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Product Description

Rome: The Complete Series (BD)

Amazon.com

Family dysfunction. Treachery. Betrayal. Coarse profanity. Brutal violence. Graphic (and sometimes brutal) sex. No, it's not The Sopranos, it's Rome, HBO's madly ambitious series that transfixed viewers with its lavishly mounted spectacle and human dramas of the historical figures and fictional characters. Set in 52 B.C., Rome charts the dramatic shifts in the balance of power between former friends Pompey Magnus (Kenneth Cranham), leader of the Senate, and Julius Caesar (Ciaran Hinds), whose imminent return after eight years to Rome after conquering the Gauls, has the ruling class up in arms. At the heart of Rome is the odd couple friendship between two soldiers who fortuitously become heroes of the people. Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) is married, honorable, and steadfast. Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson) is an amoral rogue whose philosophy is best summed up, "I kill my enemies, take their gold, and enjoy their women." Among Rome's most compelling subplots is Lucius's strained relationship with his wife, Niobe (Indira Varma), who is surprised to see her husband alive (but not as surprised as he is to find her upon his homecoming with a newborn baby in her arms!). Any viewer befuddlement over Rome's intrigues and machinations, and determining who is hero and who is foe, disappears the minute Golden Globe-nominee Polly Walker appears as Atia, Caesar's formidable niece and a villainess for the ages. In the first episode alone, she offers her already married daughter as a bride to the recently widowed Pompey, and the viewer eagerly awaits to see what (or who) she'll do next.

Season 2 begins in the wake of Julius Caesar's assassination, and charts the power struggle to fill his sandals between "vulgar beast" Mark Antony (James Purefoy) and "clever boy" Octavian (Simon Woods), who is surprisingly named Caesar's sole heir. The series' most compelling relationship is between fellow soldiers and unlikely friends, the honorable Lucius Vorenus and Titus "Violence is the only trade I know" Pullo, who somewhat reverse roles when Vorenus is overcome with grief in the wake of his wife's suicide. Season 2 considerably ups the ante in the rivalry between Atia, who is Antony's mistress, and Servilia (Lindsay Duncan) with attempted poisonings and sickening torture. Another gripping subplot is Vorenus's estrangement from his children, who, at the climax of the season opener are presumed slaughtered, but whose true fate may be even more devastating to the father who cursed them.

Rome is a painstakingly mounted production that earned well-deserved Emmy nominations in such categories as costumes, set design, and art direction. In writing Rome's epitaph, we come to praise this series, not to bury it. Although two seasons was not enough to establish a Rome empire, it stands as one of HBO's crowning achievements. --Donald Liebenson

Product details

Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.78:1
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.12 x 0.59 x 6.69 inches; 4.94 Ounces
Item model number ‏ : ‎ HBO1000099727BR
Director ‏ : ‎ Various
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Multiple Formats, AC-3, Blu-ray, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Run time ‏ : ‎ 20 hours and 29 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ October 21, 2014
Actors ‏ : ‎ Various
Dubbed: ‏ : ‎ Spanish
Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English, French, Spanish, German, Polish, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, Greek, Hebrew, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish, Castilian, Norwegian, Danish
Language ‏ : ‎ Unqualified (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1), English (DTS-HD High Res Audio)
Studio ‏ : ‎ HBO Studios
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0028RXXFC
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 10

Best Sellers Rank: #114,345 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #497 in Military & War (Movies & TV)
- #946 in Romance (Movies & TV)
- #7,191 in Drama Blu-ray Discs

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pekinman

Great sets, costumes, music, a worthwhile purchase

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 7, 2010

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I've been watching the regular dvd release of Rome for about 3 months now. The first time I saw it I was blown away by the art direction (magnificent sets by Joseph Bennett), the wonderful musical score by Jeff Beal and April Ferry's gorgeous costumes which won many awards. I was also impressed by the courage of a mostly fine cast of actors who are asked in some cases to bare it all and behave in a very uninhibited manner. There is a great deal of nudity, sex, torture, murder, opium smoking, battling armies and gang warfare. There is also a great deal of high humor which balances out the shocking bits. The humorous parts are also the best parts of the scripts which vary in quality depending on who the screenwriter is for the episodes. Bruno Heller, executive producer, wrote most of the 22 episodes but is replaced by others (other producers in most cases) whose abilities with writing dialogue range from pretty good to pretty awful.

