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Some film makers got ancient Rome right.  Some got it wrong.  Some didn't get it at all.  Many films about Rome tell us more about the biases of the times in which they were made than about the times they claim to depict.  Some are "message" films, and some just carry forward the message of the books on which they were based.  There is nothing in the historical account of Spartacus, for example, that would lead us to accept the "Christian" message of the Spartacus film epic or of the Howard Fast novel on which it is based (nor, for that matter, is there any proletarian internationalism that could explain the former Soviet fascination with "Spartakiad".  Recent big budget films, made for theaters, tend to get the background right, but they badly garble their historical story lines.  Lower budget theater films don't even try for background accuracy much less for historical fact -- "Sword of the Arena", a girl gladiator flick, comes to mind (although there were some documented female gladiators).  Televison productions vary greatly in authenticity:  the History Channel, just one example, will buy and broadcast almost any show that claims to be "historical", so some History Channel content is completely bogus.  Also, television time is usually sold in small chunks, so instead of getting an "in depth" 145 minute theater version of Rome, we may only get the 60 minute television version -- minus, of course, about 13 minutes for "messages from our sponsors."  The recent and ongoing Italian-made "Rome" series falls into its own category: it's an in depth fictional soft porn soap opera and has almost no accurate historical content.  (That doesn't mean it's not fun to watch, but we won't, so watch it on your own time.)  There are, of course some good films on ancient Rome, and some of them have unusual formats.  "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", our first film, based on plays by ancient Rome's best comedic playwright, fully captures the irreverance for status and authority of the ancient Roman stage.  Other films will follow.  Popcorn not provided.

A few rambling random introductory notes for the course are available at
http://www.mmdtkw.org/ARMovIntroRamble.html

Textbooks:  No textbook will be needed for this course.  The usual  handouts will be provided for each unit.  But if you really think you must have a book, try one of these:

The following contain links to pages that are available on the Internet.
Please note that links on the Internet are notoriously volatile.  I can not  predict or prevent "broken links" due to changes in other folks'  Internet sites.  If you don't find what the link calls for, you can always search using Google or some othe search engine.