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The story begins in 24 B.C. during the reign of Augustus Caesar, Rome's first emperor, and ends in A.D. 54 with Nero on the throne. In between, I, Claudius details the scheming, murder, madness, and lust that passed for politics in the early years of the Pax Romana. The biggest worm in the Roman apple is Augustus's wife, Livia (the superb Siân Phillips), whose single-minded pursuit of power shapes the destiny of the Empire. With a carefully planted rumor here and a poisoned fig there, she gradually maneuvers her son, Tiberius, toward the throne, creating an atmosphere of suspicion and treachery that starts Rome on its helter-skelter slide into bloody chaos. Phillips somehow makes us understand this extraordinarily wicked woman. As she ages and her carefully wrought webs begin to unravel, it becomes clear that Livia has been as thoroughly poisoned by her own ambition as her victims were by her carefully prepared meals.
Further acting honors go to George Baker as Tiberius, who resists but eventually succumbs to the destiny forced upon him by his mother, and to John Hurt as a hilarious and absolutely terrifying Caligula. In one breathtakingly tense scene, the mad Emperor performs a dance in drag, then asks Claudius to critique it, perfectly capturing the horror of a world where one wrong word means death, or worse. Jacobi is the perfect Claudius, hiding his intelligence behind a crippling stammer and shuffling around the edges of events--until he finds himself pulled to the very center. His wry comments give shape to the tangled story of his family and help the audience make sense of a dauntingly complex cast of characters.
I, Claudius might seem a little studio-bound to viewers brought up on more recent big-budget costume dramas, but the topnotch cast and the incident-filled plot are more than enough to hold the attention through almost 11 hours of gripping, deliciously wicked Roman follies. This boxed set also includes a documentary entitled "The Epic That Never Was," about Alexander Korda's failed attempt to film I, Claudius in 1937. The film, directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Charles Laughton as Claudius and Merle Oberon as Messalina, was abandoned unfinished, and it remains one of Hollywood's great lost movies. --Simon Leake
| ACTORS: | Jacobi, Phillips, Hurt, Stewart, Derek Jacobi |
| CATEGORY: | DVD |
| THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: | 01 January, 1975 |
| MANUFACTURER: | Image Entertainment |
| MPAA RATING: | NR (Not Rated) |
| FEATURES: | Color, Box set |
| TYPE: | Feature Film-drama |
| MEDIA: | DVD |
| UPC: | 014381918724 |
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Customer Reviews of I, Claudius
One of the best TV dramas ever This one is definitely for sitting in a comfy chair with a tumbler of sipping whiskey and some casew nuts and just get engrossed! <
>This BBC TV drama is based on British author Robert Graves's two books about the fourth Roman Emperor, Claudius I. The historical Claudius's main claim to fame was the conquest of Britain and the construction of the port of Ostia. <
>The British have always felt an affinity for Claudius, since it was his effort that joined Britania to the Roman Empire, so it was obvious why Graves would chose Claudius as the main character in his book. <
>What makes this TV series so impressive is that Jack Pullman had basically to write a whole new story, since the books have little to no dialogue. <
>We shall not forget that Graves's book is fiction; Livia was not such a massmurderess in real life, and neither was Claudius always such a benevolent ruler. Then, he based his books on Tacitus and other historirians, who were aligned witht the Senatorial party and therefore had a wested interest in portraying the imperial family as negatively as possible. Neither Tiberius, nor Caligula were as insane or bad as Graves describes them. <
>So, how is the actual series? Just wonderful! The first few episodes take place when Augustus is Emperor, and the Empire enjoys a period of stability. However, Livia, his wife, is dead set on having her son Tiberius succeed Augustus. No one must stand in his way. Slowly but surely she removes all "obstacles". Claudius survives, barely, partly because he is considered harmless, and partly since there is a prophesy that he will one day save Rome. <
>The series gathers speed when Tiberius ascends to the throne. Old, unwilling, bitter, and corrupted he hands over the reigns to the ambitious Sejanus (played by a young Patrick Stewart, no less!). Where Livia was patient and discreet, the new powers are clumsy and brusque. The situation cannot hold and everything slowly but surely descend into bloodbath. From here on the series is possibly the bloodiest and most depraved that has ever been shown on TV, quality TV that is. <
>The acting is generally superb: Patrick Stewart as the scheming Sejnaus, John Hurt as the perverted and insane Caligula (at the same time funny and scary!), and Derek Jacoby as the infirm and bookish Claudius. We must remember that this is television theatre, so that the sets, while lavish, are somewhat stylistic, and the acting a bit stiff and formal. There are no outside or crowd sequences. <
>Production standards have probably advanced, but storytelling and acting have definitely not! For sheer powerful storytelling this series could easily run cirlces around anything that is produced today. It can be seen several times without loosing its impact.
