Of Charioteers, Gladiators and George Lucas
By David L Reinke
George Lucas’s Blockbusting
Edited by Alex Block & Lucy Wilson
(c)2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-177889-6
Noted scholar Adrian Goldsworthy recently remarked that
gladiators are one aspect of ancient Rome everyone knows about. “Hollywood has
this strange obsession, with virtually every epic or drama set in the Roman
period there will be a gladiator or two, hanging about somewhere.”1
Indeed, Hollywood has fed us such a steady stream of Roman
gladiator movies that it is now impossible to conceive of one without the
other. Is it any wonder that the
Colosseum, the premiere venue for gladiatorial combat, is the iconic symbol for
the city of Rome?
More properly known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, it is truly
a marvel of engineering, able to seat over 50,000 spectators and housing a
sophisticated system of trap doors and mechanical lifts in the theatre’s floor.
Even the ruins themselves are impressive and one can easily understand why the
Colosseum was selected to represent Rome.
And yet …
If you were to ask a citizen of ancient Rome what their
favorite sports venue was, they would most likely answer the Circus. Rome contained several, the most famous
being the Circus Maximus.
Known
throughout the empire, the Circus Maximus could seat over 380,000 spectators
who watched Wild Beast Hunts, gladiatorial combats, and, most importantly,
Chariot Races. There was perhaps
no more popular entertainment in ancient Rome than the chariot races. In fact the fans were so devoted to the
various teams (or factiomnes) that it
was not usual for fights to break out, sometimes requiring the intervention of
the Guard to restore order, often at considerable loss of life among the
civilian populace. (Imagine dispatching the Grenadier Guards in full battle kit
to quell the crowds at a soccer game.) 2
It is interesting to note that modern stadiums, like that in
Michigan, seat a mere 110,000 and even the largest in the world, in North
Korea, tops out at 150, 000.
So it should come as no surprise that with modern movie
audiences too, chariot racing is more popular than gladiator fights.
What?
How can that be true?
Wasn’t the film Gladiator a big
hit? Didn’t Peter Graves ask Billy
if he liked Gladiator movies? And
what about Spartacus – both the
film and the current series on the Starz Network? Besides, Professor Goldsworthy just said that Hollywood is
obsessed with gladiators …
Yes, but the numbers tell a different tale.
In his new book, Blockbusting, George Lucas and his editors, Alex Block and Lucy Wilson, have put
together a compendium of statistics, facts, figures and some behind the scenes
trivia, about 300 of the biggest films in Hollywood history. Although the list is limited to US made
films, ranked by their US Box Office receipts, it is none the less an
impressive assembly, one in which films about the ancient world are well
represented.
The book is divided into decades with each chapter examining
different aspects of the film business as well as taking an in-depth look as
representative films from that decade.
These in-depth examinations include all the vital information about the
film (costs, domestic box office, cast & crew, award nominations, etc.) as
well as a short essay dealing with the struggle to bring that film to the
screen.
Hollywood thinks of the ancient world as two film genres:
Biblical Extravaganzas and Sword & Sandal Epics. Of course, not all such films are set in Rome, however the
Roman Empire has been the most often used backdrop for these epics and it is
well represented in this book.
A few of the films given the “in depth” treatment in Blockbusting:
Intolerance 1916
Cleopatra 1917
The Ten Commandments
1923
Ben-Hur 1925
Cleopatra 1934
Samson and Delilah
1949
Quo Vadis 1951
The Robe 1953
The Ten Commandments
1956
Ben-Hur 1959
Spartacus 1960
Cleopatra 1963
Gladiator 2000
Passion of the Christ
2004
The associated essays are lively and informative, brimming
over with interesting trivia such as:
Kirk Douglas wanted Spartacus to have its premiere in Rome, at the Baths of Caracalla, after the
Olympics finished. However, Paramount’s publicity department needed additional
time so the film had a more traditional opening in New York on October 6th.
