Sometimes we review movies we're very passionate about and sometimes we review The Last Legion. Fortunately we have special guests Ayelet Haimson Lushkov and Pramit Chaudhuri, hosts of Calcutta Arthouse Podcast, to save Rome(?) with us. Where to even begin with this one. It's a movie where every scene and line of dialogue competes to be the most absurd, confusing or just ridiculously hammy thing every put to screen. There's something to be unpacked about the way this movie wholeheartedly embraces a lot of misconceptions about the "decline and fall" of the Roman Empire, including: Rome was an inherently good and freedom-loving absolute monarchy, it came to an end in a single violent invasion of *waves hand* barbarians, the Caesars were a bunch of conqueror-kings with magic blood, Tiberius was a nice guy. The list goes on. Perhaps the best way to watch this movie is on an Aeroflot from 1980.