I, Claudius
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Movie Reviews of I, Claudius
Movie Review: A masterwork
Summary: 5 Stars
The first thing you will need before watching "I, Claudius"? A very comfortable chair that you can sit in for extended periods of time. That's because this monumental British miniseries based on Robert Graves's novel of the same name clocks in at a jaw dropping 650 minutes. Yes, 650 minutes! Roughly eleven hours of good old-fashioned corruption, murder, betrayal, adultery, and insanity set in the earliest years of the Roman Empire. No one knew how to mix it up like the Julio-Claudians, that's for sure. Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero each took turns ruling an empire the size and shape of which staggers the imagination. Unfortunately, the absolute control these men exercised over millions of subjects often failed to carry over to their rowdy personal and family life. "I, Claudius" deals in depth with the latter. You'll never see huge military campaigns involving legions conquering new lands in this movie, nor will you witness Roman statesmen involved in the day to day affairs of empire building and ruling. There are hints at the wider political picture, of course, but the film focuses deeply on the personal power struggles taking place inside the ruling family. You'll quickly wonder how these people could rule anything, let alone an empire, after just the first episode.
It's absolutely impossible to sum up eleven hours of some of the best television you will ever see in a short review. "I, Claudius" is too complex to describe beyond mere superficialities. The film is divided into episodes, each of which begins with an aging, half dying Emperor Claudius (Derek Jacobi) sitting down to write the lengthy history of his family. It's not as easy as it sounds; his wicked wife Agrippina and scheming heir Nero always wish to know what the emperor is up to in his private quarters, thus forcing Claudius to hide his manuscript from prying eyes. He begins his story during the reign of Augustus (Brian Blessed), documenting the scandalous behavior practiced by the emperor's wife Livia (Sian Phillips), who enacts several murder plots in an effort to secure her son Tiberius (George Baker) the title of official heir. No one is safe from the machinations of Livia save the youthful Claudius. His physical infirmities, including a terrible stutter and uncontrollable twitching, convince the rest of the family that he is an irredeemable idiot who poses no threat in the constant race to succession. He is far from stupid, however. Claudius soon learns to exaggerate his physical failings whenever he senses danger. And there is great danger everywhere as members of the family perish at an alarming rate.
Augustus's reign is relatively benign compared to the brutal excesses of Tiberius, and a laugh riot of epic proportions when placed side by side with the brief tenure of Caligula (John Hurt). Claudius's pen recalls the catastrophic results of Tiberius's elevation of a minor official named Sejanus (Patrick Stewart) to the heights of power, the sham trials in the Senate of anyone thought to pose a threat to the emperor, and the gradual ascendancy of Caligula to the position of successor. As interesting as the reign of Tiberius is, it pales in comparison to his successor. Caligula is, for lack of a better term, as mad as a hatter. He soon comes to believe he is a living god, carves up his sister Drusilla, and dresses up as a woman in order to perform a sensual dance for his Uncle Claudius. Caligula's years on the throne are a time of unmatched cruelty, brutality, and senseless murder. The Senate cowers in fear as the emperor prances and capers about Rome, forcing the wives of the wealthy and renown to work in a brothel set up in the palace. By the time Claudius assumes the throne upon the assassination of this lunatic, the problems of ruling Rome seem relatively mundane. The emperor must deal with corrupt officials, his licentious wife Messalina, and the threat of palace coups. It sounds bad, but it's better than kneeling in front of a madman waiting for sudden death.
The above two paragraphs provide only a wide angle view of "I, Claudius." The subplots number in the dozens, and often stretch across several episodes. But the story never loses focus and never confuses despite the dozens of major and minor characters involved. Not a single member of the huge cast turns in a bad performance, and several do such an amazing job that they deserve special mention. I think Sian Phillips is the 400-pound gorilla stomping through most of "I, Claudius." Her portrayal of the malevolent Livia takes your breath away. She gets nearly all of the best lines, her hateful gazes could melt steel, and she's also an extremely attractive woman. It's almost a pity when her character finally passes away--almost. Fortunately, John Hurt steps in to fill the void as the deranged Caligula. We've all seen Hurt play crazy in other films, but it all started here. His lunatic giggling coupled with the completely outrageous statements he delivers with complete sincerity leave the viewer spellbound. This is craziness on a metaphysical level, a frightening insanity that shocks the soul and delivers big scares.
