Awe of the Wonder that Was Once Rome

Rome: HBO productions, 12 episodes, 1st (of 2) seasons

The one (and only) time I ever saw Titanic, the most impressive image was at the very beginning, when the di Caprio character is boarding the ship and the camera shot goes from looking at them and the others walking on the quay/dockside, and then goes up, up, up along the side of this massive, monstrous behemoth of a ship. I had never truly had any concept of just how huge it was.

I've seen drawings of what the Roman Coliseum was supposed to have looked like 2,000 years ago. I've seen photographs of it today. Yet, when I saw Gladiator, I remember having the same shock as a group is entering the Coliseum. The movie gave a 'real' image of what it had looked like, those 2 millenia ago, with the little bits and statuary that are now missing. Some how, the motion of the images, and the fact that they were "real" (well, as real as STFU&GBTW makes them) ... some how drove home the size and scale as a photograph couldn't.

Rome is equally astonishing. Not really in scale, but in detail. I am willing to blindly accept that the basic historical facts are correct, as far as documentable events. I appreciate it's an historical drama, and not a documentary, and therefore the script is a nice story using "real" bits & pieces of fact to connect the fictitious story elements. But the little details? Ah, I sat and simply enjoyed, with my eyes as wide as if I had finally realized the scope of some other wonder of the world.

It is the women's clothing, the oil lamps, the eating utensils, wax tablets, the graffiti, the signs & symbols of people's social status, the crucifixions, the religious practices ... The events of daily life, which are generally ignored in movies like Gladiator or Cleopatra. Yes, really, I noticed the oil lamps. My friend Calum, whose academic pursuits were Roman history, was rather pleased with the replicas he made. [did you know the oil they burned was olive oil?] It looked just like the ones I saw in the props for ordinary people's houses. One sees tons of Roman armor fairly accurately reproduced in movies - of course, there's no shortage of extant examples; but women's clothing? Most of what I've seen is just "oh, some romantic thing".

The acting is spectacular. Any time one can wish to scream at the TV in sheer frustration, being totally engrossed in the story ... the acting and script must be good.

Another indication of the quality of the story: when one is hanging on baited breath despite knowing how the story ends. Unlike Titanic, where we know almost everyone dies, in Rome, we know Julius Caesar is dead at the end of the story; one only waits to discover whether the TV show ends with his death. I found my self wondering every time he walked into the Senate building, whether this was the day he would die at their hands, despite having yet 6, 5, 4,... episodes to go.

The story itself runs from the end of the Gallic Wars through Julius Caesar's death, a few years later. The expected cast of characters are present: Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Marcus Brutus, Cato, Cicero, Pompey, & future-emperor Octavian. Also on the cast are several women: Atia (Caesar's niece and Octavian's mother), Octavian's sister, and Servilia (Brutus' mother & Caesar's lover). And, perhaps even more pleasant is the inclusion of ordinary men (& women).

One - perhaps major - point upon which I lay great doubts to the historical accuracy/depiction is Egypt: the ruling class at the time were Hellenistic (i.e., Greek) and were not the heiroglypic images one sees with Taylor's Cleopatra or Brando's Caesar. I'm certainly ignorant of much of its history. But, still ... this? I simply can't accept that this is even vaguely accurate. While that, by and large, isn't intrisically sinful, it is truly jarring in the midst of a show about which I have obviously waxed enthusiastically about its authenticity. Also, there are one or two points in the story line which are also completely unnecessary, to a degree that I found seriously off-putting.

The only two 'ordinary' men mentioned by name in Caesar's De Bello Gallico are included here as the counterpoint to the traditional nobility-only story. To a certain extent I preferred these two; their presentation seems to provide the grip of reality framing the political story.

Due to the wonders of cable, the directors were given the liberty of sex, drugs & other licentiousness. And, boy did they exercise that liberty. At least one review on amazon I read complained about the presence of so much sex & misogyny. As if one never sees it today in ordinary movies?

Story: great
Direction (as far as I'm able to judge this): great
Design & Costuming: absolutely fantastic
Casting: fantastic

Elizabeth's Rating:
go buy it and watch it over, and over, and over...


As a note of truly bizarre:
Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres...
I mentioned to 3 different people that I was watching this, and how much I enjoyed it, indicating the interesting bit about the 2 "ordinary" men being from Caesar's Gallic Wars -- all 3 of them: Peter (Mr.Gopher), Joachim (Dr. Nuclear Physicist) and Mom(?!), all promptly spat out this opening line of his text. WTF?