(Page 443)
Quo Vadis, MGM’s
extravagant answer to the threat posed by television, was first considered for
film back in 1935 with Marlene Dietrich as Poppaea. For the aborted 1942 attempt both Orson Wells and Charles
Laughton were considered for the role of Nero. Even Gregory Peck was briefly cast. When the cameras finally did roll, in
1951, there were 200 speaking parts, 30,000 extras and 120 lions. (Page 349)
For his 1934 production of Cleopatra, Cecil B. DeMille did extensive research that
included ordering a copy of the sixteen-volume French Military Survey of
Egypt. A stickler for
authenticity, when he learned that the Romans used snow to cool their wine,
DeMille decided to use real frost scraped from the studio’s refrigeration
pipes. Likewise, he insisted that
real grapes be used on set and had them flown in from Argentina where they were
still in season. Even the Asp was real. (Page 185)
For the 1963 Fox remake, director Joseph L. Mankewicz,
having shot over 120 miles of film, wanted to release two 3-Hour movies: Caesar
and Cleopatra and Antony and
Cleopatra. However, Fox’s new leader, Darryl Zanuck insisted on a
single 4-hour epic. (Page 461)
Given the list
above, Cleopatra would seem to be the most popular ancient history topic and
even now Hollywood has two more biopics about that fabled queen in
development. However, modern
audiences, like their ancient counterparts, prefer their entertainment fast and
bloody. In the battle for box
office laurels, according to Lucas, charioteers not only beat the Queen, but the
gladiators as well. (Ben-Hur ranks at
#9, while Cleopatra comes in at
#34 and Gladiator a distant
#202.)
Blockbusting takes a
detailed look at the production costs and box office revenues of several films,
two of which just happen to be Ben-Hur and Gladiator. In
fact the book directly compares the two, and the numbers are fascinating.3
Ben-Hur Gladiator
US Box Office $704.2 $223.2
Foreign Box Office $608.6 $321.0
Total Box Office $1,312.8 $544.2
Production Cost $106.7 $116.8
Print & Ads $98.4 $59.5
Distribution $155.7 $94.6
P&L $230.0 -$20.6
Length 217
minutes 154
minutes
Principal Photo 200
days 89
days
Oscar Nominations 12 12
Oscar Wins 11 5
It would appear from the chart above that Ben-Hur was bigger than Gladiator in everyway, and in fact there was much more riding
on the success of the former than the latter.
As the 1950’s drew to a close MGM, as a working studio, was
in serious trouble. Yes, their
library of past films was impressive, but unless they could turn out a new hit
the Studio faced bankruptcy.
Noticing the success Paramount was enjoying with their remake of The
Ten Commandments (still the box office
champ of Ancient Epics) MGM also turned to history, and, staking their future
on a single throw of the dice, bankrolled a “go for broke” remake of their own Ben-Hur.
Despite Paramount’s success, MGM was still taking a huge
risk given that their original production of Ben-Hur had been fraught with problems and had garnered only
modest box office returns. Indeed
the new production, besides being expensive, had its own challenges and set
backs, not least of which was the death of the film’s producer, Sam Zimblest,
who left the set with chest pains and died forty minutes later.4
However, the gamble paid off and paid off big. Ben-Hur received 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, and is still ranked in the
top ten of All Time US Box Office Champs.
By comparison, Gladiator,
though credited with reviving the Sword & Sandal genre in post Star
Wars Hollywood and despite receiving five
Oscars out of 11 nominations, has yet to turn a profit. Its US Box Office ranking is 202, well
below Ben-Hur at #9 or even Spartacus at #158.
It seems that, when it comes to putting down one’s own
money, audiences would rather watch the slave turned charioteer than the slave
turned gladiator. No doubt it is a
matter of personal taste, but in Hollywood taste doesn’t matter, only Box
Office does.
If there are failings with this book they are acts of
omission. Blockbusting focuses exclusively on US made films, and only
covers films released prior to 2006.
We can hope that future volumes will take a look at films made outside
of the US and those made after 2005.
George Lucas’s Blockbusting is a fascinating book and recommended for anyone who views film not as
a simple entertainment, but as an art form where money often trumps both
artistic merit and critical acclaim.
Notes:
1. Lecture
by Adrian Goldsworthy at the Kansas City public Library 2009
A link to the lecture may be found here:
2. Seating
capacity for the Flavian Amphitheatre and the Circus Maximus are found in
Connolly’s superb book, The Ancient City – Life in Classical Athens & Rome,
c1998 ISBN: 0-19-917242-0. See
pages 176 and 197.
Perhaps the largest and most spectacular fan riots were the
Nika Riots of 532 at the Hippodrome in Constantinople. Once the racing fans moved from hurling
insults to hurling stones at the Emperor Justinian, the Imperial Army was
called in. They had to take the
Hippodrome by storm resulting in 30,000 dead and nearly half the city burned to
the ground. See: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/circusmaximus/nika.html
3. George
Lucas’s Blockbusting, c2010, p.324
4. Blockbusting,
p.411
This Review was first posted on the Ancient Warfare Magazine website in September, 2010
(c) 2010 David L Reinke
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