Celedam wrote:HBO's Rome (2005) and the BBC's I, Claudius (1976) make for excellent back-to-back viewing. Setting aside the obvious differences in production, they do a good job of telling an only somewhat dramatized version of the story of the founding of the Roman Empire. They bookend the boring part in the middle — that is, Augustus' long and relatively peaceful consolidation of power — and cover the interesting bits at the beginning and end, respectively.
Addendum: It helps to also have Act 3, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's
Julius Caesar on hand, because the eulogy scene is conspicuously missing from the corresponding episode of HBO's
Rome. Instead, it's a dramatic cut from the funeral itself to Brutus and Antony talking afterwards, strongly implying that anything the show would attempt would just ape Shakespeare anyhow, so why bother? Heh.
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 5:52 am
