A Historian Goes to the Movies: Ancient Rome

by Gregory S. Aldrete

How have films like Ben-Hur, Spartacus, Gladiator, or even a satire like Monty Python's Life of Brian created our popular perceptions of ancient Roman history? In what ways have they led us astray? And why, despite the occasional box-office flop, do movies set in ancient Rome still have the power to captivate us, and to turn each of us into theater-going history buffs?

In these 12 lectures, an award-winning historian gives you a front-row look at the great movies that have shaped ancient Rome's role in popular culture and memory. Packed with insights into both history and filmmaking, this series immerses you in the glory and grandeur (and, sometimes, the folly) of classic and contemporary films featuring over 50 years of cinematic talent, including directors like Stanley Kubrick and Ridley Scott and actors such as Elizabeth Taylor and Russell Crowe.

You'll investigate portrayals of ancient Roman life on the big screen and small screen; learn how to tease out fact from fiction in some of Hollywood's most stunning spectacles; and deepen your appreciation for films that, when made right, can be thrilling time machines into the past. Some films you may already be a fan of; other films you might have only heard of in passing. But all of them are essential to a well-rounded understanding of the intricate relationship between the world of ancient Rome and the world of the movies.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Historical, Education, Media Tie In, Ancient

12 pages, Audible Audio

Published January 8, 2020

Reviews

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 3 out of 5]

One would think that A Historian Goes to the Movies: Ancient Rome would be mesmerizing. Sword and sandals spectaculars? Comparisons with the actual events depicted? A cast of thousands? A finger on the pulse of each decade in which these were produced? The inside jokes, allusions and references in the films?

Lecturer Gregory S. Aldrete, professor emeritus of history and humanistic studies at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, who delivers this master class as part of The Great Courses series provides all of the above. But somehow the result was just OK. In the early going, I fell asleep several times, although the class improved when he got to Monty Python’s Life of Brian. (How could it not?) The concept of a history professor assessing a movie’s fealty to history as well as its artistic merit is a fantastic idea; however, next time The Great Courses could get someone more charismatic to deliver the lectures.

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining exploration of how movies (and some TV shows) reflect and interpret ancient Rome and what that says about modern culture. People often ask the author, "What movie most realistically depicts ancient Rome?" His answer: not a movie, but the first few episodes of HBO's miniseries Rome. He chose these episodes because they portray the lives of rich and poor, because they show how interwoven religion and spirituality were with daily life, and because they include parts of everyday life that we still have today, such as graffiti.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wondered if I'd get much out of this given that I've only seen a handful of the movies discussed in this 12-part lecture series, but as it turned out this proved quite interesting despite that. Avoid if you don't want spoilers for any of these you haven't seen and are still planning on watching, though.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the sort of book that puts the “great” in the “Great Courses”. Aldrete looks at more than ten movies focused on Ancient Rome and uses them to teach us little bits of trivia about the ancient republic and empire. Along the way, he also tells us many interesting facts about the making of the movies. Some (most) are blockbusters like Ben Hur, but he goes to the other extreme as well looking at Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Overall, this is just a very fun book.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Derelict Space Sheep · Rating 3 out of 5]

This audiobook comprises twelve lectures examining Ancient Rome’s representation in film. Aldrete proves knowledgeable and passionate about the material, though uncritical of the primary sources against which the modern interpretations are judged. We learn more about film-making and contemporary zeitgeists than Rome.

[Cailee Irving]

DNF

[Knut Sigurd]

Analysen av Life of Brian var drepande keisam, men det var moro å høyre om I, Claudius og ein del anna.

[Ryan Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This felt pretty shallow, although that may be because I've already read a lot about these films in the scholarly literature. Personally, I've come to see that such exercises in viewing Hollywood films through the lens of the historian is mostly a waste of time. Hollywood filmmakers really aren't interested in creating history; they're interested in telling a good story, sometimes set in the ancient past.

