Having enjoyed an Anthony Mann directed Western I thought I'd give this a shot depsite the underwhelming rating. It is a bit bloated, and the liberties with history can be annoying. However, the vast majority is clearly inspired by historically recorded events. If anything the history is even more outlandish than most of the film and I actually wish I'd read up about some of the history around the declinethe Roman empire before watching it.

It is a tale of a time of unprecedented wealth and success being gradually undermined by small minded populism. The gradual erosion of normality and acceptance of things that just a decade ago would have been intolerable for society. The best thing is this was made in the early 60s, a time of global optimism in the West, so it wasn't made with any intentional subtext or agenda. That is what makes it particularly striking for modern times when individuals of incredibly ordinary levels of intellect, foresight and common sense run so many countries across the world at this time.

In an early scene bird entrails are checked and the omens are not good. In present day we dont need to excavate a chicken to draw the same conclusion. :p