HBO\'s "Rome" to present more realistic look at the

[A_Volpe]

I agree. There was too much blatant sex at first, then it was just "Full Frontal" everywhere. It's all about that Balance...? :roll:

I would have liked to have seen more battle action as well, they made such an effort in the first episode...Was it too difficult to do? I did like the scene of the fight practicing between Pullo and Octavian. It gave me some possibilities in technique to chew over. Shields were a bit small though, and there was way too much stop-motion-turn-based fighting. Extanging shield knocks that do nothing...And hitting the shield with the sword...LAME...But like I said, it got my mind grinding.

And did we *really* need to see Pompey's head chopped off? You don't see the bastard lover's thumbs getting cut off, except for the insinuated "prop" Pullo tosses into the stream...But then you see a Pushkin Nosed Greek get a sword through the throat (what was up with that fake nose anyway?), and a guy's head severed....Not terribly consistent.

Still gonna watch and see how it goes though. Now we're going to Aegyptus! Woo!

[Gaivs Antonivs Satvrninvs]

Ave,Dudicus,I'm glad to see people are watching anyway. The tunics you mentioned earlier are worn by both main characters and the eagle,I suppose, is to show they are military.However on my set they are a very dirty gray. I also like Pullo's approach to things. He seems like a real person in a time when you could do that stuff and get away with it. This time instead of the Romans being bad guys the worst so far have been the Aegyptians.However, I had to chuckle at Caesar's way of dealing with the situation. Seems fairly authentic for the times. I cant seem to locate those helmets though. Montefortino? Early Coolus? They look good to me,though. Yep, I'm totally hooked,too.The Historical consultant is Jonathan Stamp of the British School at Rome and has some pretty impressive credentials.Check out HBO.com and see the info there.Vale,Andy

[Niedel]

I cant seem to locate those helmets though. Montefortino? Early Coolus?

I'd say Hollywoodensis ;-) )

The Historical consultant is Jonathan Stamp of the British School at Rome and has some pretty impressive credentials.

Really? Is he well-known? I only read somewhere that he is a BBC consultant and thought it was sort of a lame move to have a BBC employee act as the "independent historical consultant", but I might be wrong.

[Gaivs Antonivs Satvrninvs]

As I said before,go to the HBO website and check out what they say. I consider the BBC to be head and shoulders above the usual Hollywood stuff. It seems to me anyone who is willing to go to the trouble to use the "right" cloth(linen,wool) to make costumes(also on the website) they would also do their homework on other things as well. I'm not saying that they are perfect but we often look for so much wrong we miss when something is done(or at least tried to be)done right. I bet some of our fellow milites in the UK could tell us what they think Andy.

[Niedel]

I know, and I'm not complaining. I have enjoyed the series so far, just wish they would have some battle scenes, too, and the Cleo episode was a little over the top IMO.

Niedel
Aka
Christoph Niedermair

[Crispvs]

I don't think it has started here yet. I am looking forward to knowing whether or not I need to take off my authenticity officer glasses to watch it.

Crispvs :wink:

[Gaivs Antonivs Satvrninvs]

Avete,Niedel&Crispus,Thanks for the feedback. I was beginning to think I was"Jack the thread-killer". My main objection is that they seem to wear brachae all the time. In Germanica with Caesar I can see it ,as it was proper. Crispus,I hope you get to see it because it's a pretty good show all around. Sometimes it reminds me of "the Sopranos B.C." Of course, I imagine Caesar did much as he wanted and in those times the moral issue was pretty ambiguous. Niedel,didn't you like the way the Romans settled the monarchy dispute in Egypt? I guess it's hard to put much battle scenes in a 45-50 minute program and squeeze in all the drama. Valete,Andy(gaivs antonivs scaeva).

[Tarbicus]

I don't think it has started here yet.

The BBC has just started showing teaser trailers at last, so it won't be too long now.

[Niedel]

Niedel,didn't you like the way the Romans settled the monarchy dispute in Egypt? I guess it's hard to put much battle scenes in a 45-50 minute program and squeeze in all the drama

.


I just thought it was over the top, the issue of Caesarion's father etc. (I don't want to include any spoilers for our British compadres, though). Cut the comedy, they should get back to the nitty-gritty. And the Alexandria set was a joke, IMO, come on, sand floors in the ptolemy palace?
Plus, so far, they basically conveniently neglected to show ANY battle scenes. The "battle scene" in the Pharsalus episode was a joke. And you'd think for a 100 million dollar budget, they could show some of that (but I guess they spent most of it on the Rome set, which is splendid).

