A historian breaks down the ancient history film The Last Legion. The Last Legion is a 2007 war epic film about young Romulus Augustulus attempting to flee the city and embark on a voyage to Britain while the Roman Empire falls apart. Romulus Augustulus is played by a young Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who is surrounded by a leading cast that includes Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Kevin McKidd, Peter Mullan, and Josh Hannah. The film was directed by Doug Lefler with a screenplay written by Jez and Tom Butterworth.
In an interview with History Hit, historian Tristan Hughes picks apart The Last Legion. Hughes began by explaining that The Last Legion is a film that “was never really seen in the high echelons of ancient history films.” The historian went on to note that The Last Legion is pretty dire and contains a lot of inaccuracies. One such inaccuracy was the fact that the film set Rome as the capital city of the Ancient Roman Empire when Romulus Augustulus became emperor, when really, Ravenna would have been the capital. Check out the full quote from Hughes below:
“This film was never really seen in the high echelons of ancient history films. And with good reason. There are a lot of problems with this film. And it’s certainly not one of my favorites. I think it’s pretty dire. But we’ll try to find some, I want to try to find some good points there.
It’s a really interesting time in history, the context. It’s the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it’s 476AD, so this is real late antiquity. And Odoacer disposing the last Roman Emperor in the West — and supposedly, there was actually another Emperor at that time — but it is the fall of the Western Roman Empire. And it is really, really interesting that there is a film dedicated to it. It is just a shame that much of the rest of this film is utter garbage.
Romulus Augustus wasn’t really prepared to be emperor. His dad kind of took over as a chief commander, and then installed his young son as emperor like a year before he is then deposed. This is like 475 AD, it all happens really really quickly. Yeah, it is quite interesting. He then gets the name Augustulus added to his name, originally his name is just Romulus. And Augustus is added when he becomes emperor. The other thing to see here is we’re seeing this kind of celebrations of the new emperor, people loving him and so on and so forth. This wouldn’t have happened in Rome. Rome wasn’t the capital of the Roman Empire anymore in the West, it was Ravenna, further north, and we don’t have any sources describing the accession, the coronation of Romulus Augustulus as the new emperor. He was very young, as shown here. But it would have been almost certainly nothing like it is being shown at the moment. And, the thing I can never get around is why they say that it is in Rome that this happens.
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What Hughes Analysis Says About The Last Legion
The Last Legion Was Not Historically Accurate
This analysis went beyond just the capital city faux pas when revealing what was wrong with The Last Legion. According to the historian, the entire coronation of the young emperor was unrealistic. In the movie, there are “celebrations of the new emperor,” which laud the budding reign of Romulus Augustulus. Hughes argued, however, that there are not “any sources describing the accession” of this emperor, indicating to him that this ritual “would have been almost certainly nothing like what [was] being shown” in The Last Legion.
Hughes’ analysis of The Last Legion reflects poorly on the overall accuracy of the film. Even when trying to look at The Last Legion in a generous light, the historian still referred to The Last Legion as “utter garbage,” referring to it as “dire.” Elements such as the fact that the capital city is not even correct suggest that the research team behind The Last Legion paid very little mind to prioritizing any sort of accuracy for the epic historical film.
The Last Legion
also suffered among film critics, getting a 15% upon the time of its release.
The Last Legion Is Overshadowed By Other Historical Movies
The Last Legion Will Be Under More Scrutiny Soon
It is particularly interesting to see analysis of films like The Last Legion at this current moment, as another major Roman Empire-based film is about to be released. This movie is Gladiator II, Ridley Scott’s follow-up to his hit 2000 film Gladiator. Gladiator is held up as one of the modern classics for historical epic films, and looking at the massive scale of its production, it makes sense. As Gladiator II hits theaters this year, films like The Last Legion will be under even further scrutiny, as they may serve as examples of historical fiction gone wrong during the time of a major release.
Source: Historical Hit / YouTube
