ⓞⓛⓘⓥⓔ (#Free🇵🇸)’s review published on Letterboxd:
"Enough of politics. Let us pretend that you are a loving daughter, and I am a good father."
Empire as the story of failed fathers leaving broken worlds for their children, generation after generation, each victory built on yet more suffering. Behind all the ham-headed romanticism of dead empires, there's a deep cynicism about the possibility of a just and merciful imperial state. Yeah the ending is corny, waffling on about the "idea of Rome" and that's groan-worthy but it almost feels intentionally back-handed. Ridley still wasn't to his actively iconoclastic current heights then, this isn't as openly antagonistic as Napoleon, but there's a persistent feeling that each hero is pursuing a glorious civilization that doesn't exist. Maximus' conquest in the opening act civilizes through violence; world he thinks of as barbaric and dark is tamed with barbarity and darkness. When the wise philosopher king dies, his wisdom dies with him. The consequences of his empire remain.
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