Customer Reviews

I, Claudius [Region 2]

5 star:		(232)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

Many important scenes have been cut (censored?) from the original Masterpiece Theater version including the contest between Claudius' wife and the prostitute, Caligula's horse Incitatus being made senator, and others. These omissions sacrifice the overall continuity and flow. These omissions are unnecessary and unforgivable given the DVD format. A general disappointment for those who remember the original version. Other than the above this is highly enjoyable.

I bought the DVD boxed set fully aware that this was a 24 year old made-for-TV production. I was therefore expecting perhaps a "flat" look with mono sound and muted colours.

What I didn't expect was that image-entertainment/CBS would (apparently) cut the DVD from a bad second(+) generation video tape - rather than the presumably superior BBC master.

The sound is muffled and the picture has noticeable ghosting. There are no sub-titles so the DVD has to be viewed with the sound on full blast. To be fair to IE/CBS this was true when I watched the series on BBC TV on its first broadcast.

Given the (unfortunately) limited market for quality drama in the US I wouldn't expect the full George Lucas treatment. However, why could not IE/CBS (a) get hold of a better master; (b) spend a little money on cleaning up the soundtrack/image; (c) provide sub-titles?

Buy it anyway because you'll forget the technical limitations within minutes as you become totally absorbed in this wonderful drama.

I note that "The 6 Wives of Henry VIII" (which I intend to purchase) is distributed by "BFS". I hope they've done a better job than IE/CBS and that they will be releasing "Elizabeth R" when the time comes.

Amazon should have separate content/technical ratings for DVDs.

I, Claudius, Robert Graves' great book about the Caesars, was brought to television in this BBC series starring Derek Jacobi as the crippled, stuttering Emperor Claudius, narrator of the story. Jacobi is brillian in this role - going from young boy to old man as the series progresses. Other standouts are Sian Phillips as Livia, the evil wife of Augustus, Brian Blessed as Augustus himself in a wonderfully understated performance, and John Hurt as the insane Emperor Caligula in a performance that is abolutely over the top.

I have no idea how many times I have watched this series. I have never grown tired of it. The story of the Caesars - of the competition, corruption, assassinations, intrigue, political and military turmoil, family tragedy and human comedy - never fails to entertain. This series has a little bit of everything that all good stories have, great plot, fascinating characters, multiple conflicts, moments of drama and moments of comedy - and it is all (mostly) true.

One doesn't have to be an enthusiast for historical drama to really enjoy this saga. These Romans are, in their feeling and ambitions, just like modern folk. Endlessly fascinating, I, Claudius deserves a place in the collection of anyone looking to preserve the best that BBC television has had to offer.

Thanks to all the reviewers who've said that this DVD is censored and of poor image and sound quality. I was going to buy it and now will not. I found that there is a BBC DVD version available thorough amazon.co.uk that reviewers say is very high image and sound quality (they have been restored from a master tape), and all episodes are included. There is also a documentary on the never completed epic film about Caligula starring Charles Laughton. I have ordered this one. Of course, you need an all region DVD player to play it.
After watching the UK DVD, I can report that it is excellent. What a spectacular transfer. The series is a delight to watch again.

Having first seen the telecast of this on PBS in the 70s, I can't explain why I waited so long to get the DVD version. Seeing this again after so many years I must say the acting and the screenplay has absolutely lost none of it's original punch and I enjoyed it as much as the first time. Derek Jacobi was remarkable in thie role of Claudius and the other actors are all superb. The story of the treachery and debauchery during this period of Roman history makes for some great theater. Masterpiece Theater has never topped this in my opinion although some of their other productions were outstanding. as well.
I agree with some of the other reviewers that the transfer isn't the best and the sound quality is poor. But turning up the volume is easy enough and the rewards of watching this far outweigh the technical shortcomings of the DVD version.
Quite simply this is one of the greatest television mini-series ever aired.

While this edition is an improvement over the previous releases in terms of video and audio and the bonus extra feature is a welcome addition, viewers should be forewarned that this edition does not contain all of the footage that has been seen on previous editions (either broadcast or on home video) of this great epic. Nevertheless, I am assuming this edition represents what viewers in the UK saw on the BBC back in 1976. I own 2 previous editions:

1. The heavily censored MASTERPIECE THEATRE edition as it aired originally on PBS (taped from a rerun in the early 90's on shown on PBS as part of MT 20th anniversary; Claudius being the only series that was rerun in it's entirety on MT so many years after the fact.)
2. The IMAGE Laser Disc release of the mid 90's (which I believe was the source of the first DVD release).