The only problems I saw in "I, Claudius" are two in number. First, the picture quality isn't up to DVD standards. I don't know if this is due to the age of the presentation or the transfer, but expect a hazy, washed out picture. Second, pretty much every member of the cast sports a British accent, which makes sense considering the BBC produced the project. Most of the time this isn't a problem until you look at Frances White, the actress playing Augustus's daughter Julia. Her accent is so piercing that it hurts your ears. Despite these minor issues, "I, Claudius" is must see television that even those unfamiliar with the intricacies of Roman history should love.
Movie Review: Four Caesars as Soap Opera. Absolutely Magnificent
Summary: 5 Stars
The `I, Claudius' TV production which first appeared on PBS' `Masterpiece Theatre' over thirty years ago was at that time and still is considered a high water mark in public television serial drama. I believe it thoroughly displaced the stodgy `Upstairs, Downstairs' and was almost but not quite displaced on its high throne by the production of `Brideshead Revisited'. What is so distinguished about `I, Claudius' from `Brideshead' with its luminary roster of A list actors such as Claire Bloom, John Gielgud, and Laurence Olivier is that it achieves its quality with largely B list character actors. Almost every actor in the cast has not yet hit their stride, as with Patrick Stewart (with hair) and lead actor Derek Jacobi or, like Sian Phillips and John Hurt, they are at or past their prime as character actors.
The story is taken directly from two novels written by English poet and scholar of antiquities, Robert Graves, on whose knee I learned of the Greek myths from his very authoritative Penguin Classics published two volume work which is more accessible than the Golden Bough and much more authoritative than Edith Hamilton's tired old work. Graves' novel is based on the history and rumors reported in Seutonious' `Lives of the Twelve Caesars', plus a rather sizable amount of poetic license with history.
Claudius is the fourth Emperor of Rome, a nephew of Tiberius, the second emperor and uncle to Caligula, the third emperor, who ascends to the throne after senators assassinate Caligula and his family. But, for most of the story, Claudius is merely a narrator of the real action, which he discovers in his role as a historian. The driving force of the first half of the thirteen part series is the effort of Livia, Caesar Augustus' wife, to replace Augustus' natural offspring by daughter Julia with her own son Tiberius as Augustus' successor as emperor of Rome. She does this by murdering everyone in her way, up to and including Augustus, himself. Suetonious just hints at much of this, so the historical basis of this plot is a bit shaky, but it makes a rootin, tootin good story. The second half of the series is taken up by the corruption of Tiberius term, the insanity of Caligula's term, and the hopeful, but tragicly flawed rule of Claudius, himself.
Graves' conceit, which the telescript maintains, is that the whole story was written by Claudius and hidden away and forgotten for 2000 years, to be discovered and translated by the humble author.
Part of the great power of the story is the juxtaposition of such great figures of history as the early Roman emperors with some of the most tragic and most sordid human acts and emotions. This tone is struck perfectly when Tiberius and Caligula stand over the just dead body of Augustus and Tiberius says `... and the earth shakes with his passing...'. The irony is that Augustus was just murdered in order that Tiberius may become emperor. A similar moment comes when Augustus is interviewing a lineup of about forty noble Romans to ask them whether they had slept with Julia. To a man, they all confess to having relations with the daughter, albeit not all `in bed'. Julia did have her taste for the unusual. The climax is a heart rending scene which shows Augustus' pain at Julia's being exiled from Rome.
A small but impressive task for both the actors and the makeup crew was the aging of many of the actors to span over forty years of age, taking Claudius from a teenager to his late fifties and Livia from her forties to her eighties. This was relatively easy with Brian Blessed and George Baker who begin the story in early middle age, but it seems devilishly difficult with John Hurt who appears to be in the dissolute forties even when he is pictured as a young man.
The greatest praise for acting must go to Jacobi, but Brian Blessed's performance as Augustus, dominating the action in the first five episodes, really made me wonder where he has been all this time. I must assume from the few other appearances I have seen of him that he is primarily an English Shakespearean actor who only occasionally shows up in small supporting roles on film. Sian Phillips, playing the most important character next to Claudius, is much better known in a variety of character roles, many Shakespearian.
While the film lacks `Brideshead's high intensity cast, it also lacks `Brideshead's lush scenery and settings. No modern locations could quite match Imperial Rome, so everything is done in a competant, but ordinary setting. Where `I, Claudius' does not suffer in comparison to `Brideshead' is in the writing behind the screenplay. Graves may not have all the depth of psychological plotting, but his picture of characters motives, passions, and ambitions is simply terrific.
