Whenever they speak in this film they are the voice of reason, but unlike the Stephen Boyd character, Livius, you can buy what they are saying. They make sense but you almost want Livius to just do what Commodus says. Commodus' real father (in the film) was more memorable for me than Stephen Boyd, who just did the whole handsome American for the whole film.
"You're going to cross Sinai?"
"Moses did"
Stephen Boyd was miscast in general. Wooden as a plank, in my opinion.
When darkness overcomes the heart, Lil' Slugger appears...
Boyd evidently wasn't either director Mann and/or the producers' first choice for the lead, apparently Charleton Heston was but didn't want to work with Sophia Loren again (they co-starred in El Cid and supposedly didn't get along at all). I guess the powers that be thought Boyd could reprise his excellent and career-peak performance in Ben-Hur; but I agree he brought nothing to the table in this and he and Loren had absolutely no chemistry together.
Boyd was Irish not American.
Whoops my bad on the nationallity. Man I'm stupid for getting that wrong
"You're going to cross Sinai?"
"Moses did"
Working with Loren again was obviously a factor in his decision, but Heston's real reason for rejecting the script was, well, the script. It wasn't very good. It must have been pretty bad in first draft because it was bad enough as shot. And unhistorical. Wasn't it Hitchcock who said, "You need to get 3 things right to make a good film: the script, the script and the script"? Roman Empire didn't get any of them. :)
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