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April 03, 2004
Review: Movies(?): I Claudius
The Republic had fallen. Caesar Augustus Octavius sat on the imperial couch. Livia sat beside him, ensuring that-- contrary to Octavius' wishes-- the Republic would never come back. I Claudius is an epic tragedy of good governance and the folly of unchecked power...
I, Claudius is a 1975 BBC-produced mini-series. It is 669 minutes long, and in the words of an old religion prof "has all the sex, violence, and whatnot you have to buy HBO to get today." In this country, it was first shown on PBS. The fact that the first several minutes of the first episodes involve the Emperor watching nude dancers (dancers who we see naked) doesn't seem to have caused the same level of outcry that Janet's half-second nipple exposure caused today...
When I was in my roll playing days, I always wanted to play a game where my character might just sit in a room and influence events as they unfolded around him. A clever GM might feed me bad information and see if I acted on it. By and large, I, Claudius acts on that principal. While the scenery changes to suit various parts of the imperial palace, with an occasional trip elsewhere, All the drama takes place in what characters say to one another. This requires the best of acting...
Fortunately, the actors deliver. I admit that it took me a couple of episodes to get used to the acting style. It is important to note, acting has changed over the decades. The fact that the film is British (whose TV, movie and Stage industries tend to be more closely related than here) will tend to exaggerate the phenomenon...
And as I said, the Actors Deliver! I am surprised that "evil as Livia" hasn't slunk into our lexicon. How did Patrick Stewart manage not to get typecast? The star is Derek Jacobi as Claudius himself. He manages his roll superbly, torn between Republican sentiment and the desire to save his own neck...
One of the things that really stands out for me is the shear subtlety of characters; a subtlety which the actors bring forth quite well. When Tiberius says to Livia (about the illness of Tiberius' rival) "I hope his mother's prayers are answered", Livia's reply "And mine too" was jaw dropping.
The story itself is well written. I do not know if this is an artifact of the Novelist or the Screenplaywright. I suppose I could grab the novel from my shelf and find out. From the standpoint of the mini-series, however, it hardly matters. The chapters are all given pithy titles that are only really intelligible after the episode-- then make so much sense that it seems odd not to have understood it in the first place...
While watching it, I cannot help but shutter at the slide of a glorious Republic into the ignominy of Empire. The good men were killed off one by one, slaughtered for the crime of being in the way of the ambitious. In the end, all that is left is fools, tyrants, and prostitutes...
And Claudius. Claudius tries to be the savior of Rome, tries to be a just, fair Emperor. In the end, he believes-- not without justification-- that his very justice threatens to render impossible a return to Republic. After a century of being rules, the freedmen of Rome are now servants...
One of the greatest successes of the Series is that the preceding paragraph feels like a spoiler. Anyone with a good encyclopedia or just access to Google can find out anything they want about the Roman Empire. Yet the series keeps one constantly guessing, wondering what will happen next, and who it will happen to. So I can give it the highest praise available to historical fiction: it felt new...
Rating:
15 Julio-Claudian Emperors out of a mere 5 Julio-Claudian Emperors. Wow. Hot Damn. Dynamite. Go watch.
Posted by Andrew at April 3, 2004 02:02 PM
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