The problem is really with the audience. If movie-goers could be convinced of what I just said, then we wouldn't have people who treat these 'historical' films as any sort of 'history'. I do believe that historical fiction has the potential, when done well, to inform its readers about some aspects of the past, just as a traditional history book or even documentary film, can do, but for some reason, this just doesn't seem to really happen with historical films. Perhaps it is the need to tell an engaging story in such a short amount of time that they just can't get the story right in any real sense of the word. I don't know. It's probably mostly that the audience, really the same people that I try to teach history to on a daily basis, is just not all that interested in (i.e. too bored by) real history.

The real takeaway here, folks, is don't try to get your historical awareness and understanding from Hollywood! The End.

[Ka · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars! Series of lectures about various movies (and a few TV miniseries) and how accurately they depict ancient Rome; I was not super familiar with the majority of the films the guy talked about because I don't really watch movies, especially not historical ones, but he did a great job of explaining what each film was about before going into what aspects of it were accurate, inaccurate, or just interesting and why. My favorite lecture was of course the one about Monty Python's "The Life of Brian"... the professor really goes into some of the satire in the film and explains what exactly is being satirized, which I appreciated, since I'm kinda dumb and oblivious sometimes. I mean I did get the gist of lot of the things he mentions, but I often missed things like references to specific things (especially jokes or parodies of genre cliches or famous scenes/characters from other movies... I'm often unfamiliar with those as I don't watch many movies, classic or otherwise). I enjoyed this and would recommend it.

[Micah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This odd little college course reviews the historical accuracy of various historically themed films and looks at a century’s worth of artistic, social, and political movements explored and exposed in various periods and cultures of film.

From the glory days of ancient Roman motifs in 1950’s Hollywood blockbusters with Ben-Hur and budget busters like Cleopatra, the course then looks at modern films like Gladiator before exploring lesser known and more off beat television and film forays into Roman history and fiction. Even a lot of popular modern sci-fi films contain explicit links to Roman history and tradition.

While a lot of the history here was fascinating and the professor was generous in all of his commentary on how film productions attempted to represent some level of accuracy, there is a lot of film plot description required by the nature of the subject matter which I found a bit tiresome at great length.

[Ieva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ļoti interesantas lekcijas, kurās tiešām var uzzināt lietas kā par Seno Romu, tā par filmām. Piemēram, ka angļu valodas vārds "blockbuster" cēlies no 2.pasaules kara noteikta veida bumbu apzīmējuma un popkultūrā pirmo reizi plaši lietots par filmu "Quo Vadis". Vai, to, ka mēs nemaz nezinām, ko īstenībā nozīmēja īkšķa žests gladiatoru spēlēs un vairums vēsturnieku domā, ka tas bija jāsaprot otrādi, kā filmās. Vai to, ka zelta laikmeta Holivudā Romas augstdzimušo (tātad slikto) lomas iedalīja angļiem (nu kā PSRS kino vāciešu lomās gribēja baltiešus) . Patiešām priecēja pieeja ka sākumā katrā filmā atrada ko atbilstošu un arī par neatbilstošo tās ne nolīdzināja gar zemi. Tas, ka biju redzējusi vien mazāko daļu no aplūkotajām filmām galīgi netraucēja, jo visu svarīgo atstāstīja gana spilgti (tikai pieauga saraksts ar "kaut kad jānoskatās").

[Blair Hodgkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series of audio lectures sets out to study the history and historicity of epic films set in the time of ancient Rome. I've seen most of the films and TV shows under review here, and I'm a fan of the genre, so I thrilled to learn more about them while discovering some fine details of the periods in which they were set. Want to know more about the destruction of a Roman legion in an ancient forest? It's here. Want to know more about Elizabeth Taylor's sixty-five dresses in Cleopatra? That's here too. So there's a lot of variety of information on hand, but it's all well-organized and presented with enthusiasm and context. You can tell this historian is a film enthusiast, and I would say the perfect type of scholar to tackle a series like this.