The basic story arc over the 2 seasons is good but could have been much better. The series is hobbled by one satellite story revolving around the personal life of the Jew, Timon, Atia of the Julii's household henchman who protects her property, and is also having sex with her when she allows. The sequences involving Timon's personal family life are very boring and superfluous and add nothing to the story. The point of the Timon side plot is apparently that his brother, Levi, has come to Rome from Palestine to kill King Herod who comes to visit and bribe Mark Antony. That story line fizzles out in the end making the whole Timon thing a waste of time.

Taking up time and celluloid to focus on this was detrimental to the overall quality of the series.
For instance: it might have been possible to include several characters who existed in history and were unceremoniously dumped from this series, like Brutus's wife, Portia, and Octavian Caesar's first wife before he married Livia who became the first Empress of Rome.

There are other less obvious flaws mostly resulting from the soap-opera nature of some of the episodes. Even the finest actors in the cast are tripped up by a quantity of fatuous dialogue, especially the overly sentimental Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson). He's a fine actor, handsome, rugged, an ur-macho hunk of a scruffy bear, but his character devolves from being a brutal life-long legionnaire in the 13th legion to a blabber-mouthed, mawkish know-it-all who becomes particularly annoying in the 2nd season.

Pullo's superior officer in the 13th is Lucius Vorenus, played with a wooden, cross-eyed peevishness by Kevin McKidd. He's not much of an actor but he looks fabulous drenched in blood and he's got a penetrating glare that would stop a werewolf in his tracks. McKidd is much more suited to his role as a doctor in the mundane Grey's Anatomy.

The other lead actors are much better. Polly Walker (Atia of the Julii) is the powerful matron star of the show. It took several viewings for me to appreciate the depth of her performance. She's not simply a horny dragon trying to control everything around her by hook or by crook but is a force to be reckoned with in the history of Roman politics, at least as her character is portrayed here. Walker is asked to do some very outrageous things in the course of the series. She is one of the actors who has to bare it all and behave in a most uninhibited manner before the camera. The other great leading performance comes from Ciarán Hinds (Julius Caesar). His murder scene is powerful and moving and he doesn't utter a word. He has an amazing array of facial expressions and is a very subtle actor... fascinating stuff.

I have mixed reactions to James Purefoy's Mark Antony. Perhaps he suffered more than the rest from the concept of his character by the production team. Purefoy is surprisingly excellent playing the vulgar, brutal, egomaniacal, testosterone poisoned general. He too must bare all which he does without self-consciousness. I got a little tired of his inarticulate noises made during sex and domestic arguments. Why do English actors have to pant for 30 seconds, like they've just sprinted a mile, after they've had a sexual climax? The English male has a reputation for being less than ardent in the sack so perhaps this accounts for their inability to strike an authentic chord when they are doing sex scenes in movies. Simon Woods (the older Octavian) is just as bad. He acts like he's having his toenails pulled out post-coitus.

Max Pirkis (Master and Commander) plays Octavian as a younger boy who is, unfortunately, replaced by Simon Woods in the last 8 episodes when he becomes Consul and First Citizen of Rome. This is too bad because Pirkis is 10 times the actor Woods is. In fact wood is the operative word to describe Woods's performance. Whereas Pirkis acts with the flair and confidence of a John Gielgud, Woods comes off as a reptilian automaton. Perhaps he was directed to be like this; whatever the cause his performance is a failure but not as bad as the actors he is surrounded with in the 2nd season.

