Augustus | Peter O'Toole, Charlotte Rampling | Worthy of Comparison to "I, Claudius", But...

Augustus | Peter O'Toole, Charlotte Rampling | Blood-Honor-Victory!

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Augustus

	Augustus Peter O'Toole, Charlotte Rampling Sony Pictures, 2005 average customer review:based on 25 reviews view larger image
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Worthy of Comparison to "I, Claudius", But Certainly Not Its Equal

I came by this DVD through Amazon's links ("If you like this, you may also like....") and reading the reviews on this site. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this made-for-television drama.
Frankly, I come to any filmed historical drama with a sense that the actual history will always be "bent" to fit the narrative point-of-view, so any omissions or embellishments of fact and character don't bother me unless they are egregious enough to ruin the entire enterprise. I don't think that's the case here. Historical dramas bring the characters to life and are great points of departure for further serious study. Besides, as others have pointed out, it's fun to compare and contrast with other dramas depicting the same subject matter.

Watching the young and old Augustus in juxtaposed scenes was fascinating; one can easily see how the one grew to be the other.

The very first thing that struck me visually was the blazingly colorful garb of the teeming Roman populace as the elder Augustus was strolling through the stark white marble Forum. Is this an embellishment of fact? If so, it certainly made for a visually exhilarating scene.

Other scenes and visual cues are equally stunning:
-The beautiful waterfall which the young Octavius and Agrippa pass on their way to Gaul and from which an older Agrippa will eventually build a massive aquaduct to feed the city of Rome.
-The encampment, massing, and marching of Caesar's legions in Gaul as they prepare to do battle with the forces of Sextus.
-The dark streets and back alleys of Rome where the young Octavius first sets eyes upon a vibrant young Livia and rescues her from waylay.
-The beautiful halls and baths of the imperial residence.
-The interior and exterior of the Senate, bathed in marble and clean white senatorial togas.
-The Roman Forum itself, though of a scale smaller than one is used to seeing in older big budget epics. I still found it magnificent.
-The face-off between the armies of Augustus and Mark Antony against a backdrop of the crashing rocky Mediterranean shore.
-The ice baths which were prescribed for the elderly Augustus and which chilled this passive viewer to the bone.
-The visual interplay of the "three young amigos"--Augustus, Agrippa, and Maecenas--which was always well-shot and acted. Very entertaining!
-The placing of the smiling death mask by Livia on the dying Augustus; a shot that bookends the production to fine effect.
These are but a few of the beautifully staged and filmed scenes to be found in this presentation. It certainly wasn't lost on the filmmakers that television is a "visual" medium.

However, I must echo other reviewers on the staging of the one actual battle scene. When Ceasar's army was approaching the garrison of Sextus, I was fully expecting the army to form the "testudo", or tortoise formation, in defense against Sextus' initial volley of arrows. It didn't happen. Instead, Caesar's initial wave was slaughtered wholesale. Hardened legionaries dying by having their scutum shields outstretched to their sides leaving themselves fully exposed defies all credibility, especially in close-up. Very poorly done. Caesar's army should know better!

Also, when the armies of Mark Antony and Augustus face-off by the sea, the verbal recognition of family members on the opposing army felt way too contrived. Whether or not it actually happened this way is immaterial. When Antony's army refused to fight...well...the scene may have served a purpose in the narrative but it certainly didn't serve cogency. If Grant and Lee were commanding these armies it would've been a different story!

I have no problem with any of the acting or soapish political machinations. Peter O'Toole and Charlotte Rampling were great as the imperial couple. The supporting cast served the narrative well. Next stop, the history books!
All told, a "thumbs up" and four stars. Any fan of the period should enjoy this.

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Blood-Honor-Victory!

Augustus, brings to the screen the rise to power of one of the most well known historical figures. It is a rather long movie, but that is to be expected considering who the movie is about. Overall, the acting is above average, with the highlights being of course Peter O'Toole's portrayal of Octavius.
The siege of Sextus' army in Hispania and the subsequent battle were also very good as was the portrayal of the city of Rome.
On the negative side, the film is rather biased against Marc Anthony, providing for a very different approach from that of Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, where the movie is presented from Marc Anthony's view, as is the modern version of Cleopatra starring Timothy Dalton and Billy Zane.
Moreover, was there something "wrong" with young Octavius' and young Agrippa's friend Maecenas or was it just me??? Russell Barr was, therefore, a very poor choice for that role to say the least!
Aside from that, the setting, the dialogues and the costumes are all wonderful!
In a nutshell, though not a masterpiece, Augustus will surely provide for an evening's entertainment. It is a movie definitely worth watching, especially for those with a soft spot for History and all things Roman. 3½ Stars

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Average

Roger Young's attempt to follow in the BBC's earlier production of 'I, Claudius' but focusing on Rome's first emperor instead of its fourth. A noble attempt cut short by significant historical distortions, a poor script, bad editing, and shallow acting by most of the cast.