Having said that, I really enjoy the intrigue and backstabbing etc. It's definitely sort of I Claudius on steroids. But IMO, they could have raised the steroid level a bit and shown some mass scenes/battles etc.
Having said all that, still one of the more intelligent shows on TV, and I will continue watching it. The second season is confirmed, too, but won't air until 2007 (a la Sopranos... sigh).

[arklore70]

Yes,
more combat and battle scenes. A bit dissappointed in that.

Some of the sex scenes are starting to get distracting in my humble opinion. Wish they would drop a bit of the Sex in the City with a Toga.

Still a pretty good show, but not one for the kiddies.

v/r

Mike

[Gaivs Antonivs Satvrninvs]

Indeed,but by the same token, the head chopping and neck stabbing might be a little "PG" as well,eh?.......ps - I promise I'm gonna shut-up on this thread even if it is currently my favorite show.Andy

[Carus Andiae]

Doesn't air in the UK until the 2nd November, but the Daily Telegraph have decided to ask the author of a series of children's historical novels - Caroline Lawrence - on how accurate it was. She was impressed, but then she always says that the Romans considered pederasty to be normal, which I'm dubious about to say the least (a bit too Greek for the Romans, I would have thought).

However, there's a nice close-up of thingie Hinds in a lovely red-leather breastplate with eagle eblazoned across it. The hamata of his accompanying soldiers looks good. However, their swords are dodgy versions of the 'Pompeii' pattern, I've seen better helmets in Asterix and I think I last saw their pila in the Kirk Douglas version of Spartacus. And to go with bloke with the eagle on his t-shirt someone mentioned above, one of the soldiers in wearing a red tunic with a gold wreath on the chest. Also rather flat, rectangular shields, trousers and what look suspiciously like elasticated socks. And they've gone for Mel Gibson's skinhead look for the soldiers as well.

[Nathan Ross]

Carus - thanks for the UK date. I was wondering what had become of it...

As for the 'too much sex' issue - it's becoming a bit of a cliche to portray the Romans as a pack of lust-crazed bed-wrestlers. Certainly there's enough evidence to show that the Romans had no problems with talking and writing about sex, even looking at pictures of it (i.e. those saucy paintings from Pompeii), but I'm dubious about drawing too much from that. In all societies, the antics of a metropolitan elite will differ greatly from those of the average pleb on the street - even if, in a slave society that amused itself by watching people chopped up in the arena, ideas about the uses and abuses of the human body would be rather different to our own. Sexual morality in ancient times, 'Judeo-Christian' or otherwise, was basically a matter of practicality - without effective contraceptives, fornication could have all sorts of inconvenient outcomes, and for those unable to afford the services of a discrete doctor or two, could prove fatal.

For all their bawdiness, the Romans were great moralisers - the late-Republican poet Catullus wrote some highly lurid stuff about 'Lesbia', but mainly to portray the woman as a monster who had lost all sense of feminine virtue and moderation. Similarly, when Suetonius wrote about the lusty lives of assorted 'bad' emperors and their wives, it was intended to show that power had turned these people into perverts, unable to control their base urges. Dignity and propriety were of the highest importance. Abusing your enemies with sexual slurs was common practice, but that didn't mean that any of the abuse had grounds in fact! Taking Catullus, Ovid, Horace etc as documentary evidence of the mores of their contemporaries might be like some future historian using Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs to determine what went on in 50s America... But perhaps not, who knows?

Interestingly, I see from the online clips of 'Rome' that the writers seem to have gone with Horace's portrayal of Cleopatra as a nymphomaniac dominatrix! Poor old Cleo - always getting a hard time in the movies...

:wink:

[Neuraleanus]

I just thought it was over the top, the issue of Caesarion's father

Titus Pullo standing in front of Cleopatra, saying:
"Legionary Titus Pullo reporting for duty, M'am"
has to so far be the best line in the entire series. And, lets not forget the scene in one of the beginning episodes where the legion is waiting to march out of Gaul while Mark Antony does a peasant girl by the side of the road. A Mel Brooks moment if there ever was. I like the little bit of comedy relief.

[john m roberts]

I've always been a bit dubious about the paternity of Caesarion myself, though I think Cleopatra would have been a bit more discreet. Caesar was notoriously infertile, she desperately needed to cement an alliance with him and, who'd've thunk it, she goes and presents him with a healthy son. Awfully convenient, if you ask me.
Beyond that, Cleo may have been a teenaged punk sexpot as portrayed, but I wish they'd emphasized that she was also the most formidably educated woman of her time. For my money, the best Cleopatra is still Claudette Colbert. The script and acting of that movie are way superior to the usual DeMille production, and her Cleo is witty, intelligent and totally focussed on cutting the best deal she can get for herself and for Egypt.