8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Randy King Henry and His Merry Wives of Yore, October 21, 2011
This review is from: The Tudors Season 1 (Amazon Instant Video)
This is a Review for Seasons 1-4.
How does The Tudors compare to other movies about this period?
A Man for All Seasons (Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, John Hurt) is one of my favorite movies; I've also seen the Charleton Heston version, too. I recently watched Anne of The Thousand Days (Richard Burton, Genevieve Bujold). Stable movies, wonderful acting, movies of their time (1960s), emphasizing issues of their day, modestly dancing around King Henry and his list of wives. The movies, as the times in which they were made, were largely sexless on-screen, hinting at all the plot and intrigue behind the door and curtain, and beneath the bed sheets but never really exploring it further.
The Tudors opens the privy door, pulls back the thick curtain, and puts you in the royal bed of one of the most critical periods of Western history: the age of the Tudors. I never thought I would say this: to understand the times, the portrayal had to be this honest.
The Tudors show is a raw look at a crucial period of history and aptly pulls it off by setting its main characters in the contrasting shadows of Spain, France, the Roman Catholic Church, the Reformation, and the inner intrigue within England itself by dueling factions. You won't fall asleep. I found myself entranced: What will happen next?
If you enjoy beautiful costumes and historical sets, this is a show for you.
This is no series for the faint of heart. Make no mistake: if you're sensitive and unable to bear the realities of this time in history, then it is best a pass.
The Tudors leaves no stone unturned. The moral scab has been pulled off the period, and it bleeds in vivid colors and passions.
The acting is superb and well cast with special note to my favorite in the show, the lead: Jonathan Rhys Meyers. The supporting cast is equally up to the task. Cameos by screen legends enthrall. Actors that I see here now appear in other movies galore.
In some places great license is taken to the historical narrative, and somewhat unnecessarily. In defense of the writers and producers, I doubt less than what William Shakespeare did with Caesar et al. To the point: let's just say that people understand the historical discrepancies, but few people complain about the historicity of the movie Amadeus because it invites others to celebrate music so eloquently. I would say the same about The Tudors and its history. There is much to celebrate.
What The Tudors does get right is the intrigue of the period, the harsh status of women in an age of men, and (almost laughable today) the fixation on a male heir and all things manly. The great rift between Catholicism and the Church of England are portrayed in all their religious zeal and hypocrisy. Jilting, jarring, thrilling, despondently tragic with regret.
If you want to get a sense of how far we have come as a Western society, perhaps how far we have to go, then The Tudors, for all the faults others may properly find in it, The Tudors will help you appreciate the age, give you the basic historical markers for the period if you want to study more, and leave you with a sense of shock, even perhaps respect and humility, for a period of history like few others.
Highly recommended.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jonathan Rhys Meyers Rocks!, July 3, 2007
This review is from: The Tudors Season 1 (Amazon Instant Video)
This program has something for everyone: history, romance, sex, violence, you name it. Rhys Meyers is outstanding as the young King Henry VIII, as are Maria Doyle Kennedy as Katherine of Aragon, Sam Eliot as Cardinal Wolsey, Jeremy Northam as Sir Thomas More - the list goes on and on. The production values are impeccable - costumes, sets, all are first class. It's fascinating to see Henry from this viewpoint, as a young man. He was indeed the "rock star" of his age.
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