Rating:  -
I bought this for my husband for his birthday. Thanks to Amazon, tracking it down was not nearly as hard as it would have been in the past. I agree with another reviewer, the first half is definitely more superior, whilst Augustus and Livia are still firmly in control (mostly Livia!).
The series has definitely dated and today's viewer has to exercise a little patience with this. I believe the financially beleagured BBC actually filmed this in stage form. Hence there are many 'Actors!!', with heavy makeup. Costumes were obviously not too taxing everyone is in a toga), and sets could be got round by confining the action to a couple of rooms and probably only one 'outdoor' fountained courtyard. As for the crowd scenes one would expect to see at the Coliseum forgeddaboudit!!! This is the Beeb! With all the budgetary restrictions a Beeb production involves (I cite Mr and Mrs Badger from the BBC production of 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' in support of this - they were giants draped with what looked like shagpile).
All this aside, this adaption of Robert Graves book is one of the greats. It is carried by the magnificent story and actually requires one to watch, listen and engage. It can be quite funny and horrific. Violence is everpresent, but in those days it wasn't necessary to rub the audiences' faces in it. I am transported back to my childhood when my parents watched the series as originally televised. We were not allowed to watch it, but I went and borrowed the book from the library anyway.
In the current cultural slump we are enduring, I Claudius is well worth a long weekend with wine and cheese and blankets and someone to giggle with. Expect to scramble frequently for the pause button while you consult the handy family tree and character guide that comes with this edition, and the ensuing arguments about who is currently banished to a miniscule island and who is related to whom by birth or adoption. Have fun!!
Rating: -
Excellent performances, but I lost most interest after Livia and Augustus died. Later episodes more of the same with less appealing characters.
Rating:  -
I just received this in the mail. I was worried about the picture and sound quality, based on other people's review. It's great! I'd say it looks better than standard TV, although it doesn't compare to more modern DVDs. Maybe I just have a special setup in my entertainment system, without knowing it, but as I said, it looks better than COPS or a standard baseball broadcast or what have you.
The menus are archaic and the "big box" setup for the box set is disappointing (no slimline cases or folding cases to save shelf space)
As for the story, I haven't seen this in years but I remember it being great. Everyone else already agrees on that, so you don't need to hear from me. I just wanted to add my voice to the presentation debate.
Rating:  -
Watching the episodes one after another, about two each night for a week or so, I had high expectations for the series which has been so critically acclaimed.
The first episode was a good, but not fabulously great, way to begin, showing off the titanic acting talents of the likes of Brian Blessed as Augustus (whom I only know as Boss Nass in The Phantom Menace and the wrestling instructor in Alexander), Sian Phillips as Livia, and John Paul as Agrippa.
The real core focus of the series is the "court" dramas of the Imperial family, in which they are more like a monarchal dynasty than figureheads of Roman virtue and such.
At some point by episode two, the real focus of the series starts getting muddied. After Livia kills Marcellus, the episodes start to mold together, with no real action or drama occuring save for the family bickering with one another. Tiberius this, Agrippa that, Julia etc. If it weren't for the massive amounts of makeup placed on the actors to indicate their aging, you wouldn't know whether it's still episode three or episode five.
It isn't until Claudius enters the picture that the series begins to pick up again and get more exciting. At this point, it's discovered that Julia has been sleeping around Rome and Augustus finds out. While I think Brian Blessed is magnificent as Augustus, I think he's too thick, and boistrous to be the Emperor. Augustus in reality was very thin all his life, very pretty and often prone to illness due to asthma and such.
Claudius really steals the show at this point, even as a child, with his limping and constant twitching and stuttering. It's a bit overdone by the child actor, but as soon as Derek Jacobi comes in, he is perfect in his role.
There's really very little interest in Tiberius, despite his great acting and the emphasis on his reign, but the true impact of his terror isn't as rightly felt by anyone in the series as it is in, say, "Caligula" (and Peter O'Toole is far superior to George Baker as Tiberius, not to detract anything from him as an actor). His reign of over two decades is covered in 3 or 4 episodes.
In this period, the drama starts picking up again, with Germanicus and Drusus and Nero and Livia's plotting against them, but really it's not very clearly defined. Their whole conflict appears to be muddled in the midst of familial bickering and complaining, primarily at the hands of Tiberius's complaining about Rome and everything else.
Patrick Stewart shows up as Lucius Aelius Sejanus, and lasts two or three episodes. His role, an important one, is quite speedily done, and much focus is placed on him rather than Tiberius in Capri, so when his death comes an episode later, it's rather sudden, and there hasn't been enough characterization of Caligula. John Hurt just jumps into him straight into madness.
A lot of other rather big roles are either reduced to cameos, or eliminated altogether. There is no Nerva, and Macro is not depicted as controlling Tiberius via the Praetorian Guard.
As soon as John Hurt comes in as Caligula, he completely steals the show. His acting is stupendous, despite his presence being in only two episodes, and towards the end it starts going way too over the top. As opposed to Malcolm McDowell's nuanced portrayal in "Caligula", John Hurt's Caligula is all madness, with no humanity to him. Even his relationship with Drusilla is reduced to lunatic debauchery, with the two of them pretending to be Zeus and Hera and prancing about drunkenly in the palace. John Hurt's acting in such scenes as his return from Britannia and showing his loot from Neptune to the Senate, and his dancing sequence before Claudius and two of the senators are marvels of acting fire.
Caligula's death is rather hastily done, and done in such a way that there's no real cohesion among the conspirators, and they sort of pull a "Brutus and Cassius" by panicking and running around in many different directions until they storm into Claudius's house and declare him Emperor.
A rather small issue I have is that the female actresses they use in the series range from average appearance to frightfully ugly. This wouldn't be a problem, if it weren't for the constant mention of how beautiful they are, or what stunning beauties the Julians/Claudians produce. And the same for the men as well.
Reaching up to Claudius's reign, Derek Jacobi seems to get lazier in his role, stuttering and twitching much less (though it probably would have been, as he ceases playing the fool), and begins to act less like the Claudius we've seen before, and more just mumbling and bumbling his way through lines, until the final episode where he begins losing in earnest.
The ending is rather long and drawn out, and seeming to be quickly rushed, as it explains to the audience, rather than show or lightly detail, how it seals up the series. The actor playing Nero is also quite terrible, seeming to be content to frolic around stupidly looking fat and frilly without anything really important to say.
All in all, the series had great potential to be grand and encompassing, but behind the great acting and set and costumes, it was highly flawed and muddled in the beginning. Not the greatest series I've ever seen, but not the worst.
Rating: -
Boxed Set of DVD's done in Ancient Rome era about the reign of Claudius. Not exactly a movie but more of a play! Still enjoyable and worth the purchase.
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