Customer Reviews

A. D. - The Trials & Triumph of the Early Church - DVD Set

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I remember enjoying this movie when it first appeared on television. I eagerly awaited my DVD copy. When I got the movie, it seemed very incomplete. After further research on the web, I found out that it was indeed incomplete. The production company removed about 3 to 4 hours from the original broadcast! They movie is still viewable, but some of the edits are a little unsettling.

I love this movie it is one of my favorites. Since I had the pleasure of seeing the original one I can't really enjoy it because too much of the original scenes have been cut out of this 6 hour edited edition. I'm waiting til the original 9 hour series becomes available on DVD and I'll purchase it then!

I found a bootleg version of the full 9hr series at another web site for $50. I paid it because I wanted so badly. The source was the VHS version made into DVD-r's. Still very watchable. I've been copying it to anyone who'll pay for the time and cost to make it. Around $20(It takes 5 DVD's and I make a nice case to hold them in). As much as they have made off of Jesus of Nazareth you would think the sequel would have gotten more respect. Maybe that will change with blu ray, I hope so. My e-mail address is [..]

This is a good teaching tool (A. D. ) for someone who might not know of the early church, the Apostles and the pagan world, namely Rome. The length of the movie is necessary to give the proper insight to all the different characters, both Christian and Roman. The Christians were a threat to the pagan Roman world and Rome was shown that without a moral standard, it was doomed to fall upon itself in time.

The 5 stars are for the story, not the 2004 DVD version of the series. Too much has been left out of the 1985 original series. This version has been badly cut--not that I mind the ultra-leftie Susan Sarandon was left out!--but the concept of the movie is still palpable. A gigantic cast of highly professional actors superbly plays the characters, Peter, Saul and Nero being my favorites--among too many others to list. My least favorite was Jesus, played by Michael Wilding, Jr.. In my view Philip Sayer (Saul) would have made a better Jesus; but we would have been denied his magnificent interpretation or St. Paul. I do not think I have ever seen a better depiction in another movie of what might have been the Forum and part of the city of Rome. (It was thus surprising that the Via Appia was shown as a bumpy patch, when historical accounts say that it was a carefully maintained highway.) I would recommend instead the 9 hour VHS, also available at Amazon.

The original miniseries tells the story of how the Gospel spread beyond the people of the "First Covenant," the Jews (Hebrews 8:7)into the pagan Roman world. The narrative device the miniseries uses for this purpose is to follow the struggles of a Jewish man and a Jewish girl as they travel into the heart of the arch-enemies of Israel, the city of Rome itself. Their quest is complemented by the search for meaning of a Roman man and a Roman girl. The reactions of the four people to the Gospel mirror in microcosm the various responses of Jewish and Gentile audiences to the Christian message. These accounts are shaped by the larger events of history and the political realities of the times. Unfortunately,this edited cut of the original guts most of the Roman background and thereby omits virtually half the story, resulting in a plot that is not connected as a dramatic cause-effect sequence. This truncated version is neither logically nor emotionally satisfying.

I would consider the film as informative to the new believer, but they did take liberties. It was more movie and did not follow scripture completely, but the basic idea was there. Seeing the old stars was entertaining, albiet distracting at times.

Nice reencounter with an old friend. A pleasure - but very short: The original television series is about 12 hrs, this DVD only 6 hrs (!).

Having gone to Youtube and watched some of the Spanish version, I agree that there were some things that needed to be left out in order for this story to be watchable from a Christian perspective. (There are bedroom scenes and homosexual encounters among the Romans, for example.) For that reason, I am grateful that it was edited. Interestingly, many of the big names (such as Susan Sarandon) don't make the cut in this version. That's fine with me.

Nobody can be completely happy with a film that's had parts edited out, but this is a version that I don't mind my kids seeing.

I was so disappointed in the movie "A.D." It is NOT at all the quality of acting or the accuracy of the movie "Jesus of Nazareth". They leave out so much of the Book of Acts. They do not even have St Paul meeting St Peter, and if you do not know the story already of St Paul's conversion, you would not know what even happened to him it is done so poorly. They have a lot of extra side stories that are not in the Bible. The acting is very poor. I do not recommend this movie at all.