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While other comic films about ancient <strong>Rome</strong>, like A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979), as well as the acerbic image of the era found in Fellini Satyricon (1969), strove for an almost hyper-realism in their gritty art direction in order to create a distant antiquity, Brooks’ glossy film offers a provocative take on the function of comic anachronism. In the Roman Empire sequence of History of the World, Part I, Brooks inserts a number of anachronistic sight gags that bridge the gap between the ancient world that is ostensibly being represented and the modern world that is actually being lampooned. Much of Brooks’ movie humor relies on such comic juxta-positions, those “headon impacts between the expected and the unexpected, the logical and the absurd” (Crick, 6). These “modern” elements appear especially when the camera pans through the Roman Forum, which doubles for the contemporary American shopping mall, and lights on the “V and X” store, or a young man carrying a boom box playing the multi-platinum disco song “Funkytown” (1979). Several jokes achieve their point from blurring the boundaries between the film’s slick take on antiquity and the realities of modern society, as in the exchange between the slave auctioneer and Josephus, which plays on Hines’ longtime career as a professional hoofer in New York City: “Where are you from?” “Ethiopia.” “What part?” “125th Street.” The most visually startling and hilarious anachronism in the film’s Roman Empire sequence is the substitution of the real Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas for Nero’s palatial residence. As the protagonists travel along the hotel’s trademark moving sidewalk at its statue-strewn entrance, Brooks reminds us of the appropriateness of Caesar’s Palace, a desert resort famous for its star-studded entertainments, as a location for Comicus’ performance. And just as the real Caesar’s Palace was designed to surround its pampered patrons with Roman-style opulence, the scene in the film effortlessly dissolves the boundaries between the ancient Romans and the audience. The device of anachronism both assumes “the universality of man’s ways by projecting the specifics from our own day upon the past” and reminds us that myths, like that of ancient <strong>Rome</strong>, are not “an image of their own time and place, but a projection of the perceiver” (Yacowar, 40). Brooks’ technique of boundary-blurring juxtaposition HISTORY OF THE WORLD, PART I (1981) 201
202 HISTORY OF THE WORLD, PART I (1981) Plate 13 History of the World, Part I. Nero (Dom DeLuise) and Empress Nympho (Madeline Kahn) luxuriate at Caesar’s Palace, while the wine steward Josephus (Gregory Hines) serves them. Courtesy of 20th Century Fox/The Kobal Collection.
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Big Screen Rome
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BIG SCREEN ROME Monica Silveira Cyr
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Contents List of Illustrations vi A
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11 A Funny Thing Happened on the Wa
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permissions were secured in part wi
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Map 1 The city of Rome in the imper
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R P I D A C I A M O Sarmizegetusa C
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provocative combination of dignity
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chapters examine how both films use
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duty and desire set against the mon
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Plot Outline It is the summer of ad
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Plate 1 Quo Vadis. Petronius (Leo G
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a soldier kills Tigellinus, calling
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of Rome. Their obstinate refusal to
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he was also condemned to death. The
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associated with the Catholic Polish
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ambivalent one, given the glitterin
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This is the Appian Way, the most fa
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suggestive of the illumination she
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in historical epic films (Winkler,
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narrative and thematic focus also s
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later decades evolved into the Amer
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Peter. Eunice is the slave of Petro
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Chapter 2 The Robe (1953) The great
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Plate 3 The Robe. Marcellus (Richar
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on the command of the new emperor,
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him to retire to the island of Rhod
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of the Senate, the institution was
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of Caesarea, the prefect would spen
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of the changes in Catholicism that
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of showing off the enduring power,
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have made a great empress, thus hig
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would also play Odysseus in Helen o
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crime as a Roman citizen who has jo
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Hollywood artists who sold out duri
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Demetrius, and his jealous rage whe
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Plot Outline In the Roman province
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Judah, his mother and sister are le
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farewell: they embrace and kiss, an
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voice take the sword out of my hand
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throughout the countryside around G
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of people during its twenty-year ru
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Since Ben-Hur was in preparation lo
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technology, in particular the newly
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forceful, almost fanatical, speeche
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emperor’s offer of Roman citizens
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Messala, as Esther recounts her mem
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The appearances of Jesus are few an
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War to condemn oppressive foreign t
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poisoned by Rome, as he tells Pilat
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CORE ISSUES 1 How does the film por
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Plot Outline In the mines of North
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Plate 7 Spartacus. Draba (Woody Str
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army, losing nineteen thousand men
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second broke out in 104 and was que
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At this time, gladiatorial combat w
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Senate had no choice but to yield.
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the Communist Party of the United S
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the first time in thirteen years. T
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the slave movement with the migrati
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From this point, the film divides i
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At the heart of the new slave famil
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Antoninus dies in the arms of Spart
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Plate 8 Spartacus. Varinia (Jean Si
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learning from their mistakes; Gracc
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complaint.” As Gracchus observes
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Spartacus continues the epic cinema
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Plot Outline Part 1. On the battlef
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Plate 9 Cleopatra. Cleopatra (Eliza
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command at Tarsus in Asia Minor, an
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knowing he is the undisputed master
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Later, Ptolemy XIII fled and was fo
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Antony came to Tarsus in Cilicia wh
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for future campaigns. Early in 34 b
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honored her request for burial with
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Extra-cinematic commentary also sug
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The script, based on C. M. Franzero
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Plate 10 Cleopatra. Mark Antony (Ri
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as Caesar, but is best known for hi
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eginning of the second half after t
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desertion: I from myself.” As he
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Page 173 and 174: 4 How does the film use the spectac
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Page 185 and 186: In A Funny Thing Happened on the Wa
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Page 191 and 192: Chapter 7 Monty Python’s Life of
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Page 209 and 210: Chapter 8 History of the World, Par
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Page 221 and 222: 3 How does the sequence incorporate
Page 223 and 224: Plot Outline In the year ad 180, th
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Page 239 and 240: In contrast to earlier epics like Q
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Page 249 and 250: with the reluctance of Maximus to a
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Page 261 and 262: 246 GLADIATOR (2000) Plate 15 Gladi
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the words of Maximus’ prayer in a
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The field of wheat is thus a symbol
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city, Maximus becomes a symbol both
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2 Reference Maltin, Leonard, et al.
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Killed Spartacus? How Studio Censor
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Index Page numbers in italic refer
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Caesar, Sid 166, 197 Caesarea 44, 6
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Falco (Gladiator) 208, 210, 212 The
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Jackson, Peter 83 Jacoby, Georg 18
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musical scores A Funny Thing Happen
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The Road Warrior 230 The Robe 3, 22
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Via Appia 11, 12, 21, 24, 95, 99, 1
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