The film goes in reverse chronology as the older Augustus (Peter O'Toole) reminisces on his youth (where he is played by Benjamin Sadler) when he was a supporter of Caesar. It follows his friendship with Marcus Agrippa (Ken Duken) and his later rivalry with Marcus Antonius (Massimo Ghini.) The film also covers (poorly) the exile of his daughter Julia (Vittoria Belvedere) and Livia's (Charlotte Rampling) machinations to put her son Tiberius (Michele Bevilacqua) on the throne. The film has all the feel of a badly written T.V. miniseries that tries to round off its main characters to make them appealing to the norms and values of the contemporary audience. Augustus didn't exile Julia because she loved one man, he exiled her because she was fornicating with virtually every Roman nobleman. Julia's sons were killed at different times: one died of fever and the other drowned. Augustus never recalled Julia from banishment: she died in exile. Marcus Antonius never hid his dislike for either Octavian or Agrippa as both were commoners with no noble lineage. Marcus Antonius was treated as an enemy after Caesar's death and Cicero sought to join Octavian and the tyrannicides together against him. Also, Cicero was killed after Phillippi and not before as the movie shows and he wasn't ambushed: Cicero chose not to take the ship from Italy and stoically waited for Marcus Antonius' men to come and kill him. The film is also false in that Octavian/Augustus never brought his soldiers in the Senate to pass his agendas in the style of Sulla. As for the details on the legions, the armor, weapons, and costumes were pretty faithful although the tactical reenactments were not. The clothing is a mix of historical and fantasy such as the skirts Julia and Cleopatra wore that seemed more out of a modern cabaret. The film however did make made pretty decent attempts at being faithful to the architecture, clothing, and some customs of the period even though the dialogue and scene arrangements were mostly anachrnonistic.

The acting in the film was rather second rate apart from Peter O'Toole. All of the actors seem detached from their poor script and act as if they don't want to be there. Benjamin Sadler was a reasonable choice to play a weak and sickly young Octavian. Ken Duken was actually a good choice for Marcus Agrippa as there is a strong physical resemblance between them. Massimo Ghini as Marcus Antonius was also a decent choice but certainly doesn't outshine the outstanding performance by Richard Burton in 'Cleopatra.' Vittoria Belvedere as Julia was O.K. and her feeble performance had more to do with the lousy script she had to work with. Charlotte Ramplin as Livia was a good choice as her acting and appearance always seems cold and removed but it certainly doesn't match Sian Phillips' performance in "I Claudius." Michele Bevilacqua as Tiberius played a decent role as the frustrated son of Livia but his role is a limited one in this film.

This was a decent film but hardly compares to the direction or acting in the BBC's 'I Claudius.' This may be a good film to rent but its quality and shallowness leaves much to be desired in terms of buying it. This is essentially Rome Light in terms of films a little above 'Caesar: His Time Has Come' with Jeremy Sisto and is a decent film for those who aren't too demanding in terms of historical faithfulness. If you liked the previous film, you will probably like this one too.

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"Did I play my part well in this comedy called life?"

I must confess that when I was at school, I was a Juno-Claudian junkie. It all started when I watched the acclaimed mid-seventies television series, I Claudius. I went onto to study this historical period at college, and found myself constructing elongated family trees of all the Emperors, in an effort to keep track of the whole family. Augustus is a glamorous made for television production, filmed in Tunisia with Italian financial backing. The series is certainly no I Claudius, although it is pretty effective in giving the lay-viewer some rudimentary historical details of the time. Peter O'Toole, however, doesn't come anywhere close to playing Augustus with the same intensity as Brian Blessed did, and Charlotte Rampling as Livia, while a fine actress, just doesn't have the veneer of malevolency that the wonderful Sian Phillips had.

There are parts of Augustus that are absolutely terrible: the acting is often forced and over-dramatized, the incidental musical score doesn't fit, the scene construction resembles a stage play or a screenplay shot on a small soundstage, rather like something from Lego-land, and there are some absolutely cringe inducing soap opera moments. While I admire the producers' intent - which was obviously to produce the battle scenes on a large scale - however, in reality, these scenes come across as manufactured and lacking in scope. For much of the series, it just looks as though people are walking around dressed up in pretty, period costumes - you never get the impression that you have actually been transported to ancient Rome. The series has also more than its fair share of anachronisms.

The story starts out with Augustus on his deathbed, surrounded by Livia and her son Tiberius. As he drifts in and out of consciousness, he remembers his life as an idealistic young man, who is getting ready to leave his adoring mother and sister to fight with Julius Caesar. Julius has been calling for Octavius (Augustus) to join him in Spain. After fighting, Octavius steadily becomes beloved by his legions and soon takes on the name that his great-uncle bestowed upon him: Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, though he would become known as Caesar Augustus. As his popularity and power builds, he also becomes the first master of public relations, discovering that to succeed he must get the people to love him.

Helped by his two friends Agrippa (Ken Duken), the general, and the politician, Maecenas (Russell Barr, who plays him as a kind of blousy flamer), Octavius manages to win control of the Senate and beguile the people of Rome by becoming a master of the political. Much of the action takes place in the present, where Augustus, surviving an assassination attempt, is forced to share parts of his life with his daughter, Julia (Vittoria Belvedere). He tells Julia of his efforts to maintain stability and bring peace to Rome by becoming part of a second triumvirate with Marc Antony (Massimo Ghini). He also tells Julia of his attempts to discredit Antony by painting the general as a traitor and subservient to the Queen of Egypt Cleopatra (Anna Valle, dressed provocatively in some kind of sexy thong).

There's political intrigue everywhere because, as always, the throne and the stability of Rome is at stake. The film stays pretty close to the basic historical facts about Augustus' life, but leaves out an earlier marriage and, unlike I Claudius, there's much less of Livia's poisonous machinations. This is probably better; as it allows for Augustus' swift rise to power, and concentrates on his efforts to control the Senate, bringing peace instead of war to the republic. There's lots of clichéd, ridiculous moments, and most of the dialogue spoken is inappropriately contemporary. But this hardly matters, as Augustus, for the most part, is a reasonably enjoyable viewing experience, and most viewers will probably find something to like in it. Mike Leonard March 05.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5

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