Customer Reviews

Masada - The Complete Epic Mini-Series

5 star:		(76)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Masada is one of the most eagerly anticipated DVD releases of the year. This Classic TV 1981 miniseries is arguably one of the greatest ever produced in its genre, and garnered a lot of awards in its day. It is MORE than highly recommended!

It is well written and has a stellar cast that more than lived up to the script. The series, based on Ernest K. Gann's historical novel The Antagonists, is a dramatization of a documented revolt by nearly a thousand Jerusalem Jews against Roman oppressors in A.D. 72 to 73.

Epic in its scope, the actors bring nobility and pathos to the ultimately inspiring and tragic story. Following a city-wide siege by Rome's soldiers, Jewish Zealots move into a desert fortress in the mountains of Masada of Judea. It is from that remote location that they make their last stand against the tyrannical Roman Empire. Amazingly, their defensive battlement is strong enough to convince the enemy to negotiate after a two-year battle!

The brilliant Peter O'Toole, portrays Cornelius Flavius Silva, commander of the Roman legions, while Peter Strauss (who was cast in several miniseries in the 80's) portrays the Zealot leader Eleazar ben Yair, who end up developing an improbably respect for each other during the life-and-death struggle.

O'Toole, is fresh from the Roman conquest of Judea. Exhausted emotionally and physically, he has been affected by the constant warring, but remains the ruthless Commander of the elite Tenth Legion. He yearns to return home to Italy, but is prevented from doing so by a violent uprising of a small band of courageous Jews led by the volatile renegade soldier, Eleazar ben Yair (Strauss).

Silva is ordered to capture Eleazar and his followers. He is beset by internal strife because the brutal desert conditions have his legion teetering on the brink of mutiny, while he finds himself falling in love with a Jewess (portrayed with sensitivity by Barbara Carerra.) At the same time, Pomponius Falco, portrayed by David Warner, is working to steal his command.

Inside the fortress, Eleazar is struggling to keep his followers together. A diverse mix of defected soldiers, wanted criminals along with women and children totally about 900, they struggle to find enough food and water to survive their courageous stand against impossible, truly hopeless odds.

The actors leave nothing on the cutting room floor in their heart wrenching renditions of their unforgettable characters. Somehow, O'Toole brings humanity to his character, while Strauss is integrity, fury and courage personified.

Both of their characters believe the negotiations are real, and represent each side in good faith, struggling to find a way out of the deadly situation.

Unfortunately, neither realizes that Rome has no intention of yielding, but instead sends thousands of soldiers in a horrible seige of Masada resulting in one of the worst tragedies in Jewish history.

Masada was brilliantly directed by Boris Sagal (The Omega Man), and the musical score is unforgettably moving.

As a teacher of ancient history, I am well aware of the theories surrounding the fall of Masada, as well as the cited inaccuracies in this film. However, for sheer entertainment and quality of performance, Masada is still one great movie!

Be advised that the shorter version (2 hours) omits a great deal of material included in the much longer mini-series format. Nevertheless, for the average viewer, the abridged version is packed with enough epic drama to suit just fine.

Peter O'Toole's Flavius Silva is peerless. His emotionless eloquence is an excellent portrayal of the general of Rome's undefeated tenth legion challenging the 900 Jewish raiders who have fled to Masada's heights. Peter Strauss (Eleazar) nearly matches O'Toole's brilliance as the fiery leader of the Jewish rebels, who prefer to die 'stealing victory' from the Romans rather than surrendering.

I have been to Masada twice, and honestly--it was nearly impossible to tell that the film really wasn't shot at the site! The highlight of the film is the massive siege engine's ascent up the Roman ramp, and the battering ram's assault on the wall. The concluding suicide sequence is handled with reserve and tact.

The final forty minutes are underscored by an exhilarating musical score that serves to heighten the tension as the inevitable outcome nears. The end is replete with superbly written dialogue, as well as attention to detail in evidencing the engineering expertise of Ancient Rome.

Because much of what is known about the real story of Masada is speculation, the less one knows about the incident, the more one can enjoy the film. Seen for what it--great entertainment, and not a history lesson, Masada will not fail to please.

