Review of Rhodes

Introduction

June 21st, 1899 and Cecil Rhodes (Martin Shaw) receives an honorary doctorate from Oriel College, Oxford where he studied as a young man and became convinced of the supremacy of the Anglo Saxon race. Following the ceremony Princess Catherine Radziwill (Frances Barber) follows him to a function at the college and, when she can`t talk to him there, bribes an official to find out his route and trails him to Cape Town. In his study, the two begin conversing and Rhodes tells her the story of how he became involved in Africa, shown as a flashback, where he is played by Shaw`s son Joe and then by Martin Shaw as Rhodes ages.

The story begins as a 19 year old Cecil Rhodes arrives in southern Africa having been sent there for the good of his health - a breathing problem necessitating a dry climate - and joining his brother in the fledgling diamond mining industry. He quickly shows his prowess at dealing with the natives and applying his knowledge of American mining techniques, learnt through journals and books, to mining diamonds and sets up the now world famous De Beers company with fellow miner C. J. Rudd, buying out the competition and establishing a monopoly.

`Rhodes` was a multi-million pound project for the BBC in association with CBC Canada, WGBH/Boston and SABC South Africa.

I was only sent disc 1 of this 2-disc set, containing the first 4 episodes and some special features.

Video

Broadcast quality from 1996, so 1.33:1 full frame and of reasonable quality but with a surprising amount of aliasing and moiré on such things as venetian blinds and tiled rooftops. The decision to film entirely on location in South Africa pays dividends as it adds authenticity to the setting and the series looks like one that has been made with a sizeable budget.

Audio

The Dolby Digital stereo track is very good but Alan Parker`s score occasionally becomes a little too overpowering. The dialogue is a little muddy at times, but there are excellent optional English HoH subtitles to help out.

Features

Cecil Rhodes timeline - five pages long, from when he arrived in southern Africa at the age of 16, to his death.

Cecil Rhodes biography - a brief, three-page overview of the man`s life.

Filmographies - an abbreviated filmography, one page each, for Francis Barber, Raymond Coulthard, Neil Pearson, Joe Shaw, Martin Shaw and Ken Stott.

Behind-the-Scenes picture gallery - eight photos in total which run automatically.

Conclusion

As I didn`t see this when it was broadcast and I was only sent half of the series, I can`t comment on either the whole DVD package, or the complete miniseries. What I did see took Cecil Rhodes from a young man, freshly arrived in southern Africa, to a director of De Beers controlling 95% of the world`s diamond production and the start of the `Jameson Raid`. I don`t know enough about Rhodes to vouch for the veracity of the material, but some things have been changed: according to the timeline on the disc, Rhodes arrived in Africa when he was 16, but the series starts when he was 19 and a new arrival on the continent.

I did enjoy the first four episodes and would have liked to see how the series panned out and finished, but sadly this was not the case and I`m not going to buy it to find out. This isn`t an indication of the quality of the material, which is superbly acted, particularly by Martin Shaw, and very well written and directed. Each episode has a different person talking to Princess Radziwill, but this doesn`t seem to affect the events or how each character is depicted - it isn`t `Rashômon`.

If you saw this on TV and liked it, then this is a DVD set you should consider, but unfortunately I can`t recommend it one way or the other based on what I was given to review, hence no overall mark.