One of the many Italian sword-and-sandal adventure stories roughly depicting historical events -- sometimes too graphically -- this drama by director Lionello de Felice has its merits. The action moves along at a good clip, as Constantine's (Cornel Wilde) rise to power is depicted, amidst battling armies and political intrigue. All the well-publicized, old Roman entertainments such as feeding Christians to the lions are shown in more detail than might be necessary, leading to one of the main points of featuring Constantine at all -- he was the emperor who gave Christians the freedom to worship as they pleased. His cronies and his enemies, his loves and his successes all have their moment in the sun. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
Youngsters may not care for the older look for the quality of both video and sound are not as good as one might like, however the content is thought provoking. The concept of faith alone in Christ alone causing one to be tested by pagans, even persecuted, deprived of property, of life and of liberty are real historic facts relived even today in China and places of the Eastern Religions. It has the ugly truth of cruel persecution, but it will not harm even the younger viewers to know a bit of the heritage of Christianity that preceded our own country's founding. It likely is a far better movie than anything made after it, along the same lines. I would want our grandson to watch this and to understand there are different kinds of courage, and every kind of courage for the right reasons, is a virtue.
The history has been rewritten to make the movie politically correct for Italy's Christian society. The real Constantine seems to have been a despot. But he did fix the empire so that it could survive another century.
I gave it 2,1/2 stars because the movie was about the 4th century. There's not many movies about the last three centuries of Rome.
Good fast paced movie.......Belinda Lee keeps playing the same type of temputuous roles in each film....Too bad she died at 26 in a terrible car accident.
The story is well written and interesting. The acting is very good, but the fight scenes are patently low budget. The WORST part of this DVD is the transfer. The sound and picture quality are horrible. There are even gaps in the movie and poor syncs with the audio
Youngsters may not care for the older look for the quality of both video and sound are not as good as one might like, however the content is thought provoking. The concept of faith alone in Christ alone causing one to be tested by pagans, even persecuted, deprived of property, of life and of liberty are real historic facts relived even today in China and places of the Eastern Religions. It has the ugly truth of cruel persecution, but it will not harm even the younger viewers to know a bit of the heritage of Christianity that preceded our own country's founding. It likely is a far better movie than anything made after it, along the same lines. I would want our grandson to watch this and to understand there are different kinds of courage, and every kind of courage for the right reasons, is a virtue.
The history has been rewritten to make the movie politically correct for Italy's Christian society. The real Constantine seems to have been a despot. But he did fix the empire so that it could survive another century.
I gave it 2,1/2 stars because the movie was about the 4th century. There's not many movies about the last three centuries of Rome.