Ive bought Masada in its single VHS and its 4 VHS version. I own the soundtrack. I'm a MASADA-MANIAC. I scooped up the DVD on first sight, although the DVD art looked a little.."unofficial" by comparison with the lavish 4 tape box set. It seems that MASADA is owned by MCA-Universal, but this release is put out by KOCH Entertainment. Okay, I thought, so the cover art is a bit flat...at least it's out on DVD! Well, I watched it, and it looks REALLY good. Not restored or even cleaned, mind you. You can see scratches and damage to the negative, but its only minor and to be expected with anything that's been in the vault since the 80's. However, what I was aghast to notice are gaps in the scene where Silva is deciding to torch the wall of Masada or not. The scene is clipped short on the DVD. In the original film, Silva (Peter O'Toole) says "Burn it!" to his engineer, and storms off. Then we see the archers setting their fires. Before he says that line on the DVD, the screen goes black, and they cut to the archers shooting fire-arrows into the wall. Hmmm. I dug out my 4 tape VHS to be sure. Sure enough, his "Burn it!" line is missing from the DVD. Indeed, I noticed there is other dialog missing from this scene as well. Silva asks for suggestions other than fire from his officers. When no one speaks up he tells them he doesn't blame them, and would probably keep silent if he was in their place. Those lines aren't there either. Now, this is just ONE scene I noticed, but I suspect there are probably other bits missing as well. While its not the end of the world, I am disappointed. Why couldn't MCA have just put out a decent and COMPLETE version of Masada themselves? Suffice to say, Im holding on to my 4 tape VHS set, which I have to recommend over this DVD release. Sorry folks. Keep your fingers crossed, maybe next time they'll get it right.

The major virtue of the hacked 1-tape version is that it inspired me to go get the real one.

This miniseries is one of the few historical epic TV series that is any good -- and strangely enough it is way more than "any good" -- it is superb. The two leads (Roman general and Zealot leader) are almost equally charismatic, compelling actors, though Peter O'Toole's trademark weary melancholy tends to steal the show. The supporting parts are solid. The writing is tight, wry, and literate. The scenery is convincing, the siege weaponry looks darned authentic.

I have a weakness for costume epics, and this is perhaps the all-time best... reasonably large in scale, very well-mounted, but best of all, very well written and acted. It feasts the eyes without insulting the intelligence.

The viciously cut 1-tape version is incoherent, of course, but by Hollywood standards it's still a pretty good film -- many mainstream movie directors can't be coherent even when they know they're working to a 120 min format. But do yourself a favour and get the complete edition.

I saw this series when it originally aired in the 1980's and its impact has lingered with me all of these years. I managed to acquire a VHS transfer of the entire series just in time for my VCR to completely die - leaving me no way to enjoy this powerful drama again. After passing scores of copies of "Gilligan's Island - The Complete Series" and "Bosom Buddies - Collector's Edition" on the shelf of my local video store, I am exhilarated to find this one released at last!

Visually stunning (filmed on location) and dramatically riveting, the "Two Peters" duel on screen with searingly intense chemistry and vie for best performance, though O'Toole's ability to humanize his Roman commander makes this series so enticing. His final moments on screen as he comes to the full realization of the cost of Roman domination, is the stuff of legend. Barbara Carrera is positively luminous as a Jewess torn between her people and the man who controls her destiny.

A must see production, well worth the wait, and a demonstration of what "Event Television" was in the 1980's. They TRULY don't make them like this anymore!

I remember watching this as a nine year-old kid and being completely blown away by its scope and power, and it hasn't lost a watt of energy in 20 years. Peter O'Toole is a great actor, but he absolutely outdid himself playing Flavius Silva, a character with more facets than the Hope diamond. Following the Roman conquest of Judea, lonely, ruthless,hard-drinking, burned-out commander of the elite Tenth Legion just wants to go home to Italy, but his departure is scuttled by the uprising of a rag-tag band of Jews led by the hot-tempered renegade soldier Eleazar ben Yair (Peter Strauss) who play Viet Cong for awhile, poisoning wells and ambushing Roman outposts, then hole up on the impenitrable mountain fortress at Masada, a gigantic vertical tower of rock that rises out of the Judean desert. Silva is given the thankless and seemingly impossible task of bringing Eleazar to heel in an age well before cannons, explosives, or air power. It doesn't help that the brutal desert conditions have his legion teetering on the brink of mutiny, he is falling in love with a Jewess (Barbara Carerra), or that a meddler from the Emperor's court (the always excellent David Warner as Pomponius Falco) is scheming to steal his command. Luckily for him, Eleazar has his own problems holding his improbable mix of ex-soldiers, priests, fugitive criminals, women and children together in the face of overwhelming odds. The best moments in the series revolve around the grugding respect that Eleazar and Silva develop for each other over the course of the two-year seige, and the awe-inspiring military and engineering effort the Romans put forth to stamp out the resistance of a mere nine hundred people. Brilliant engingeer Gallus (Anthony Quayle) designs a gigantic ramp, built by slave labor, which leads to Masada's gates, and then a huge, pully-driven, battering-ram-cum-assault tower to knock it down, but in the end Eleazar comes up with a few tricks of his own. The stubborn, hopeless defiance of the Jews is as moving as the thorough ruthlessness and genius of the Romans is impressive. All in all, a great watch, but I would highly recommend getting the full four tape, 9-hour version rather than the cut-to-the-bone two-hour version: it makes a world of difference.

