El Cid/The Fall Of The Roman Empire DVD

Advantages: main reasons for the fall
Disadvantages: quite old

...system to determine how new emperors would be selected. The choice was always open to debate between the old emperor, the Senate, the Praetorian Guard (the emperor's private army), and the army. Gradually, the Praetorian Guard gained complete authority to choose the new emperor, who rewarded the guard who then became more influential, perpetuating the cycle. Then in 186 A. D. the army strangled the new emperor, the practice began of selling the throne to the highest bidder. During the next 100 years, Rome had 37 different emperors - 25 of whom were removed from office by assassination. This contributed to the overall weaknesses of the empire. Unemployment During the latter years of the empire farming was done on large estates called latifundia that were owned by wealthy men who used slave labor. A farmer who had to pay workmen... Read review

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Advantages: Exceptional scene, brilliantly crafted music, completely amazing and astonishing.
Disadvantages: You don't get disadvantages with a film like this.

...enjoyment and satisfaction but of inspiration and knowledge. He invest in great actor and actresses like Russell Crowe who acts as though he had actually lived in the Roman times, Connie Nielsen as Lucilla, Commodus’ sister and a great calming figure and Joaquin Phoenix (Commodus) whose intensity is like a trance to the audience who fall under his command. As well as being visually spectacular atmosphere is made electric by the compositions of Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard who produced an astounding soundtrack. The sounds suite the scenes perfectly whether it is to fire up the audience for the battles or to stun and shock them with some of the carnage that takes place. The DVD comes in a two-disc set. One disc holds the film and the other has a brilliant set of special features. Included on this are: The making of Gladiator... Read review

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Advantages: Another good John Wayne Western
Disadvantages: Storyline too similar to Rio Bravo for my liking

.... As Wayne feels guilty about the earlier death of MacDonald's son, he goes back to El Dorado with his young new friend to face up to Jason. This has a reasonable storyline, and as ever, the Duke is great in his role. However, the story does become quite dragged out - while all the initial scene-setting does fall into place, I did wonder while watching the film if it was really necessary, and perhaps the film could have been written differently to incorporate these elements more concisely. It's also quite a long film for a Western: just over the two hour mark, and although I enjoyed the film, it did feel like a long two hours. However, this may have something to do with the film's similarity to Rio Bravo. This film starred Dean Martin with John Wayne, where Dean Martin was the drunken sheriff and Wayne the friend who went in to help him... Read review

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