Rating:  -
Today's TV generation would end up comparing this series to "ROME" that obviously has awesome effects, music, scenes and costumes. In comparison, I Claudius is slow, grainy, muffled... yet superb. This 70 year run through Roman History by Derek Jacobi as Caludius is one of the most intelligent, witty, serious, and educative mini-series ever. The "flashback" format lends itself to the telling of the tale and this allows the story to be adequately colored with the politics, sex, crime and power of the Roman era. Brilliant.
Rating:  -
For anyone who has watched HBO's "Rome" series, observing the next generation of the Roman emperors would be a natural progression. This made for TV series have been produced by BBC more than a decade ago. We learn about the rule of: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero. All excesses of the Roman empire are on display: from murders to incest, from treason to poorly arranged political marriages. Set contains five CDs. Each CD has three episodes. It will take enormous amount of dedication to watch the entire series. I never got to watch the commentary that everyone is so talking about especially after the series have been re-issued and featured in the Entertainment Weekly magazine commentary. To me, this is a unique story of one individual's (Claudius) struggle for survival in the world of constant power struggle. In spite of his physical handicap (club foot), stutter and poor hearing he manages to cultivate his mind so finely that thru his wits he not only survives generations of opressive imperial family members, but he gets to rule the Rome himself for more than a decade. Pace yourself with these series as you may find it excessive and overwhelming at times.
Rating: -
I recently watched this again, not having seen the series for at least ten years. I, Claudius is just as good as I remember it. Nowadays this series would have been done with digital special effects which showed a rather unconvincing colliseum scene, or battle scenes, or who knows what. Instead the series relies on superb acting and dialogue to carry it and carry it it does.
I, Claudius tells the story of the first Caesars, starting with Augustus, and marks the utter depravity that the dynasty slips into as the Emperors sieze more and more power for themselves, making the Roman Republic a distant memory.
Rating: -
I gave this 3 stars for the hell of it. I haven't and won't see it. I, Claudius is a book by Robert Graves, a very good book and I've read it 2 or 3 times. Claudius the God is the sequel. In it Claudius is shown to have been (once emperor) as big a monster as any emperor that ruled. I only read it once (it totally spoiled my memories of the first book which I now hate), then I threw it away. Claudius reveled in blood and murder. One scene I vividly remember is his having soldiers on some kind of stage or platform kill each other and slide around and slip and fall in the blood while doing it. Lovely. Great show. Was that in the movie?
Rating: -
i was waiting and waiting for this release and when it finally came out...i, too was very VERY disapointed! the video quality i could perhaps overlook...but the sound...it's intolerable! i can't hear a word...it's so muddy and muted. even full blast sound it's unwatchable...PLEASE someone find a better master or spend the $ to fix the sound...i CAN be done and it SHOULD be done...because I, Claudius is an outstanding ground breaking series!!..i saw it as a teen on PBS (oohahh nudity, sex & violence!) and i loved it... my fam was all about watching Masterpiece Theatre...Duchess of Dukestreet, Lily, etc... i got an education in stuff (AND GOOD TV!) early!
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