Masada proves to be one of the more entertaining mini-series to come out for network TV. Its a historical drama about the Roman siege of Masada and the series centered around two men who led the forces against each other. Peter O'Toole does a fanastic job as the leader of the Roman 10th Legion and Governor of Judica while his counterpart, Peter Strauss played well against him as the leader of the Jewish Zeolots hold up on the mountain top fortress. They were well served by their supporting actors. I especially enjoyed the job Anthony Quayle did as the siege engineer, it was nice to see him in action once again. The production values of this series was very good for a TV although I am amazed why Hollywoodland would put Roman soldiers in brown leather armor. At least color the armor silver to simulate their armor plated uniform!!

As ironic as this may sound, Masada is a story that supposes to show the courage and determination of the Jews fighting to remains free from Rome but instead, anyone who watches this series realized that it was the Romans who show greater determination, greater courage and greater resolved to conquer. Most of the series had the Jews trapped up on Masada fighting among themselves like a soap opera show while the Romans who did all the hard work of conducting the siege, stoic determination and willingness to endured. By the time the series end, we understand why most of the western civilization fell under Roman control, they deserves to rule because they are willing to adjust, adapt and overcome almost anything. Jews who thought to kill themselves to rob the Romans their victory really didn't robbed anyone but themselves a chance to die in glory. As any professional soldier can tell you, any battle that wasn't a battle is a good battle.

The DVD of Masada was long time coming but unfortunately, this is not really a very pristine copy. I doubt if they ever clean up the original print since the DVD looks pretty ordinary with dirts, spots and scratches. Still, its no worst then the VHS and I thought it was clearer and more crisp then the tape version. Its not the industy high standard but it not that bad. It come in two disc, cramming 383 minutes into that must had something to do with the average quality of the images. There isn't any extra features attach to this DVD.

Overall, this is a must buy DVD for anyone who enjoyed the series. Although the overall quality is average, it's still better then the VHS and it will last longer. Maybe someday, they might come out with a better verison although I'll think panda will fly before we see that day.

I bought my copy of the miniseries, MASADA. I just looked and I saw one copy from there. When I bought mine, I got it, factory sealed, from a seller called buy.com. I went to buy.com website and the movie is on back order but, hey, you've waited this long, right? I also see that www.moviesunlimited.com has it for sale; you will need: (item # 072787). I am looking to get mine put on DVD to preserve the video. I, too, remember watching it as a child and the indelible etching it left on my memory. I have watched all 394 minutes again as an adult and it is as huge and glorious as I remember it. I didn't even know an expurgated version exists - I can not imagine cutting even a minute from this perfect epic. It would be like cutting The "10 Commandments" or Homer.

Having read several books on Masada, I waited with bated breath when I learned that this mini-series was being made. I saw it when it first ran on TV and couldn't wait for this to be released on video. It has been a long wait, but well worth it. I found it visually and emotionally satisfying as to what happened and where it happened, I felt like I knew these people personally. I also concur with the person who reccommended it for how the English language is so wonderfully delivered by its actors, particularly Peter O'Toole.

Although I just viewed the abridged version, I found it highly suspenseful and riveting. Otool and Strauss were exceptional--that's what made the drama so compelling. Each man was intensely resolved to achieve his goal, and neither would surrender to the other. Also, each hero was extremely human--sensitive and thoughtful--despite the pluck and resolve each had.

Despite the inaccuracies cited by the below historians, the movie is first rate drama--you don't want to miss a word or an action, so absorbing and involving is it. This is entertainment at its best--an unforgettable experience, one that I will see again and again. Otool's performance is spectacular--he so skillfully reveals both the inner and outer man of the officer he plays. He is totally believable, which makes even this preponderantly fictional account realistic and interesting.

However, the makers of the film, in all fairness to the viewers, should have stated at the outset that the film was BASED ONLY LOOSELY on a historical event, and that it contains many fictional elements that were added for dramatic appeal and emphasis. To not do so, causes one to question the motives of the film makers.

But please watch this more as a drama, as entertainment, than as an accuarate representation of history--and I'm sure you'll love every sizzling moment of it.