The Sopranos of Ancient Rome
I have mixed feelings about this series. I didn't purchase a boxed set but recently collected the series in 13 separate episodes as an extra from a leading Greek daily newspaper. With the initial episode disc the paper had a special glossy four-page supplement describing the historical setting and the main dramatis personae as well as a very useful imperial family chart. This made up for the lack of supplementary disc material. The quality was excellent with no signs of ghosting, it could have been shot in 2000,the colour definition was so good. Sound quality was also good. Unfortunately I couldn't get rid of the Greek subtitles ,which happily were in relatively small type but still annoying.
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>I read the two-volume Robert Graves novel in the paperback Penguin classic series about twenty years ago. The book had its dull moment as well as the series. I agree the acting was superb with some of Britain's finest, especially the villainess Livia, wife of Caesar Augustus and grandmother of Claudius. even the numerous child actors and actresses performed very well indeed. I suppose my only snide comment on the other wise brilliant acting is that ancient Romans are portrayed as middle-class Brits where even Caesar Augustus has a home counties accent.
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>While the studio sets are lavish and convincing it is seemingly a low budget production. In the TV series not once do you see a Roman mounted on a horse or even an ass. Even crowds at the arena are only hinted at by their noise. This is a pity because some epic action is described in the book such as the massacre of Varo's legions in the forests of barbaric Germany. I hope that somebody, maybe Peter Jackson or a director with similar skills, decides to produce an updated theatre version bringing in some of the action described in the book but missing from the series. Nevertheless, anyone with an interest in Roman history at a critical point in time will enjoy this aging series and eve the great unwashed who relished the TV series , "The Sopranos", may understand what is going on, although they may be confused about who is who and who is related to whom.
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Classic production, classy package
A classic TV production from the BBC, "I, Claudius" based on Robert Graves novels first appeared in 1976. Derek Jacobi appears as Claudius who ascends to power in Rome through the treachery of Livia (Sian Phillips)the scheming wife of Augustus (Brian Blessed). The top notch cast, script by writer Jack Pulman and direction by Herbert Wise make this one of the finest and most memorable productions aired during the 70's.
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>The transfer looks fine but the source videotape is nearly 30 years old. The videotape has faded significantly with age and Image and Fox used the best available source tape that they had the rights to for this production. The mono sound is muffled and probably should have been cleaned up and the signal boosted but, overall, the quality of the DVDs are actually pretty good (by comparsion take a look at the 80's version of "The Twilight Zone" which had an even worse original source tape). I actually don't feel as if the image quality deserves 1 star although it could have been improved along with sound. Each DVD has three episodes of the series. I can't compare it to the UK re-release for image quality but keep in mind that there's only so much restoration that can be done to videotape this old. Unfortunately, the BBC didn't have the budget to shoot the series on film.
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>The last disc includes a 71 minute documentary produced in 1965 about the ill fated production of "I Claudius" that producer Alexander Korda started (with Josef Von Sternberg at the helm as director)in 1937. The beautiful production design for the unfinished film isevident in every frame. There's a significant amount of footage that survived (and that Von Sternberg cut as he was shooting the film)and that's presented. Charles Laughton's performance has its moments but it's clear he didn't quite have a handle on the role. Reportedly, he had a number of tandrums during production and Korda used the car accident of Merle Oberon as an excuse to cancel the film despite the large sum of money already spent on the film. What's really fun about the footage is that it's not as fragmentary as one would suspect. Hosted and narrated by the late Dirk Bogarde and featuring interviews surviving cast & crew, it's a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of what could have been a classic film if not for the misfortunes of the production.
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>Despite the minor drawbacks of the source videotape, this production is worthwhile to view. It's a pity that we don't have more extras with this set but what we do get is magnificent.
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