Originally CLAUDIUS aired on MT in 13 one hr episodes. This 13 episode format was left intact for the first LD release but the censored scenes were restored, including an extension of the African slave dance in episode one, and Caligula's abortion of his sisters baby in episode 9. While these scenes remained in the broadcast. version they were censored especially the one in ep 9. There might have been other cuts, but these are the ones that stand out.

The new DVD goes back to the BBC version (as far as I can tell) and preserves the format of the original presentation. Episode 1 was 2 hours in length on BBC, thus the new DVD has only 12 episodes instead of the 13 broadcast on American TV. This was due to the fact that episode 1 had to be split in two to accommodate for the 1 hr running time of MT. In this new DVD the african slave dance scene has been shortened by about a minute, and there is a "bridge" scene that unifies what was MT episodes 1&2. This scene is a "flashback setup" and has Claudius in the gym before the wrestling scene between Drusus and Tiberius and Claudius is thinking about his Drusus when the flashback begins. This same flashback setup is present at the start of the MT second episode, but instead of it being in the gym it is in Claudius study.

I have not gone through the rest of the episodes, but I did check ep 9 (now 8 in the new DVD set) and it seems to be intact. I will add other cuts and/or additions as I go through the other episodes.

I give this DVD 4 stars and it would have been a 5 if not for the shortened scenes

Hope this helps.

I belong to the generation that saw high-budget Roman period productions such as Ridley Scott's Gladiator, HBO's Rome, and even the Polish adaptation of Quo Vadis (highly recommended). Having also been brought up in the States and becoming something of a classicist during my later education, I had read Robert Graves' books I, Claudius and Claudius the God, and heard of the BBC miniseries and always meant to see it, though not expecting much due to the age of the series and low budget it required to be realized.

When the chance came I snagged up the DVD series, and was so taken by the marvelous acting, intricate yet engaging storyline, and historical accuracy (it is not 100% accurate, but it is more accurate than the likes of Gladiator or HBO's ROME), that I watched the entire miniseries in a day. It was released originally in the 70's, however, and it showed. It was pity that Image Entertainment did not put in the extra money to restore such a masterpiece of television, one of Time Magazine's Top 100 television shows of all time- and rightfully so.

I believe each actor did a superb job (though I don't think Augustus was casted or played true to history, Brian Blessed played and excellent father of the Empire). Hats off to the leading ladies, Sian Phillips as an iconic Livia no doubt, but also Margaret Tyzack plays the stoic, noble, yet imperfect matron Antonia with unforgettable force and sincerity. Tyzack's performance is perhaps my favorite in the series, as she shines in each scene. The writers did an excellent job in not type-casting evil as pure evil and good as pure good. They gave Livia her reasons, and Antonia her imperfections, and the intelligent viewer is to be thankful for that. Livilla, Messalina, and Agrippinilla were all exceptional "bad apples of the Julio-Claudians" as well.

As for the men, Derek Jacobi brought the stuttering Claudius off the pages of history and into life with an uncanny naturalness. But the standout among the men, I believe, is John Hurt's Caligula which is played brilliantly, and that is no understatement. Caligula is always an odd character in both history and fiction, and John Hurt does the impossible by injecting both hilarity and eeriness into the mentally unstable emperor. Though Malcolm MacDowell did a terrific job in the controversial, and decidedly "smuttily inaccurate," version in Caligula by Tinto Brass, John Hurt's characterization is more interesting.

As a whole, the entire plot is lengthy but coherent. You cannot help but get sucked in. It is no boring, old costume drama, but indeed a work full of intense gravity (i.e. Antonia's "farewell" and the secret meeting between Posthumus and Augustus), extreme hilarity (i.e. the marriage of Claudius to Urgulanilla), or an intriguing mix of both (i.e. the exposure of Livilla's murder plot by Antonia to Claudius, Tiberius, and Caligula, or the domestic strife between Julia and Tiberius). There is nudity and sex, but not so much that it makes you feel the need to shower after. There is violence and vulgarity, but not so much that it seems to beat you relentlessly over the head. I, Claudius is all about taste, variety, balance and unity. It is the reason it is still a classic and is relevant more than thirty years after its premiere.