A great, good viewing.
Movie Review: What anniversary? Can't you think of something?
Summary: 5 Stars
This 25 year old 13 part BBC series was adapted from Robert Graves' book, well, romantic novel, and puts Octavian's wife Livia in the role of Cleo historically assigned in literature. It's obviously a TV production, but people looking for the blockbuster special effects and location shooting should see this anyway.
The historical Claudius wasn't the bumbling nice guy seen here, but was such an improvement over his predecessor that I cut him some slack. Besides, the dramatization is enjoyable. The historical Claudius turned out to be second best of the Julio-Claudian emperors (the best being Augustus). This dramatic version of Claudius was similarly second best, and comes across as a genuinely nice guy. The historical Claudius concerned himself with presiding over the courts whenever he could, he built Rome's winter harbor, he established an efficient administration by delegating to a couple of capable men (also shown in the program), and took an interest in the minutiae of imperial matters. His conquest of Britain may have been ill advised in retrospect, but in our time Britain is the best understood of all the former provinces of the Roman Empire.
Some people may find disquieting the fact that so many of the female characters are murderers and ruthless addicts of power. Others may notice as I did that the only people of color found in these episodes are dancers, musicians, and other non speaking roles. A few reviewers have noted that the sound isn't mixed up very high. I also noticed this. Gosh, what a hardship it must be to reach for the remote control. Or get out of the house and take a walk instead of watching 13 hours of TV.
The fifth disk of this set has the documentary (circa 1960) about the original 1930s attempt to make "I, Claudius" (to star Charles Laughton). It includes surviving footage from the production, as well as numerous interviews with survivors of the cast, the director, and Robert Graves himself. In my view, this documentary blows the doors off the additional material on the new, new DVD release of "Spartacus".
A cheesy paperback from 1958, "Those About To Die" [0345242408] by Daniel P Mannix, is a largely factual fictionalized account of the games, not a scholarly work, and if you happen to see it at the library or a garage sale, and have a strong stomach, check it out. I was just rereading its description of the largest ever naval "games" which were staged by Claudius. He had crews work eleven years to dig a tunnel three and a half miles long through rock in order to drain the floodwaters off landlocked Lago di Fucino (increasing the available arable land), and after this civil engineering project was finished he decided to celebrate with a battle between two "navies" of 12 triremes each (a trireme had three levels of oars on each side, it was a huge freakin' ship).
One crew was dressed like Sicilians, the other like Rhodians, and a half million spectators traveled the sixty miles from Rome to watch, including fifteen pregnant women who gave birth during the festivities, not unlike Woodstock. The lake had to be surrounded by troops to avoid an attempt at a breakout, and at least 3,000 of the participants died during and after this mock naval engagement.
Recommended viewing:
-:- Spartacus (DVD, B00005A8TY)
Recommended reading:
-:- Everyday Life In Ancient Rome by Lionel Casson (0801859921)
-:- Travel in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson (0801848083)
-:- The Ancient Mariners by Lionel Casson (0691014779)
-:- Cleopatra by Michael Grant (audio 0788703528, ppbk 184212031X).
-:- Sick Caesars by Michael Grant, particularly for the profiles of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus (0760709378, 00090312011)
-:- A Scandalous History of the Roman Emperors by Anthony Blond (0786707593)
Movie Review: Can you say, "classic"?
