Rating: 
Summary: Order the Pasta! This Caesar Salad is not Roman
Review: I took a chance ordering my first DVD series about the power and glory of Rome. I felt it would be an excellent idea for my family to gain a complete perspective about the Roman Empire. I understood it was not going to have the same quality of "The Passion" or the blood and hoopla of "Braveheart," however, I was expecting to get an excellent historical perspective about the splendor and magnificence of Rome, the greatest empire of the World. Instead, my family viewed a hodgepodge of ruins, black and white blurred segments, 'candy-coated' imagery to soften the senses (the hysteria and shock could not be absorbed as to how Rome really functioned on a daily basis) and colossal amounts of repetitive film clips that became so nauseating that the narrative, in audio, intellectually overwhelmed the content presented on video. There was some beautiful footage of the countryside and fleeting glimpses of grandeur sprinkled throughout the series, but the splicing and cuts shut down any momentum. Regrettably, even the documentary got repetitive. Several comments were contradictory. Important aspects of Roman society were utterly dismissed, ignored or avoided. Many statements were biased, misrepresented and utterly false! For example, the narrative claims that the Barbarians and other cultures were more sadistic and treacherous than the Romans. Let us use some common sense! On the admission of the narrators, the Romans were embedding for centuries the fine art of sadism and treachery...while the video is showing repetitive scenes of earlier periods from Disc 1, 2 3 and 4. I was not very comfortable with the comparisons made between America and Rome. In fact, it was confusing without deeper analysis. Some incredible comparisons were made, but like many comments given on other subjects on the DVD, they needed to be backed up with evidence, proof and further discussion.
Rating: 
Summary: A good resource on understanding the Roman world
Review: I would give this 4.5 stars if I could. The content on this DVD is arranged topically instead of chronologically. Because of this, you can watch each episode independently of the others instead of all in a row like I did. :-) Some of the content is repeated across episodes as they recap an earlier one (this originally aired on TLC) so even though it is 5 hours total, it is probably closer to 4 hours of unique content. The narrator is generally good in giving content and the expert sound bites are just long enough, though it would be nice to hear more. There are very few re-enactments in this series. They have a stock set of actions they re-use in different contexts. I would definitely recommend this for people to watch.
Rating: 
Summary: Some depth, but fails to be as great as its subject
Review: If I could offer 3.5 stars it would be a toss as to whether I did that, or gave it the 3 stars I'm offering. This is a reasonably competent production, but, as other reviewers have noted, it's repetition is very noticeable - even if you view the episodes in isolation. Good points The series does move from the beginnings of Rome to it's demise, and does give a convincing feel for the ebb and flow of Rome. It covers quite a few notable incidents, some of which will almost definitely be new to viewers unless they are students of ancient history. It succeeds in conveying something of the originality of Roman society (while noting it's heavy Greek borrowings), and appears to give a balanced assessment. There is a reasonable information content in this DVD. Bad points There was one episode in particular in which I felt over 50% of what was discussed had already been discussed. There must be at least four or five times when the same incident is recounted. This is all wasted space really. Also, I felt that the flow of the series was a bit disordered. Whilst it is roughly chronological, it digresses, following a thematic path sometimes, but seems to do haphazardly. Summary It is moderately informative and credible, but won't satisfy those looking for a lot of detail or a scholarly account. The occasional short interviews with academics with are interspersed throughout are effective, but probably could have been more frequent. I think there is too much emphasis on the emotional reality of Rome for most of it's citizens, and not quite enough on it's intellectual or engineering achievements. They are mentioned but not explored.
Rating:
Summary: Some depth, but fails to be as great as its subject
Review: If I could offer 3.5 stars it would be a toss as to whether I did that, or gave it the 3 stars I'm offering. This is a reasonably competent production, but, as other reviewers have noted, it's repetition is very noticeable - even if you view the episodes in isolation. Good points The series does move from the beginnings of Rome to it's demise, and does give a convincing feel for the ebb and flow of Rome. It covers quite a few notable incidents, some of which will almost definitely be new to viewers unless they are students of ancient history. It succeeds in conveying something of the originality of Roman society (while noting it's heavy Greek borrowings), and appears to give a balanced assessment. There is a reasonable information content in this DVD. Bad points There was one episode in particular in which I felt over 50% of what was discussed had already been discussed. There must be at least four or five times when the same incident is recounted. This is all wasted space really. Also, I felt that the flow of the series was a bit disordered. Whilst it is roughly chronological, it digresses, following a thematic path sometimes, but seems to do haphazardly. Summary It is moderately informative and credible, but won't satisfy those looking for a lot of detail or a scholarly account. The occasional short interviews with academics with are interspersed throughout are effective, but probably could have been more frequent. I think there is too much emphasis on the emotional reality of Rome for most of it's citizens, and not quite enough on it's intellectual or engineering achievements. They are mentioned but not explored.
Rating:
Summary: Superficial and Simply Wrong
Review: If this were a book rather than a video then I would say there is a mistake on almost every page. The author's understanding of what he/she writes about is superficial in many areas, and often what is said is simply wrong. If you already have a good foundation in the history of Rome then this might be a two star video since parts of it may be entertaining or otherwise interesting. However, this is a very misleading way to start an understanding of Roman history. The author seems either to be incompetent, or perhaps is consciously unconcerned with the facts in order to twist Roman history to fit into some political statement the author wants to make. Either way this is not a very insightful, accurate work.
