"Let us not go to Camelot Rome. It is a silly place."
Posted on 03/16/2007 10:08:07 AM PDT by juliej
Did Bob Guccione direct this silly, oversexed historically inaccurate mini series on HBO which is mercifully coming to an end?
Marc Anthony had a "wasted youth" as they say but apparently was a serious soldier. In this series you can't understand why anybody would follow him. He also had three children by Cleopatra who were raised by his Roman wife, Octavia, after he and Cleopatra killed themselves. The Cassius of this series is too effete and the dynamics between Brutus and Caesar are all muddled. The argument between them before Brutus joined the assassins was just plain dopey.
The roles of Cassius and Brutus are badly written and badly acted. The acting in Julius Caesar (with Marlon Brando, James Mason and John Giulgud among others) is far better. James Mason was a great Brutus.
I didn't like the characters, as portrayed, of Brutus, Cassius, or Cicero.
I wish they would continue for a decade or so with Augustus. Don't see that covered much in other movies.
Cicero - a great orator who was assassinated (but not by Titus Pullo). Story goes that one of Augustus' grandsons was reading Cicero when the Emperor walked by; the kid tried to hide the book but Augustus picked it up, started reading it and said "very well written". After Cicero was assassinated Marc Anthony's wife, FULVIA (not Attia) pricked at the tongue with needles because his tongue had been so sharp.
PS when Vorenua and Pollo die, there will be a big hole in the show. I like having lower level soldiers and street people as main characters.
So you are complaining that Rome is historically inaccurate, yet in the same breath are praising I, Claudius? Okay. I've never seen the miniseries of I, Claudius, but the book is hardly accurate--the very definition of postmodern historical fiction.
"Let us not go to Camelot Rome. It is a silly place."
I have read Suetonius, Tacitus and Josephus and many of those details appear in Robert Graves' novels (Graves was fluent in Latin and Greek).
That will be the end of the series. This is the last season. My guess is that Pullo will go with Agrippa to assault Antony in Egypt, and as Vorenus is on Antony's side, they will end up facing each other on the battlefield.
I have been avoiding that prediction, but what else can they do?
This is my guess: Vorenus will be the Roman soldier who helps Anthony commit suicide. Since Pullo thinks he is the father of Ceasararion and would want to protect the child from Octavian, this will be a sticky situation. We know that Octavian had Ceasarion murdered as he was Julius Ceasar's only surviving child and potentially a rival. Octavia, by the way, raised Anthony's children by Cleopatra. Antonia was the daughter of Marc Anthony and Octavia and mother of future emperor Claudius. She committed suicide out of shame at the antics of her grandson Callligula. Why did the creators have to invent so many inaccurate details when the real story is so great?
The foreplay and dialog between Cleopatra and Marc Antony when discussing what to do with Atia and Octavia was ridiculous.
Probably one of the worst episodes I have seen.
And what about Octavian and Livia? Where is it written that they used to beat each other up? This is Dynasty with more graphic sex and a little bit of history. The writers should be ashamed of themselves.
Also if you notice, the men in these sex scenes seem to have multiple orgasms, but only when they are slapped or ridiculed.
Total BS
I think Bob Guccione is the director! I can't believe people are defending this series. It is entertaining but it is GARBAGE! A friend of mine said that Cleopatra looked like a "Soho hooker with the short hair and earrings".
It seems that most HBO series use the same formula, which is a profuse use of the 'F' word, and lots of gratuitous and violent sex.
A quote from a couple of friends: "This series really goes too far". No kidding!
"to Alexandria where she remains in the palace of the witch, Cleopatra and her boy/toy Marcus Antonius".
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