Liberties are taken with history, for example the infamous murder of Drusilla and cannibalism of her child by Caligula, or even the poisoning of Augustus by Livia, but speaking as a classicist, there is so much truth to the series (or at least it adheres to all the strange material we have from the sources that survive, Suetonius, Tacitus, and Dio especially). There are so many films, many of which are my favorites (Rome, Gladiator), that I would not recommend to any student as a basic run-down of historical events. I, Claudius is the exception.

Yesterday, I bought the remastered, 4-disc edition. They did not give the series the "George Lucas treatment," but the sound is immensely improved as is the picture. There is hardly any hint of grain and finally it looks more like a DVD, rather than DVD on VHS like the old, 5-disc set. The soundtrack and voices are all clear as a bell. The menus are more appealing. This remastered US version is also unabridged, unlike the older 5 piece US set which cuts out/censors a few parts here and there. There are, however, still no subtitles included, but that is a minor quibble.

I do hear a film-version -a "remake"- of I, Claudius is in the works with writer Jim Sheridan (of the film My Left Foot) acquiring the rights. I am eager to see Robert Graves' literary classic transferred onto the big screen with a large budget comparable to the sword-and-sandal dramas of recent years from HBO and Ridley Scott, but am wary that the acting will not match those of this beloved 1970s television miniseries. Many of them, after all, are Royal Shakespeare Company veterans. Part of the reason I, Claudius is so great is that the acting had to compensate for the production constraints... note the amount of extras used and reused, and the prevalence of close-up indoor shots versus wide-angle outdoor ones. Low production costs could have been a blessing in disguise. In the meantime, however, as we wait for Sheridan's big-screen remake do not hesitate to get this remastered set of one of televisions best events. The price is steep (though the remastered set is about 10 dollars less than the previous 5-disc version) but I would gladly pay way more for the classic material contained here.

I was one of the original fans of I, Claudius when it was shown on Masterpiece Theater in the 1970s. When the VHS version was released in the early 1990s I bought a set and have enjoyed it many times. When I noticed that the tapes were becoming somewhat worn I bought the DVD version. There is only one word for this series on DVD: magnificent! For the first time I truly appreciated the sumptuousness of the sets and costumes. Marble shines, jewels sparkle, the silks almost rustle. The colors are amazing. The audio is excellent as well. Every aside, whisper, and stammer is crystal clear, unlike the VHS version where sometimes all you hear are mutters. If you are not familiar with the story, I,Claudius is the history of the reigns of the first five Roman Emperors as envisoned by Robert Graves in the 1930s. The Julio-Claudians ruled their empire but could not control their own passions or their own relatives. Every episode is brimful of intrigue, passion, and wicked humor. Also included in this DVD set is a documentary on "The Epic That Never Was" about the first time I,Claudius was to be filmed. The interviews with the surviving stars and the bits and pieces
that have survived from the film before it was cancelled reveal it to have been possibly one of the great films of the 1930s.

If you haven't purchased the tape set, it's deliriously wonderful to have this on dvd. However, be advised there aren't any "extras" that weren't in the tape set. But that may be more than enough if you're a fan of the series who taped it off PBS: this commercial release (like the tape set) is the uncut BBC version of the series, which includes footage MASTERPIECE THEATRE didn't think America was ready for (mostly nipples, buttocks and the odd gory shot of John Hurt :-).

DVD video and sound quality do go to waste a bit, here, since the original was shot on video and this was before tv shows had stero. But it's as good a transfer as you can hope for, and the chapter selections (roughly 7-10 per episode) are great: exactly the spots I wanted to skip to. The discs break down as follows: Discs 1 and 2 have three episodes per side, and Disc 3 is single-sided with episode 13 and the Korda film documentary.

While I could wish they'd managed to put on some more extras about the BBC production, after all this time, that's probably just wishful thinking.

I just want to confirm that the edition sold currently (April 2010) is not edited or censored and is of high technical quality. It looks better now than it did when I 1st saw the over-the-air broadcast (yes, with rabbit ears) umpteen years ago. I'm in the midst of watching the series; will update the review after I watch The Epic That Never Was.