Caesar the Conqueror (1961)

I'm not sure what they were going for with this one.  Caesar conquers the Gauls and watches a boxing match.  He is so entertained he puts the winner, Vercingetorix, in charge.  He promptly rebels.  There is an argument in the Senate about whether or not Caesar has too much power.  Then Caesar decides to marry his ward to his friend, an important general.  He sends her through rebellious Gaul where she naturally gets captured an Vercingetorix holds her for ransom.  She escapes, there are some battles, and Caesar wins.  I'm not sure where they were going with the character of Vercingetorix.  One moment he's being very noble, talking about fighting for the rights of the Gauls, the next he's chopping off a guy's hand because the guy didn't have enough horses.  The fight scenes and costumes are terrible.  This movie also ends with what may be the worst closing line ever.  Caesar thinks to himself, "I've conquered men but I'll never conquer their spirit, which is indomitable, like those clouds." Camera pans to clouds.  THE END.

The Beast of Babylon Against the Son of Hercules

L'eroe di Babilonia is not a very good movie.  It does, however, hit all the beats of a peplum film.  There's unnecessary dancing, women writhing around screaming while burly men carry them off to be sacrificed to something, and a scene where the male lead gets his top stripped off and is chained to something.  Trying to evaluate it for historical accuracy is pretty much impossible.  Interestingly, the dub tells us the hero is the son of Hercules, but in the Italian version he's the rightful heir to the throne.  It's basically Hamlet.

Agora (2009)

Agora is about Hypatia of Alexandria.  Historically, she was a learned woman who gave advice to Orestes, the Roman governor of Alexandria.  She was either beaten to death or flayed alive by a mob of angry Christians.  Unfortunately, none of her works have survived.  The movie itself is beautiful to look at.  The costumes and scenery are gorgeous.  The plot is something I would describe as historical-ish.  We don't really know a lot about Hypatia, so a lot of embellishing had to be done to create a complete character.  I really enjoyed this movie, and it gives me a break from the tired Christian Martyr narrative.

Angels in America

Check out Hadrian's Villa.

Roman Holiday (1953)

Continuing with our not-quite-period reviews, Roman Holiday has lots of great scenery, full of Roman ruins.  It also counts as the 1950s, but that's skipping way ahead.  The costumes are gorgeous and Audrey Hepburn manages to keep a character that could be cloying very like-able.  It is available to stream on Netflix.

28 Days Later

Again, I'm just posting this for the statue. :)