I Claudius (UK)

What can I say about this... apart from the BBC at their very best.

I saw this originally "live" on BBC in the 1970`s when it was originally transmitted. It had an outstanding cast, with Derek Jacobi playing an exceptional role as Claudius. Others like Brian Blessed as Augustus, Patrick Stewart (remember him?:-) as Sejanus, and Siân Phillips as the horrible and menacing Livia, John Hurt as the unpredicatable and lethal Caligula.

When I noticed the disk available, and at a very reasonable price for 5 disks, I had to see if it was as good as I remembered,

Its basically a history by Claudius of his family, from his Grandfather, Emperor Augustus, through to himself. It is based on the books by Robert Graves. Claudius was born into the Ceasar family, with a limp, a stammer and an involuntary head twitch, all of which helped give him the appearance of being mentally retarded. Instead he was actually very bright, but having everyone else think he was thick, probably saved him from death any number of times. He certainly survived where most of his immediate family met untimely deaths.

It has it all, some deeply nasty characters like Livia and Caligula, some noble people like Claudius and Augustus (there are none so blind as those who can`t see though!), and all points in between.

Some excellent quotes from the series are on the IMDB, but just a couple here give a flavour of the content.

[On his mother Livia.]
Tiberius: They say a snake bit her once. And died.

[Tiberius is asking questions about Macro]
Tiberius: Do you know him personally?
Caligula: No, but I`ve slept with his wife several times.

Senator: You are not fit to be Emperor!
Claudius: I agree. But neither was Caligula.
Senator: So what is the difference?
Claudius: He would not have agreed. And by now your head would be on that floor for suggesting it.

Some of the images and dialog have stayed with me nearly 30 years on, so they must have done something right. It offers a real incite to the world of Rome, and shows how really little has changed in human interactions in 2000 years.

As to the disk, the video isn`t great - but hey, this was filmed for TV in the 1970`s - so you can`t expect miracles - but it is certainly very watchable.

The audio is a little iffy in a few places, some rather hissy background moments in a couple of scenes, but these are just occasionaly glitches in what is otherwise fine, for what is really all dialogue.

Extras - well a few alternate versions, nothing too fascinating there.
Clips from some of the awards it won.
A family tree which is essential to understand the relationships - as they are continually remarrying and the accession line is very complex. Watch out for spoilers here - as the first one I clicked on (Augustus) gave details of how he died, which rather gives a bit of the plot away!
It could really do with a printable version to keep reference to though. (stop press - just found one at http://www.historyinfilm.com/claudius/)

A pretty good documentary on the making of it, filmed fairly recently with most of the still living stars recounting interesting facts about the making. 75 minutes or so long. The ageing effects used at the time were fairly primitive and took an enormouse time to apply and remove for instance, until they discovered the "snorkel and foam bath" technique.

Another documentary on the failure to make it as a feature film in the 30`s.

A selection of favourite scenes from the main characters, describing why they were so memorable.


Oh yes, the first episode is actually 1:30 rather than the 50 mins of the rest, which I hardly noticed at the time, but make sure you have set aside more than 50 mins!

So, in summary, I could have wished for richer screen colours, a 5.1 soundtrack, and a directors commentary, but really none of that matters. What matters is the skillful telling of a great story.

As they say in the documentary, it ought to be worth bringing out again, as there will be a lot of people who missed it first time around.

Outstanding!