Octavian Caesar's General, Agrippa, is a priggish drip as performed by Allen Leech, and his speech writer and chief of staff, Maecenas, is bitchily performed by Alex Wyndham. I've renamed these three puppies the Post, the Prig and the Prick. Octavian's (2nd) wife Livia is played as a slutty airhead by Alice Henley. All four of these pivotal characters are failures. Clearly they were cast in this way so as to give the 20-somethings characters they can relate to, as most of the rest of the leads in the series are middle-aged. It was a mistake to dumb-down these people.

You will have to look for enjoyment in the acting of many of the smaller parts. Lydia Biondi (Merulla) is Atia's body slave and communicates so vividly with her facial expressions as to act the more talkative characters under the table. And there are two classic performances from two ancient actors, John Boswell as the Curiel Magistrate and Helen Stirling as the old weaver on the Aventine hill. There is an especially hilarious performance from Camilla Rutherford as Jocasta, the friend of Octavia of the Julii (Octavian's sister). I think Kerry Condon was cast as Octavia because she looks like Max Pirkis. Her acting isn't much but she's lovely to look at; mostly she cries a lot and has a small repertoire of facial expressions that are effective if of limited histrionic usefulness.

Lyndsey Marshal is sensational as Cleopatra. Highly unusual and fascinating. It is a pity more time wasn't spent in Alexandria instead of in Timon's house. Cleopatra's son by Titus Pullo (according to this script) who is supposed to be Julius Caesar's, is played with great skill and with an engaging arrogance by Max Baldry, a stand out among the smaller parts and as competent a young actor as Max Pirkis. And the young, pudgy lad whose name escapes me who plays the child King Ptolomy XIII is a scream.

Lindsay Duncan's Servilia of the Junii is unusually annoying. Servilia is one of the awful bitches in the history of the Western world and in that sense Duncan is quite effective. She causes her son Brutus, played as an effete fop by Tobias Menzies, to throw himself on the sword, as it were, of the family honor as the founders of the Republic, and die simply so that she can have her female revenge on Julius Caesar who dumped her after his wife, Calpurnia (in a brilliant performance by Haydn Gwynne) finds out about their long-time love affair. Duncan is one of those English actresses who rubs one up the wrong way with her precious accent and empty-headed attempts at depth. Again, this may be largely the producer's fault. I suppose her performance must be counted a success because she inspires so much bile in the viewer, but I find myself fast-forwarding through some of her scenes now.

There is much scenery chewing and over-acting from David Bamber, a notably cowardly and two-faced Cicero, and Simon Callow in a cameo role doing his usual bumbling schtick as a senator. I did like Peter Eyre's star cameo as the prosecuting lawyer in Titus Pullo's trial for murder. But most of the appearances of recognizable (by U.S. audiences) U.K. television actors in small parts fall flat.

There are also many fine comparatively unknown secondary actors, too many to list, but they keep this leviathan of a story afloat when it might have sunk under the weight of the questionable production choices and miscasting already mentioned. I can't end without mentioning too horrible performances from too horrible actors; one Duro, the slave/poisoner and King Herod. They had to have been part of a package deal by the casting agency.
At least there is some satisfaction in watching Duro being tortured, stabbed a dozen times and then stuffed down a sewer hole.

Rome could have been a five star event if more care had been taken in the sub-plots and casting of a few crucial characters. And the editing and continuity leave a lot to be desired as well. The interactive features are pretty interesting, though I'd skip the audio versions of the episodes as most of them (with the notable exception of Ray Stevenson's voice-over in one of them) are vapid and annoying. Better to turn on the 'When in Rome' feature which has boxes of information that pop up silently during the episodes and provide some fascinating background information as you go along without drowning out the dialogue as the blabbering audio versions do. The extra special dvd that comes between the two seasons was not really worth the trouble. It is brief and full of a lot of self-congratulatory burbling by the production team.

Still, it is a highly recommendable dvd set and is addictive.