I hope The Great Courses does more lecture series in this vein; a medieval film study would be welcome, as would a pirate movie review.

[Kevin Hanks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book, but it reminded me of watching movies with that really annoying guy that keeps saying things like “you know, in Ancient Wherever, the shields the soldiers used actually had round edges while these guys have sharp corners… I mean, what did they even use their costume budget on?!?”

I did get some good information out of it though, mainly when he talked about WHY certain movies in certain time periods changed certain things due to political or cultural influences. Like some movies in the 50’s made the Romans look and move like Nazis, or shows today add gratuitous and unrealistic amounts of sex, violence and drugs due to the need to “shock” current viewers. That was interesting knowledge!

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun Great Courses production. It took me back to the old blockbuster movies of my childhood and introduced a couple recent ones that I hadn't seen. I was interested in which details the films took from history and which they had invented to titillate their audience. Although I have read a fair amount about the ancient Romans, I was surprised, for example, to discover that the oarsmen on their ships had been paid workers rather than the hapless slaves portrayed in all the books and films I had come across.

I have decided to watch some of the older films again from a new perspective and hopefully access a few that I had missed along the way. Altogether, this free audiobook from Audible was better than I had expected.

[Hunter Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes you are fooled, and not sure what a lecture series is really about. This time the title literally tell you everything you need to know. I add or remove stars if the stated goal or intent of the book or lecture series is incorrect or misleading. This title tells you exactly what is happening. He goes back to the early 1900's but most films (and later some TV shows like Star Trek) are from he 1960's to close to modern day. He is a historian and he gives his opinion of the historical accuracy of the films and his take not he motivations and goals of the filmmakers (although sometimes he has their exact motivations via quotes). If this is interesting to you, you will enjoy it. If not interested Professor Aldrete has other excellent lecture series not he Great Courses series.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 3 out of 5]

This audio course is about movie reviews with historical insights thrown in. It is entertaining and interesting. I'm not sure how educational it is except here and there. Nevertheless, I might listen to the audiobook course again if I was about to view one of these films such as Quo Vadis (1951 film), Ben-Hur (1959 film), Cleopatra (1963 film), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964 film), or even Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979 film).

[Lamadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun and full of fun facts. Historical Fiction is how most people get into history and this series of lectures examines how these movies make stories out of history, how and why they change things to fit into story structure and which movies get the most things historically accurate while still being great adaptations. It's a fun way to learn about history.

[Enrico · Rating 4 out of 5]

This course talks about a lot of movies about ancient Rome and how realistic they are. It also looks at specific lines of ancient writers that sparked the ideas of countless of films like the famous "bread and circuses" line and how the interpretations of that line changed through the decades of filmmaking. Overall an enjoyable short course.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Historian Goes to the Movies by Greg Aldrete is a series of 12 lectures on how movies over time have depicted ancient Rome. I really enjoyed listening to this book. I found it insightful, entertaining as well as educational. I am going to find more Great Courses to listen to.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview of popular movies and how they mesh with REAL history. Loved the review of the movie Gladiator and the Eagle.

Will try to listen to more of this series....Great Courses.

[Loren Shultz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read. Kept my mind off current events.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smart people talking about movies is always going to be interesting. Wow Fellini!

[Kattia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesante comparación entre Hollywood y la realidad histórica de las películas y series ambientadas en la Roma Imperial. Como bono, viene acompañado de un PDF lleno de información. 🤗

[Danica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to hear the perspective on these great films from a historian.

[Sanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesante cursuri! Mi-au facut pofta sa revad Life of Brian https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0079470/

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun review by outspoken classics scholar

[Paul Triller · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful addition to the Great Courses series offered by Audible.

Informative, entertaining, and even includes reference to Monty Python.

[Jeff J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun assessment of movies about classical Rome by a historian.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

It would have been better if they showed some film clips.