Augustus

A wonderful and expansive recounting of the life and times of Rome's first emperor, Augustus Caesar. A conversation between Augustus and his daughter Julia provides the narration that covers the early years of his life through to his death.

The story begins with us finding Augustus, after many years on the throne, walking among the enthusiastic crowd in the Roman Forum. Their reaction seems authentically happy to be close to a popular leader who is now in the latter years of a long and successful career. From here we travel back with Augustus to Spain, Egypt, Greece, and of course Rome and spend time with Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Cleopatra, Marcus Agrippa, and his wife Livia. All these characters are given depth and you truly get a view into why they may have done the things they did.

The settings are generally good and the reproduction of the Forum, while not perfect, is among the best I've seen.

My only significant criticism is the unevenness of how some of the dialog is presented. It seems that many of the actors were not speaking English and their voices overdubbed in English. This sometimes breaks the flow of the dialog and makes it appear unnatural. Hence I believe it rates a 4 star rating rather than 5. Other than that, the acting is very good, especially that of Peter O'Tool who delivers a very convincing elder Augustus. Some critics have cited flaws in the history it portrays, especially around the character of Julia. True or not, this in no significant way takes away from the production.

It's tempting to compare this to the BBC's landmark production of "I Claudius" or the Hollywood production of "Cleopatra". Overall "I Claudius" is a better production but is sometimes too myopic; one gets the feeling from "I Claudius" that the emperors never ventured outside a few rooms in their palace. Compared to "Cleopatra", this production provides less Hollywood-type settings and more depth to the characters.

A must see for any enthusiast of Roman History or anyone who has a child who does not always follow your wishes.

I discovered Augustus purely by change but I am glad that I did because this Italian television production is very good. I was thinking that Augustus would be something of a soap opera like HBO's Rome but it is an intelligent and well-written telling of Augustus' life. There are instances where events have been changed and people are left out of the story but to be able to fit the main events of Augusts' life into a 3 hour program is a remarkable achievement.

The story opens with an assassination attempt on Augustus which serves to remind us that there were plot against his life despite his image of unparalleled popularity. On the same day, he also learns that Agrippa has died (12 BCE) and this causes him to have a long conversation with his daughter Julia (whom he is forcing to marry Tiberius against both their wills) concerning his start in politics as the heir of his granduncle Julius Caesar. It was good to see the relationship of Caesar and Octavian depicted in detail although the tactics used for the battle of Mundus seemed amateurish with Caesars troop running toward the enemy rather than a disciplined march. My wife and I got caught up in the story as it unfolded from flashback to flashback. Agrippa and Maecenas are nicely cast and I particularly liked the outlandish way Maecenas was depicted with his flashy clothes and abrupt way of speaking to Octavian. The role of Anthony (Massimo Ghini) is nicely cast, looking square-jawed like the portraits of the real Anthony, and his Cleopatra is glamorous, sexy and coolly direct when it comes to politics. There are several characters missing such as three of Julia's children (her daughters Agrippina and Julia and Agrippa Posthumous) and Octavia's son Marcellus and her daughters by Anthony to name just a few. However, it does not fatally flaw the program since the focus is more on what Augustus is relating about his early life. I did miss a few characters, such as Drusus, Tiberius' brother, but I take that as a compromise for the three hour time limitation whereas I, Claudius spent 14 hours to tell its story.

It is needless to say that Peter O'Toole is perfectly cast as the aged Augustus and Charlotte Rampling makes a very cool and intelligent Livia. The younger Augustus (played by Benjamin Sadler) is very well played and truly shines in the role while Julia (Victoria Belvedere) is beautifully played and compared to past Julia's (particularly from I, Claudius) she has the passion and emotional range that the daughter of Augustus needs. The set designs are wonderful with the house of Augustus represented as an elegant and comfortable home but not a massive palace which squares with the house we know today. Some of the costumes are lacking in imagination and Caesar's soldiers lacked the typical segmented armor that they wore for a costume made out of leather but I am sure the production was forced to limit expenses. The Roman Forum is an impressive set. I don't think that I, Claudius was a better production; many of the sets in that series were reused and sometimes their decoration (especially when a bust of second century emperor Antoninus Pius appears in Augustus' house) lacked variety.

In short, an engaging telling of Augustus' life that makes him and his family into believable people rather than a stereotype. This is a thought provoking mini-series that with Peter O'Toole's performance brings the first emperor of Rome to life.

Roger Young's attempt to follow in the BBC's earlier production of 'I, Claudius' but focusing on Rome's first emperor instead of its fourth. A noble attempt cut short by significant historical distortions, a poor script, bad editing, and shallow acting by most of the cast.

The film goes in reverse chronology as the older Augustus (Peter O'Toole) reminisces on his youth (where he is played by Benjamin Sadler) when he was a supporter of Caesar. It follows his friendship with Marcus Agrippa (Ken Duken) and his later rivalry with Marcus Antonius (Massimo Ghini.) The film also covers (poorly) the exile of his daughter Julia (Vittoria Belvedere) and Livia's (Charlotte Rampling) machinations to put her son Tiberius (Michele Bevilacqua) on the throne. The film has all the feel of a badly written T.V. miniseries that tries to round off its main characters to make them appealing to the norms and values of the contemporary audience. Augustus didn't exile Julia because she loved one man, he exiled her because she was fornicating with virtually every Roman nobleman. Julia's sons were killed at different times: one died of fever and the other drowned. Augustus never recalled Julia from banishment: she died in exile. Marcus Antonius never hid his dislike for either Octavian or Agrippa as both were commoners with no noble lineage. Marcus Antonius was treated as an enemy after Caesar's death and Cicero sought to join Octavian and the tyrannicides together against him. Also, Cicero was killed after Phillippi and not before as the movie shows and he wasn't ambushed: Cicero chose not to take the ship from Italy and stoically waited for Marcus Antonius' men to come and kill him. The film is also false in that Octavian/Augustus never brought his soldiers in the Senate to pass his agendas in the style of Sulla. As for the details on the legions, the armor, weapons, and costumes were pretty faithful although the tactical reenactments were not. The clothing is a mix of historical and fantasy such as the skirts Julia and Cleopatra wore that seemed more out of a modern cabaret. The film however did make made pretty decent attempts at being faithful to the architecture, clothing, and some customs of the period even though the dialogue and scene arrangements were mostly anachrnonistic.

The acting in the film was rather second rate apart from Peter O'Toole. All of the actors seem detached from their poor script and act as if they don't want to be there. Benjamin Sadler was a reasonable choice to play a weak and sickly young Octavian. Ken Duken was actually a good choice for Marcus Agrippa as there is a strong physical resemblance between them. Massimo Ghini as Marcus Antonius was also a decent choice but certainly doesn't outshine the outstanding performance by Richard Burton in 'Cleopatra.' Vittoria Belvedere as Julia was O.K. and her feeble performance had more to do with the lousy script she had to work with. Charlotte Ramplin as Livia was a good choice as her acting and appearance always seems cold and removed but it certainly doesn't match Sian Phillips' performance in "I Claudius." Michele Bevilacqua as Tiberius played a decent role as the frustrated son of Livia but his role is a limited one in this film.

This was a decent film but hardly compares to the direction or acting in the BBC's 'I Claudius.' This may be a good film to rent but its quality and shallowness leaves much to be desired in terms of buying it. This is essentially Rome Light in terms of films a little above 'Caesar: His Time Has Come' with Jeremy Sisto and is a decent film for those who aren't too demanding in terms of historical faithfulness. If you liked the previous film, you will probably like this one too.