Product Details

• Actors: Christopher Lambert, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Max von Sydow, Inés Sastre, Denis Charvet
• Directors: Jacques Dorfmann
• Writers: Jacques Dorfmann, Anne de Leseleuc, Norman Spinrad, Rospo Pallenberg
• Producers: Denis Charvet, Jacques Dorfmann, Claude Léger
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC
• Language: English, French
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: May 7, 2002
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 1.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005R26V
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #311,039 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Highly fudged but entertaining history, October 11, 2004

By 

D. Roberts "Hadrian12" (Battle Creek, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Druids (DVD)

This was a pretty good concept movie that didn't quite work in the end. While most of what Gauis Julius Caesar is noted for is his life after crossing the Rubicon (to face Pompey and start a Roman civil war) his accomplishments prior to that phase of his life were quite interesting as well. Among the most salient of these was his duel with the Gallic commander known as Vercingetorix.

It is fitting that the Gallic hero is played by a French actor, Christopher Lambert. I've always liked Lambert, although he's been in plenty of bad movies. This one is more of the mediocre variety; decent, but not great.

Contrary to the story depicted in the film, Caesar and Vercingetorix were never best-buddies. Of course, I understand that this brings a bit more pathos to the tale when they are said to actually know each other. Historically speaking, however, this is nonsense.

There are some components of the film that score points insofar as historical veracity is concerned, however. The siege of Alesia is pretty accurate. As is portrayed in the film, Vercingetorix had a substantial advantage in manpower. His problem was coordinating their attacks and focusing the firepower he had at his disposal.

A few other things I didn't care for on the DVD. One, the special effects showing the comet at the beginning seemed to be vintage 1960s. I've seen low-budget films from the 1970s with better FX. Also, the site of Caesar's very own 10th Legion advancing to a pseudo-rock drumbeat was something I found to be strange & inappropriate.

All in all, if you're a buff of historical / period movies, this one might be worth a look. To this day they have re-creations of the ramparts and palisades of the siege of Alesia in France, and there is also a statue of Vercingetorix that extols him as a freedom fighter. While far from perfect, this film does in fact re-tell an important epoch of European history.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars VENI VIDI VOMI, September 14, 2005

By 

Octavius (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Druids (DVD)

I came, I saw, and I got a vomit bag! Horrible rendition of the life and death of Vercingetorix, chief of the Gauls who fought Julius Caesar and was defeated at Alesia in 51 B.C. A heroic figure of great courage and dignity whose historical persona should have never been dragged into this amateurish attempt at filming an epic!

Although much of the subject is taken directly from Caesar's 'Commentaries', the script, acting, and direction are appallingly bad. The casting is equally bad. Klaus Maria Brandauer is a good actor but his casting as Caesar was a poor choice: he hardly seems convincing as a Roman with his heavy German accent. Max Von Sydow is also a great actor but has nothing to work with in this film other than a bad script and the inept direction of Jacques Dorfman. The movie itself has little to do with druids and one comes out no more informed as to druidism than before watching the film: why call it 'Druids' then? The most horrible casting is Christopher Lambert as Vercingetorix. Lambert's age, shabby constitution, and lifeless acting hardly reflects a fierce and muscular 20-year old Gaul nobleman whose charismatic appeal and valor united all of the tribes of Gaul into one force against the Roman invaders: a feat that no other Gaul or Celtic chieftain had ever been able to achieve before, during, or after Caesar.