6 people found this helpful

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The Roman Civil War in Battlefield and Bedroom

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 25, 2011

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The HBO / BBC TV series Rome, in two seasons, covers the behind the scenes events of the Roman Civil War. Act I brought Julius Caesar to power as dictator for life of the Republic, only to be assassinated on the senate floor. Act II is the alliance of Caesar's appointed heir, Octavian, with Caesar's former general and loyal ally, Mark Antony to defeat Pompey Maximus and the Senators. Act Three is when Mark Antony travels to his eastern half of the empire, becomes the lover of Cleopatra, and is finally defeated by Octavian and Marcus Agrippa.

The obvious comparison of this series is with the famed series, I Claudius, which played on Masterpiece Theatre. The two series meld together perfectly, since Rome ends shortly after the battle of Actium, and I, Claudius opens with the celebration, 7 years later, of the victory at Actium by Augustus (nee Octavian), his wife Olivia, his daughter and son in law, and Marcus Agrippa. I, Claudius covers a period of unprecedented peace, often called Pax Augustus. "Rome" covers a period of almost constant civil war.

Another big difference is that there are at least three intertwined circles where the action take place. The first is in the politics of the leaders, Caesar, Antony, Cicero, Cato, Pompey, Brutus, and Octavian. The second is between the houses of Caesar's niece, Atia of the Julii, and mother to Octavian versus Servilia, Caesar's lover, and mother of Marcus Brutus, one of Caesar's assassins. The third is in the lives of two soldiers, Lucius Vorenus, a centurion (lieutenant) and Titus Pullo, a legionnaire (private) in Caesar's elite 13th legion. These two men are actually mentioned in Caesar's books on the Gallic wars, but just barely mentioned, giving their characters a slim basis in history. Their lives weave in and out of the lives of the major players cited above. The most important connection is forged when "retired" legionnaire Pullo is hired by Atia to teach young Octavian how to fight. The two close friends set the scene in season one for the season two climax when they accompany Caesar to Alexandria and succeed in sneaking the "exiled" Cleopatra into the camp of Caesar, whereby Caesar deposes her younger brother and places her on the throne of Egypt.

What may surprise us is what is missing. This history has been covered by both the greatest playwrights (Shakespeare, "Julius Caesar" and "Antony and Cleopatra" and George Bernard Shaw's "Caesar and Cleopatra", plus the Hollywood extravaganzas such as Burton and Taylor's "Cleopatra") Thus, we immediately miss the famous oration (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him...) which Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Mark Antony, which is credited with turning the people against the assassins. There is also virtually no large scale combat. All the great battles of the Civil war, including the spectacular naval battle at Actium (shown in the film "Cleopatra") all happens in the background.

The writers claim they have aimed less for historical accuracy than for "authenticity". I suspect they have been very successful in achieving that effect. This is not the Rome of "Cleopatra" or "Gladiator" or even "The Robe" and "Ben-Hur". This is a dirty city where the populace was always one step away from starvation if any twist of the civil war interrupted the grain shipments from Egypt. The streets seem to be ruled by "collegia", which appears to our eyes as an exact replica of Mafia families, run by graft, extortion, and murder. Except that their "product" was not primarily drugs, gambling, and prostitution (although there was lots of that to go around). It was primarily the staples of life, grain, olive oil, wine, and pork. Sometimes these collegia worked with the government, and sometimes they didn't.
One dreadfully realistic aspect of ancient Roman politics is that political assassination was accepted as simply one of many tools for doing business. This is another way in which the ancient Roman government seems to have been run like the Corleone family in "The Godfather".

A big similarity between "Rome" and "I, Claudius" was the presence of slaves at every level, even at the highest. Caesar's most trusted advisor was a slave, probably Greek, named Posca. He plays a key role at several turn, yet the pamphlet of principle characters is so full, they don't even list him. This highlights one of the weaknesses in the overall structure of the series. There are so many minor and intermediate characters, it is hard to keep them all straight, especially Atia, Servilia, and their households. Oddly enough, even second ranked male characters such as Cato, Cicero, Timon, and Pompey are easier to tell apart by both dress and manner. I found that the underlying source of antagonism between the two principle women was never really brought out. One is unsure whether the primary reason is sexual or political. There may be one or two side stories, such as the fortunes of Atia's Jewish mercenary, who is urged to join his older brother to assassinate Herod the Great when he comes to court favor with the new triumvirate, Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus. Lepidus is another unfortunate loose end, but the writers are stuck with him, since he was a loose end in the actual history of the Civil War.

