Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Here is a wonderful movie that mixes fact & fiction, sometimes telling factual events in a fictional way. All in all, however, it is a film that is well done & well worth viewing.
It is a fact that Attila did set foot inside the walls of Rome as a guest. However, it is false that he was the guest of Flavius Aetius while both were grown men. As a matter of fact, as a boy the two were "exchanged." Atilla lived in Rome while Flavius Aetius lived amongst the Huns. It was then that Attila swore that he would return one day not as a guest of Rome, but as its conquerer.
It is dubious that Attila obtained a liking for the hot baths of Rome during his youthful sojourn in the city. By all accounts of the period historians, the king of the Huns lived a very simple and Spartan existence, despite the excesses of his officers and his extravagant wealth. Gerard Butler also portrays a bit more of a debonair and "GQ looking" Atilla than I ever imagined the historical Atilla. However, that is forgivable. After all, this is Hollywood, right?
It is a fact that Valentian III personally murdered Aetius (bad idea) in 454 A.D. As someone supposedly told Valentian, "With your left hand, you have cut off your right hand." Also, the Romans did sign a treaty with the Visigothic king Theoderic I to aid in fighting the Huns. This was a reversal from earlier times when the Romans and Huns ganged up on the Visigoths. This is recounted accurately in the film.
All in all, this was an extremely good effort. It is very hard to display the dwindling years of an empire's hegemony in 3 short hours. This movie does an excellent job with the material at its disposal. The battle scenes are fairly well done, and they even pull off a passable battle of the Catalaunian Plains in the climactic sequence. However, the armies are a bit undersized; it quickly becomes evident that the film's budget did not have the resources for an extensive use of extras. But, the battle scenes are well choreographed & do show off the "tortiose" formation of the Legions.
After the death of Attila, Rome held on to her supremacy for a few more decades before finally seeing her empire fade into the darkness. Rome was one of the greatest and most long-lasting empires the world has ever seen. It was people like Atilla and Shapur who helped push it over the precipice. As such, Atilla became one of the most feared, hated and respected men in all of history. Herein lies his story.
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