Byzantine Empire in Movies

Originally posted by Spartakus Anyway,what about the Empire of Heaven,the Byzantine Empire?I mean,what the heck ,Byzantines ruled the Holy lands almost 400 years before the Crusades Era.Why they do not do any movie about them?They existed for almost 800 years in the area for God's shake!They had fought hundrends of battles in almost every corner of the Mediterranean Sea:Italy,Balkans,Northern Africa,Middle East.They gave birth to a magnificent Empire,a God's Empire,and a tremendous culture-civilization.They gave birth to numerous worth-noted Generals and Emperors,as well as bad ones ,of course, but this is not the point.I do not want to hear about Richard the Lionheart!I want to hear about Belisarius,Basil the II,Constantine XI,Justinian and others!

Originally posted by Spartakus The thing is that there is no serious reason for not showing(...)Unless the Catholic Church does not want a movie about the glory of a Christian Orthodox Empire.I cannot imagine other reasons.Historical ignorance?But don't these movie producers hire historians?

Gentlemen, as a business student I have the most pertinent answer to this question you will ever hope to hear: marketability. At the end of the day, Hollywood is an industrial production line, complete with management, marketing, and assembly line workers (comics, dramatists, lighting experts, researchers etc). Except instead of Model T Fords or DVD players rolling off the end of the line, the end product is a movie script.

There just aren't all that many people who will want to see such a movie because so few in society feel any strong connection to Byzantium. Even Greeks themselves seem to consider it a peripheral area of their history compared to the Independence War and their Classical past.

The Patriot was a winner because Americans naturally love such glory epics. Braveheart, while its basic entertainment value is already excellant, further appealed to anyone of Celtic heritage or who held a grudge against the English just because of the way the film was designed. With the current War on Terror and rising popularity of Huntington's Clash of Civilisations, the public has naturally taken a greater interest in what they consider mirrors to our own time in movies like Kingdom of Heaven.

I would love to see a movie on Byzantium, but when it comes down to it you will have to make it really strike a chord on a personal level with a large portion of the population. With the relative ignorance or uninterest of the general public, this will be very hard.

Originally posted by Constantine XI There just aren't all that many people who will want to see such a movie because so few in society feel any strong connection to Byzantium. Even Greeks themselves seem to consider it a peripheral area of their history compared to the Independence War and their Classical past.

Edited by Byzantine Emperor - 25-Oct-2006 at 17:44

Concerning the Greek feelings about Byzantium,i will tell you this.Make Belisarius talk always in Greek.Even the Emperor.Not in Latin,only in Greek.Then,we can talk about the feelings of Hellens towards Byzantium.....

On the other hand, one single well done movie will signifficantly increase the interest on Byzantium. So, market lows have good size as well.

I imagine how would be Hollywood to make a great movie about Byzantium.

I think Americans would be shocked but they would like it and they would discover the diversity of World's culture.

Such a movie would be finaly a succes, including financiary.

But perhaps there are interest groups which don't want people to be informed in such measure.

 I'm not overly bothered about the lack of movies that include the Byzantine empire as the central focus. These *modern* epics costs hundreds of millions of $$$ to create, it's risky enough making a movie about something the public is relatively familiar with (Rome), it's even more risky to make a movie about a civilisation all but a few will even of heard of.

Anyone here seen Kampf um Rom / Guerra per Roma? It's an older (late 60s) Italiano-Germano-Romanian movie on Byzantine's wars in Italy.

Alexander is underrated? Please, in between giving longing looks at his lover, having a shouting match with his dad, and a damn near incestuous relationship with his mother, one wonders how he managed to cinquer the world.