The film location and settings were equally bad in that it was filmed in Canada and Eastern Europe instead of France; probably because the French government was too embarassed to be associated in any way with this pitiful film. These locations hardly match the plains, oak forests, and plateaus of central France. Although the final scene of the battle of Alesia does a decent job of showing how the Roman legions prepared fortifications with pallisades, trenches, and spikes against cavalry, the direction and editing of these scenes were inept. The scenes and sets failed to show how vast of a siege this really was. There were over 250,000 Gauls fighting 60,000 Roman legionaires over a relatively small area! The Romans had built over 12 miles of double pallisades with towers and forts to surround and invest the city of Alesia. These fortifications descended into valleys and rose on to hills surrounding the city and enemy camp. The hill town of Alesia in the movie looks more like what it is: bunch of stage props made out of particle board built on a reduced scale. In terms of factual errors, the characters and their dialogues are purely anachronistic. Historically, the film also makes the same mistake as so many other films covering antiquity: stirrups did not exist until the 7th Century A.D. Both Romans and Celts used a Celtic saddle to support themselves or rode bareback. The front and rear parts of the Celtic saddle curved inward near the thighs at the top to allow the rider to stand firm on the saddle. Stirrups were invented by Arabs. Although Celts often associated martial skills with female godesses as demonstrated in the film, the handling of this theme in this film is just tacky and meaningless. No one on the film seemed to really know much about the social and cultural details of their story. There is really nothing good at all to say about this film other than some minor glimpses of Roman fort and circumvellation/siege techniques. The soundtrack was equally horrible and a good example of what 'Conan' would have sounded like if Oliver Stone had chosen the music instead of John Milius and Basil Poledoris. A quasi-disco trendy soundtrack hardly sets the mood in a movie about antiquity: imagine how good of a movie Spartacus or Ben-Hur would have been with the Bee-Gees for a title theme and you have "Druids."

This movie doesn't even meet the most basic requirements for an epic film. Amazingly, all of the crew are equally to blame for their incompetence: Lambert; the director; the editor; the cast selection; the composer; and the set/prop crew, were all equally inept in their collaboration on this film. An epic requires a director who can convey a lot of symbolism and grandeur. Such a task was definitely not one Dorfman was competent to handle. Such films require a director to the likes of Kubrik, Scott, or Wyler. Apart for devoted Lambert fans and history teachers who want to show their students very brief sections showing how the Roman legions built their forts and defenses, this movie is definitely a trash can candidate: it's not even worth renting.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Braveheart no more..., December 25, 2001

By 

"zazz4" (there) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Druids (DVD)

It is a crime against modern cinema that this movie did not get theatrical distribution in the United States. Even so, internationally it has been to theatres across the globe and brought in a very successful bank, I hope to see more of Jacques Dorfmann in english in the future, though I understand in this film each scene was filmed twice, once in english and once in french.
DRUIDS is the story of Vercingetorix, the Gaul who united the tribes to give Big Julie Caeser the most trouble the Romans ever had.
Historically the only account we have from the Gaul Wars are from Julius Caesar himself, and even he admits Vercingetorix was an amazing leader. As for accuracy, this movie does stay away from the legend of Vercingetorix's beheading, which is fine with me, and it seems the essentials are all there. It seems other reviewers can't understand the movie, since some complaints are that the war is condensed, but it's obvious to me that time passes by the montage scenes and how Vercingetorix's hair gets longer and such, but, I guess that's too complex for some.
The story of Vercingetorix himself in the movie is of course mostly guessing and made up. His relations with the Druids I think may have some merit, though I'm not sure. Max Von Sydow plays the mysterious Arch-Druid, who is the Merlin to Vercingetorix's Arthur.
The movie is a marvel to look at, terrific scenery and great sets, some marvelous shots of the Roman Army and one great scene of Vercingetorix returning to the Druids to find only his skilled mentor left are the peaks.
The music is also great, and during the final quarter of the movie plays almost constantly as the end unfolds.
Max Von Sydow steals the scenes when he comes in throughout the movie, Klaus Maria Brandauer is subtle and harsh as Julius Caeser, Ines Sastre does fine for her part, and Christopher Lambert conquers the performance of his life as Vercingetorix, from his other two epics(Greystoke: Legend of Tarzan and The Sicilian) this shines far and beyond as his best performance, from beginning to end.