
Worth catching on DVD is the HBO series 'Rome'. Co-produced with the BBC, which promptly emasculated the series by cutting out a lot of the sex and violence (and therefore much of its meaning) for its UK network showing, this series is well worth discovering in its sumptious box-set. A plethora of recognisable character actors take on the supposedly familiar roles of Caesar, Brutus, et al. and render them human instead of mythic. The blood, dirt and intrigue makes 'Rome' closer to HBO stablemate 'The Sopranos' than Ridley Scott's epic 'Gladiator' or the staid theatricality of 'I, Claudius'. Most of all, despite the magnificent detail, it's the scaling down of the politics of the Roman empire to neighborhood squabbles and family conniving that most impresses - and convinces. This revisionist attempt at treating Julius Caesar as a man instead of a myth is akin to 'Downfall's portrait of Hitler and therefore just as problematic.
At Swansea, Rome is studied on the modules Film and Television Genres and Primetime Writers.
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