Rating:
Summary: Superficial and Simply Wrong
Review: If this were a book rather than a video then I would say there is a mistake on almost every page. The author's understanding of what he/she writes about is superficial in many areas, and often what is said is simply wrong. If you already have a good foundation in the history of Rome then this might be a two star video since parts of it may be entertaining or otherwise interesting. However, this is a very misleading way to start an understanding of Roman history. The author seems either to be incompetent, or perhaps is consciously unconcerned with the facts in order to twist Roman history to fit into some political statement the author wants to make. Either way this is not a very insightful, accurate work.
Rating: 
Summary: Very detailed for Roman History!
Review: If you're a 'Rome' junkie, this is by far the best show I've seen. Includes a bit of everything. Sure, the classics are better, but if you just want to sit back and relax this is perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Well done, but repetitive
Review: The format is obviously made for 6 TV spots. The volumes are somewhat chronological, with significant overlap and repetition of key concepts. If you choose to watch them straight through, as I did, the repetition will become annoying. However, if you watch them one a day, or better still one every other day, the repetition is welcome. If you buy it, I strongly suggest you to not watch it straight through. I would have given it 5 *s, but the format prevents me from doing so. Notes: The "Christian bashing", mentioned by another reviewer, is not uncalled for, and I would suggest that he/she read some of the historical accounts. Some written by Christians. Lets face facts, Christianity is and has been completely intolarnant of other beliefs. Moreover, the documentary is quite complementary to Christianity. The timeline in the DVD version is very useful, as the volumes are not entirely chronological.
Rating:
Summary: Well done, but repetitive
Review: The format is obviously made for 6 TV spots. The volumes are somewhat chronological, with significant overlap and repetition of key concepts. If you choose to watch them straight through, as I did, the repetition will become annoying. However, if you watch them one a day, or better still one every other day, the repetition is welcome. If you buy it, I strongly suggest you to not watch it straight through. I would have given it 5 *s, but the format prevents me from doing so. Notes: The "Christian bashing", mentioned by another reviewer, is not uncalled for, and I would suggest that he/she read some of the historical accounts. Some written by Christians. Lets face facts, Christianity is and has been completely intolarnant of other beliefs. Moreover, the documentary is quite complementary to Christianity. The timeline in the DVD version is very useful, as the volumes are not entirely chronological.
Rating:
Summary: Hail Ceasar!
Review: There is no shortage of material if you're looking to learn about the Roman Empire. It is one of the most studied topics in history, particularly when it comes to books and documentaries. It was an empire that Streched from Scotland to the Sahara - from Spain to Saudi Arabia. An empire uniting the meditaranian world into a solid political entity with one currency, one set of roads, consistantly well planned cities, ingenious architecture, a common set of laws, a common language, and protected by the mightiest military machine of the ancient and classical periods. Many of these aspects europe is only today striving to achieve once more with the EU.
Rome: Power & Glory is a fairly good documentary on this great empire to which much of today's government architecture and many of our laws owe thier heritage.
I found plenty to like about this series. It offers plenty of information across 6 aproximatley one hour episodes. The series is broken up into 6 volumes each of which covers a different aspect of Rome - the rise of the empire, the fall of the empire, the effect of Romanization across the empire, etc. Thus it's organized by topic rather than chronologically. Whether or not you like this system will depend on personal taste and on whether or not you plan to watch them all at once (unlikely unless you have 6 hours to kill). A positive aspect of this is that if you want to know about a specific topic concerning Rome you can pull out the volume relating to that and watch it. however if you really want a good understanding of the timeline of events, the growth, the hieght and the decline, then you may dislike this as it breaks things up. You'll talk about ceasar for example in different episodes at differing levels of depth and in different lights. Basically this method has both it's benefits and it's consequences.
The series is entertaining and well shot the whole way through. While some footage seems to be reused, they attempt to use old movie footage from films such as "Scipio Africanus" in conjunction with modern images of the ruins, paintings, drawings, and plenty of shots of reenactments to create a more vissually diverse experience. But a lot of this footage is reused throughout the episodes which can feel a bit redundant.
The informative content in the series is pretty good. Lot's of interviews, good naration, very intriguing, and entertaining at the same time. It also offers some solid analysis of the events and thier importance. Lots of attempts are made to put these in perspective and offer the information in ways that most people today will easily relate to and be able to digest. This includes many lovely analogies that at least one other reviewer complained about. When talking about the gladiators they are compaired to modern day Mike Tysons. When talking about Romanization and the spread of grecco-roman culture and it's effects, they draw analogies to present day americanization (english being common language and the spread of mcdonnalds and coca cola and american music etc). I think this is great. Not only does it effectively get accross the point and put things in perspective while demonstrating what the implications were - but it also goes a long way to say that we need to look back to history to learn it's lessons. America is very much the Rome of today's world and we had better look at the fall of Rome and avoid the pitfalls of being a super power. This is appraoched in the series several times in a subtle kind of way, implying that the spread of culture and the disparity of wealth can cause resentment of a society - and obviously we see this happening today.
Rome: Power and Glory is not perfect though. It's a great overview of Rome - from republic to empire to the fall. What it lacks is sufficient depth in certain areas. Do not expect a complete coverage of roman history - the topical apprach works well in giving you an overview of Rome, not so good if you want you want to know all about the specific wars, battles, generals etc. You wont learn about the battle of Cannae, or cover hannibal in any kind of detail.
In the end it may not be the best documentary about Rome, but it's a good one. Especially for those wanting the big pictures and some depth while not a completely comprehensive look at Rome. This would be great for the class room or the living room - and even if this series doesnt serve all your needs it will make a solid addition to your collection.
|