These may interwoven threads with their loose ends is the one area where "Rome" suffers most in comparison to "I, Claudius". Another is in the quality of the acting and directing. "I, Claudius" had several important, recognizable actors such as John Hurt, Sian Phillips, Patrick Stewart, John Rhys-Davies, Derek Jacobi, and Brian Blessed. Most of "Rome" actors are unfamiliar to us, although the four most important parts, Ciarin Hinds as Caesar, James Purefoy as Mark Antony, Kevin McKidd as Vorenus, and Ray Stevenson as Pullo carry off their roles quite well, especially Stevenson, who may actually be familiar to American viewers for his roles in American movies such as "The Book of Eli" and "King Arthur".

In case you didn't notice the content rating, this series would easily rate an R rating if it were shown in theatres. Every episode has one or more soft core porn scenes. To be sure, sexual passions were one of the driving motivations for the characters, especially Mark Antony and the two lead women, but one does get the sense that these scenes are added as eye candy and less for their dramatic importance. One almost prefers "I, Claudius", with its one very short scene, and ambitions driven by power, to the testosterone drenched atmosphere of "Rome".

"Rome" is very high quality entertainment. If I were to give "I, Claudius" an A, "Rome" would get a "B+".

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David

Gran serie

Reviewed in Spain 🇪🇸 on December 27, 2016

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Es una de mis series preferidas. Esta edición Blu ray la compré porqué quería mejorar la primera en DVD y vaya que si la mejora a nivel imagen y sonido. Tiene Castellano en subtítulos y audio, otros idiomas y el original por supuesto. Lo único malo, pero que a mi no me importa es que la presentación es, 2 cajas de Bluray, una por temporada y el sobre de cartón que las contiene a ambas. Es una presentación sencilla.

3 people found this helpful

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andres garrido

UNA HISTORIA BIEN CONTADA

Reviewed in Spain 🇪🇸 on January 19, 2017

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Si queremos conocer otro punto de vista histórico sobre la Roma e Julio César durante la república, su caída y el nacimiento del nuevo Imperio, sus gentes y clases sociales, sus costumbres y su sistema político tienen que ver esta serie. Probablemente se parezca más al tipo culebrón que a una histórica, pero se mezcla bastante bien ambas. La serie está bien hecha y, finalmente, se puede ver.

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Robert Presser

History well-presented for a new generation of TV watchers

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 17, 2013

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I love historical fiction, especially when focused on the Roman Empire. I used films like Spartacus, Ben Hur, The Robe, Gladiator and others from the 50s and 60s to teach my kids about that period. Now, I enjoyed watching the series on HBO but I forgot that it is too raunchy and explicit for younger viewers, so perhaps I will have to enjoy it on my own.

The video quality is excellent, I am viewing it in my home theatre and the colour is more film than TV-like, which is a plus.

This is certainly one of the finest miniseries in recent memory and is a bargain at current prices, I highly recommend it.

2 people found this helpful

Patricia

Calidad excelente

Reviewed in Spain 🇪🇸 on April 26, 2018

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Me encantaba la serie asi que decidí tenerla en este formato, donde la calidad se aprecia y además incluye documentales y vídeos inéditos. Muy contenta con la compra!! Sin duda merece lo que cuesta.

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Larry Goldin

Score: Six out of Five!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 20, 2014

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This is an extremely well-researched and well written series. Production values are of highest magnitude. Stellar cast and impeccable directing. In my opinion, one of the best series ever produced. The addition of pop-ups for those who wish to utilize them enhances some scenes with more in-depth explanations of depictions and events from this period of Roman history.
If there was a sixth star, I'd give it to this series.

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Genre	Drama
Format	Multiple Formats, AC-3, Blu-ray, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Contributor	Various
Language	English
Number Of Discs	10