Customer Reviews

The Magnificent Showman The Epic Films of Samuel Bronston

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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I had the opportunity to review several chapters of this book and review the pictures before it went to the publisher. Now that I have received and read my Amazon copy I am even more impressed. I highly recommend it to anyone who remembers El Cid, 55 Days at Peking, and The Fall of the Roman Empire. Martin really did his research here including talking to a family member and collecting never before seen pictures. He discusses all of Bronston's films, including John Paul Jones, King of Kings and Circus World as well as Bronston's life and times. He also offers insight into many of the actors personalities gleened from his research. It has re-inspired my interest in the Bronston's movies and I look forward to El Cid and 55 Days coming out on DVD's next year. I have A Walk in the Sun coming from Netflix now. Enjoy the show!

Ever since I was a boy I have always been in love with the "EPIC" film genre, and the main reason for this was Samuel Bronston. With the release of the fully restored "EL CID" on Jan 29 08, this is indeed a timely release of Mel Martin's biography. The book is jammed packed with information on all his major productions, a handy reference to keep on the table next to the TV as his titles are released to DVD.It explains his shunning of the Hollywood system to set his own up in Spain. this book is the most complete study of a producer I've always referred to as 'the cream of the crop Only a small gripe,no color photos inside. But a great, involving book to read. I wished for a Volume 2. Excellent, of 10. out of 10.

In his book Martin quotes that it is both a sad and missed opportunity that Bronston has not been written about. I would say the same sad and missed opportunity for this book. It gives you information about the making of the films (much taken from other books) but lacks the in depth of the man. Bronston inever comes to life. I remember the SPIEGEL biography, far form perfect but very in depth of the man.
I never new why Bronston was the man he was. A lost opportunity to know him.
Buy the book if you want film information, but forget to know the man.

The Fall Of The Roman Empire (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (The Miriam Collection)
I was delighted with Mel Martin's wonderful book about one of the truly great film makers of the 20th century. My favourite Bronston films are 55 Days at Peking and The Fall of the Roman Empire. The reason I awarded 4 stars instead of 5 to this book is that the author seems to share the strange confusion about the true running time of The Fall (see page 144) indicating that he did not carry out enough research on this issue.

I first saw this movie in 1964 in Sydney, Australia and can assure Mel that it ran for 3 hours and included all of the scenes he mentions including the drinking contest between Livius and Commodus, a wonderful scene where Timonides (James Mason) and his 'barbarians' bring food to Rome during a time of pestilence and hunger, Lucilla's gifting of the Meditations of her father, Marcus Aurelius, for safe keeping with the priests in the temple and a scene near the end where Lucilla (Sophia Loren) tries to kill Commodus' real father Verulus and then asks him to kill Commodus on her behalf.

Strangely, a much shorter version of the movie appeared periodically on Australian free-to-air television in the 1980s and 1990s. This version was also available on videotape and these scenes were indeed all missing. Thankfully, in the 1980s I was able to obtain and enjoy the full 3 hour movie on laser disc and finally in 2005 the 3 hour version became available in Australia on DVD. Perhaps Mr Martin would have been more favourably disposed towards the performances of the two leads, Sophia Loren and Stephen Boyd, if he had seen the complete film as I have.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the only book ever written on epic producer Samuel Bronston. I guess for that reason alone we should all be grateful. But even though on the thin side, I wish the book had more to say about the man and his movies. You could say Bronston was the next generation of Cecil B. DeMille and ironically whereas DeMille was ultra right wing and an infamous crusader of Red-baiting in the 1950's, Bronston was the man who gave sanctuary to a number of Hollywood's blacklisted writers.

After World War II, Hollywood producers for reasons of economy and new locations, started to venture off of their studio backlots and were discovering distant places like Mexico. Bronston however, went even further going all the way to Spain. Taking advantage of tax breaks and legal loopholes, he secured financing for his various epics through european partners. It seems like Bronston was only interested in making epic size movies and indeed he put a lot of laborers, plasters and painters to work, not to mention thousands of civilian extras and even foreign army personnel. His formula was always the same, an average script, American lead actors and plenty of British and other European secondary and character actors. EL CID was by far his best remembered epic, it starred Charlton Heston who sadly died last night at age 84. Heston also made 55 DAY'S AT PEKING for Bronston, there are some good insights into those two movies sprinkled with doses of behind-the-senes trivia. FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE's claim to cinematic fame, was that it was the largest movie set ever built. Ultimately with a changing 1960's cinema style, movie epics were seen as old as the stories they told.

Mel Martin as done a fine job of researching Bronston, who never seemed to be taken seriously by Hollywood. Now maybe if he had taken on the western genre he would have beaten Sergio Leone to the draw by a good few years and secured his fame to boot. Samuel Bronston was a showman for sure, a man who cared about the look and the details of his pictures. I can well imagine what he'd think of today's DIGITALLY produced epics. No class he would probably say!