion of modern cinema, but only as a point of departure. A lack of integration results in unanswered questions, such as what does the accurate or inaccurate depiction of historical events tell us about the themes of the film and which aspects of history are considered important or unimportant in popular culture. On the other hand, Cyrino answers these quite effectively in her strongest chapter, chapter 9, on Gladiator. Here, she points out how the historically implausible goal of the main character Maximus to return the empire to a republic in 180s a.d. Rome effectively characterizes Maximus as an old-fashioned hero appealing to modern American ideals (229). Her discussion of ancient Roman comedy in chapter 6 on A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is fruitfully integrated into the discussion of the film's structure and the filmmakers' goals. She points out which aspects of [End Page 467...

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