Summary: 5 Stars
This miniseries blows any other miniseries out of the water. It is the quintessential Roman epic. Derek Jacobi is astounding as Claudius. This is the second movie of his that I've seen. The first Derek Jacobi movie I saw was the Kenneth Branagh version of Hamlet. Ironically, his character's name was Claudius in that one too. All of the actors are stupendous from the big to the small, from the major roles to the minor roles. There are some very sad parts like when they kill Sejanus's kids. When I first read a synopsis on the Internet of Sejanus's last episode. I thought, "Oh, my God. They kill those cute kids." I was shocked. I'll admit that it took me a while to recognize Patrick Stewart as Sejanus. I thought he was going to be bald like in Star Trek. George Baker was amazing as Tiberius. He was so strong. He portrayed Tiberius as a man who won't take any bull from anybody, not even his mother, Livia (who was beautifully portrayed to perfection by Sian Phillips). Frances White was simply delightful as Julia. There was one thing I didn't like about her. Her nose was so big. I wonder if that's her real nose. Despite that, Frances White's performance was over too quickly. All of the characters in this show age considerably. For example, Livia is 50 at the beginning of the show. Then, she's 60 and her hair is grey. In her last episode, she's in her 80s and her hair was so white, I thought she was bald. Brian Blessed must be one of the most popular actors alive. He keeps getting hired for everything. For a more recent look at the actor, rent Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. He was Boss Nass. There is also an appearance by another popular actor, John Rhys-Davies. His most recent role was Gimli in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He is also known for portraying Sallah in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade. He was good. I didn't really recognize him partly because he had a beard in all the other movies I saw him in. My favorite episodes are the early episodes where everything isn't as tragic and dramatic. Things kind of get tragic after Augustus dies and Tiberius takes over. Things are just as good in the last episode where not only is there an appearance made by a character from the first and last episodes (the Sibyl) but there is also a scene where Claudius is in the Senate and all of a sudden, the ghosts of Augustus, Livia, Antonia (his mother), Tiberius, and Caligula (played by John Hurt). Augustus congratulates Claudius on becoming emperor, Livia calls Claudius a fool, Antonia tells Claudius that his nose is running, Caligula tells him that he found out he was mad, and Tiberius tells Claudius that being emperor just isn't worth it. I was moved by this sequence because I enjoyed seeing old faces again. I sort of wish that Julia was there too and all the other people who died along the way. John Hurt played Caligula with a very childish air. I personally didn't know he was so mad that he ate his own child. However, John Hurt's laugh is incredibly annoying. There's another thing I didn't like about the movie. There was too much nudity. I felt like I was watching a movie that was a period piece and a porn movie at the same time. The guy who played Nero made Nero look like [a goon] and it became brazenly obvious how the empire fell. All in all, buy this movie. It is fabulous. It doesn't have subtitles but that's the way it is.Movie Review: THE outstanding drama series of the 1970s
Summary: 5 Stars
When the series was first broadcast in 1976, many of us watched it in black and white. As with any big-budget BBC production, we could expect one repeat run after the BAFTA awards, but then the tapes would be locked away in the vaults of Broadcasting House. It was never intended for the scrutiny of repeated viewings on video or DVD. As with nearly all 1970s TV programmes, this has a mono soundtrack. The sharpness of the DVD mastering reveals many of the flaws in the actors' make-up -- the joins where Claudius's false nose and wig meet his skin can frequently be seen, for example.There are no location shots at all -- all scenes were filmed inside the BBC studios. Aside from the excellent characterisations and acting by the main players, most of the minor characters seem flat. Most of the young men, including members of the imperial family destined to be poisoned, just seem dull princes with 1970s haircuts and no idiosyncrasies.
But it just doesn't matter. This is an absolutely glorious series, which brings back many memories of the 70s. One night a week for 12 weeks in 1977, we made sure we stayed in to watch the repeats of I, CLAUDIUS. From the moment that snake appears across the opening credits (later parodied in BLACKADDER) with the chainsaw buzz of the series' theme tune, we were hooked.
Derek Jacobi is superb as the shy, handicapped, intelligent historian who never wanted to be emperor but ultimately attained the heights. (You can almost seem him as an early role model for Hugh Grant in FOUR WEDDINGS or NOTTING HILL.) The message I personally took away from these viewings as a teenager was this: don't be ambitious for status; don't stick out; just be true to your heart and work hard at whatever task comes your way. Watching it again in as a repeatedly tactless 43-year-old, I see that I somehow overlooked Claudius's extremely diplomatic, even fawning nature.
There are lots of fantastic British character actors in minor roles -- e.g. Geoffrey Hinsliff, later to star in the excellent sitcom BRASS and the long-running UK soap, CORONATION STREET. Notice also, if you can, the actor who plays Gimli in the new LORD OF THE RINGS movies. Special mention should be made of Margaret Tyzack, who plays Claudius's mother outstandingly -- she is almost always ignored in reviews of this 12-part series, simply because there were so many major roles.
If you haven't seen this series before, then beware the first episode, which is twice the length of the others, and much the worst. It's a scene-setter, a vehicle for establishing some of the key early characters, but it doesn't do quite enough to get the viewer to commit to watching the other 11 episodes which, as it happens, all sparkle with brilliance.
At least two year after its US release, this DVD set is at last available in the UK. If it had been made by Americans, I guess we British would have criticised it for all its historical inaccuracies. But we must blame the original author of the books, Robert Graves, for these. Nearly everyone who saw the series has much affection for it, and we all hope we know a little more about Roman history. Perhaps what we learnt is really about the corruption that absolute power brings.