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Rating: 
Summary: when combat was entertainment
Review: A realistic docu-drama, this is a telling of the building of Rome's Colosseum which started under the rule of Emperor Vespasian and was completed by his son and heir Titus in 80 AD. It also shows the training of the gladiators, many who were slaves, but a few who would trade their liberty for a period of time for money, and sometimes fame.
The decadence and brutality of the Roman games, as well the brave and desperate men who were the entertainment, make for a riveting story;
The central figure is a historical gladiator by the name of Verus, who was a slave working in a quarry when chosen for the arena. Robert Shannon is good in the part, exhibiting much physical prowess, grace and style. Filmed in Tunisia, it boasts the latest technological wizardry to duplicate the Colosseum and the audience, using matte paintings and crowd replication among other techniques.
Produced and directed by Tilman Remme, the dialog is in Latin, and the narration by Liev Schreiber, whose modulated voice is always a pleasure to listen to.
Having seen the empty shell of what is left of this extraordinary structure as it stands today, I found this recreation fascinating and informative, with enough drama and action to make it interesting for repeated viewings.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT MOVIE/documentary
Review: First of all, let me express my feelings on this movie-WOW! This DVD has a narrator that pops in and out leading the viewer through the lives of some of Pompeii's citizens. He then lets you basically enter into their lives and you somewhat feel that you are watching the "mountain" (they did not know it was a volcano in 79 AD) explode. I was really moved just seeing how people dealt with this disaster. The movie also shows the artifacts of today linking them with the characters in the story. They also show the casts of the people as they lived out their last minutes on Earth. Let me say that this is one of the best movies out there. You will not be disapointed. Even to the guys that like action flicks, I think you will like this one since it is a TRUE story. For the gals out there, you will also love it as I did since it is a dramatization of something TRUE. I usually don't buy just any movie, but I am definately glad that this is one I spent money on. ENJOY!
Rating:
Summary: An astonishing tale
Review: The documentary/drama of Pompeii is one of the more dramatic of BBC historical productions of recent note. The last day of Pompeii, just before and during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. This is no mere documentary presentation, nor is it a docu-drama in which things are enacted and carried along soley by the narrative. This production weaves together historical narration and live-action progress, together with very impressive CGI recreations of the cities of around the bay of Naples, including Misenum, Stabiae, and Herculanium, a city buried by Vesuvian flows before Pompeii's final fate.
Perhaps the best-known actor here is Jim Carter, followed by Jonathan Firth, both well recognisable from television and cinematic film. The other actors are lesser known, but good actors who play their parts well, both in terms of presenting a believable picture of Pompeii as a typical Roman city, as well as the kind of struggle and fear one has against the unknown. Included in the teleplay are clips of actual artifacts of the archaeological digs and reconstructions of Pompeii; these often fade into or fade out from the action in the plot narrative.
Many characters are featured -- Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger, watching from afar; Polybius and Stephanus, local politicians and merchants or workers part of large households; various gladiators, slaves and other local figures whose identities are now lost, but whose presence is known from the remains found in Pompeii.
The narrator overlay tells the progress of the eruption (Vesuvius, a major volcano, erupted for in excess of 20 hours at least, according to accounts from Pliny the Younger, accounts that were not believed at the time) -- this progress is recounted hour by hour, as the first earthquakes occurred, the pillar of smoke rising (up to 15 miles into the atmosphere) -- as Pompeii's inhabitants had never seen a volcanic eruption, they had no idea what they were witnessing, and thus most did nothing to escape. The falling pumice, then rocks and coals, then the air thinning, the volcanic lightning, and the gaseous mixture into the air are all chronicled. The narrator talks about the finds later, such as looters who remained in the streets long past time there was any hope for escape.
Pliny the Elder, across the bay a bit from Naples, was too fascinated by the developments to flee for his life. A naturalist (he wrote an encyclopedia of natural history which is one of his only surviving works), he observed the collapse of the volcanic column as a piece of rare history indeed. Pliny the Younger recounted much of the details from which this particular history is reconstructed.
The piece shows a bit of the archaeological reconstruction -- Pompeii lay buried and forgotten for some 1500 years, until rediscovered accidentally during excavations for an aqueduct. The documentary also recreates what would happen to modern cities around Vesuvius today given a similar catastrophe, with literally millions living around the volcano today.
Dramatic, impressive, and historically fairly accurate (so far as my reading of Roman histories permits me to judge), this is an impressive production by any standard.
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