Customer Reviews

Rome: Power & Glory (6 DVD's)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Great story of Rome, where each tape takes a subject and deals with it in more detail. Lots of old movies are used, which is something I found nice. Only one big problem, that was added to the DVD version, is that the VHS version has no timeline. One has to remember that the tapes deal with events that overlap the events and facts they talk about in other tapes. So a person might have trouble with realizing the overlapping cause and effect of the history. It is still a great set of tapes for the price, but if you want more details on certain subjects you will want to get a book (or look it up on some of the Roman web sites).

Peter Coyote does a tremendous job narrating this tale of Roman History. Does a pretty good job, especially on the early days. The blood soaked sheets, howling wolf, spinning blade, I want to watch it again...

This is not a DVD series for someone already familiar with Roman history. It is, however, a decent introduction for a beginner.

As other reviewers have said, the series is laid out in six independent chapters. Although the layout is roughly chronological, it does jump forward and loop back at times, which can lead to confusion if watching the entire series at one sitting (wait, didn't we already cover Commodus? Did I start the wrong chapter?). This repetition occurs because the chapters were meant to be shown one at a time, and are thematic, rather than chronological. For example, one chapter might cover the legions, and another the growth of Empire, and both chapters might discuss the second Punic War and the fall of Carthage.

The narration is fair. I was a bit off-put at first by the American voice (though American myself, I always expect a British narrator in this sort of film) but quickly grew accustomed to it. Many of the images are of very old (look to the the 1920's or 1930's) films about Rome, with modern images added and similarly made to look dated. It's a decent effect. The more modern images, such as those of a man throwing hay into a wagon with his pitchfork, are repeatedly used throughout the film -- any time the series discusses farming, we see this same film clip.

The experts are...fair. I found it disheartening to hear one compare Rome's gladiators to Mike Tyson in the first few minutes of series -- the comparison, while true, felt trite and overly focused on pop culture. It will date the series in a few years when people say, 'Mike Who?'.

All-in-all, a reasonable effort.

I thought it would be worse due to the importance given to fighting and gladiators, but it has a lot of information and is quite entertaining. Great for students. However, I was aiming at something more intellectual.

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.