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Whistle Stopper - Rome - The Complete First Season
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List Price: $59.98
Our Price: $41.99
Your Save: $ 17.99 ( 30% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: HBO Home Video
Starring: Ciaran Hinds, Polly Walker, James Purefoy, Lindsay Duncan, Indira Varma
Directed By: Michael Apted, Allen Coulter, Timothy Van Patten
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 0026359284823
Format: AC-3
Label: HBO Home Video
Manufacturer: HBO Home Video
Number Of Items: 6
Publisher: HBO Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2006-08-15
Running Time: 619
Studio: HBO Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2005-08-28
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Disturbingly vulgar and violent, but worth watching if...
Comment: Although the real Rome of Caesar's time was chocked full of sex and violence, the makers of ROME easily could have depicted the pervasiveness of both without showing, for instance, a penis wrapped-up in a pretty bow and a man's bar-brawled head being opened by a local "surgeon."
Having said this, the show is both entertaining and--for anyone who wants to "see" facets of the Rome he's only read about and is willing to be disgusted by unnecessary and tasteless scenes of nudity and gore to do so--worth watching.
Be aware, however, that ROME is not uplifting. The confused morality that seeps through many of the episodes is disturbing. It's possible that the writers were trying to capture the moral uncertainties of many Romans of the time, but, underneath, I highly doubt this is the reason they chose to turn heroes into murderers and murderers back into "heroes."
Overall, I was entertained enough to watch until the last episode; but I'm passing on the second season. I imagine it can only get less heroic (and it was just barely heroic to begin with), more depressing, and more vulgar and gruesome from here.
Now if you've made it through all the other reviews to mine, I would recommend that you rent ROME, and hold your nose a little while you watch it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: You love it or hate it...
Comment: HBO's Rome is a great television series about that Ancient City. The daily life is perfect in almost every way and the history, while compressed, is pretty correct as far as I know. As far as ANY of us know. There are gaps and the HBO people try to do their best to fill in those spaces with realistic but interesting events.
The streets of Rome were that crowded, maybe with more beggars and more dirt, the buildings were that tall, with a few more fires going on, and the city that big. But with lots more smog and lots of people tossing stuff onto the floor or out the window. You may now say ewwww.
Yes, there is sex. There is sex NOW too you know. Remember, in those days they didn't have the same taboos that we have. Also, living in a crowded city with over a million people, some of which are living almost on top of you, some of them slaves who have to work around you, you have to develop invisible walls to keep your privacy. You really should look at Rome as an Eastern city, a people influenced by more by the Greeks, the Persians, and the Egyptians than any other cultures. Rome was a city more like those of China and Japan, trying to deal with lots of people in a tiny, walled in, space.
Yes, there was violence. This is a time of infighting, political attacks and good old fashion gang warfare. The streets would have been unsafe at night and, sometimes, during the day too. Hired thugs were the norm. Rome was sometimes peaceful, but not then. It would not see true peace for a few decades.
I was shocked only by the lack of history knowledge shown by many of the online reviews I found on other websites. Some people, attached to newspapers which will remain unnamed, attacked almost everything about the first season. Let me help correct their errors. Yes, there were chain shirts. They took the idea from the Celtics. Yes, there were whistles used by the military. Yes, slaves WOULD have been around while their owners had sex. Who else would get the wine and help dry you off later? Yes, yes, yes. You get the picture? The Cult of the Great Mother, killing the cow or bull over the pit, yes, that was around as early as 200 BC. Just because many Romans did not approve of the cult did not mean it wasn't around.
The DVDs came in a nice case and many of the episodes had nice commentary. There are also lots of extras and a photo gallery. Well worth the price, new or used.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Touch of Class!
Comment: As a professional Roman historian, I can safely say that this series is as accurate historically as it is tasteful, a fact that the average viewer might recognize if the reasonably accomplished British actors had not lent this dubious enterprise a spurious veneer of class.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Vulgarisation of Roman history--where's Shakespeare when you need him?
Comment: What if Shakespeare was given the $100 million or so budget this production had? Compare Rome to Shakepeare's Julius Caesar. Which is higher quality? Now at first you might say it's not a fair comparison, as Rome seems primarily intended to sell ad time to dumb couch potatoes (if you fall into the defence of the show the producers would give--but is that really a valid defence?). However, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar also was intended to draw an audience and sell tickets.
If you wanted to learn about Roman history, you'd arguably be better off not to watch Rome the TV series, as it is full of incredible historical inaccuracies.
In discussing Rome the TV series I have to mention, as do many others, the gratuitous sex and violence, taken to higher levels in this production.
Perhaps the biggest disgrace is on the BBC as co-producers of Rome. We know the BBC knows how to do better.
As much as I wanted to this show to succeed, at the end, I was bitterly disappointed and therefore will not watch another HBO series. You say why didn't I stop watching after the first episode? To give it a fair go, and in naïve hope I stuck with it for the entire first season. Perhaps a failing on my part, or a mistake by HBO for claiming this was more than a vulgarisation of Roman history and therefore attracting the interest of people interested in quality shows.
I am also very disappointed with the apparent values of this show. For example, for Titus Pullo to get away with brutally murdering the man Eirene was planning to marry (and several other murders, including of a leading Roman citizen) by being ultimately freed from legal punishment and then Eirene agreeing to marry him all within apparently a few weeks of the murders is absolutely disgusting. What sort of message does that send?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Rome, Season One
Comment: This was an amazing series. The only problem I had was that when I ordered both seasons which your site stated both were IN STOCK, you sent season two about one week before season one. I had never seen the series but had it recommended to me by a friend. So even thouh I had season two I really couldn't watch season two until I received season one to watch first. But other than that, both seasons arrived in excellent condition and this is one of the best series made for television that I have ever watched.
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Editorial Reviews:
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(HBO Dramatic Series) Four hundred years after the founding of the Republic Rome is the wealthiest city in the world a cosmopolitan metropolis of one million people; epicenter of a sprawling empire. The Republic was founded on principles of shared power and fierce personal competition never allowing one man to seize absolute control. But now those foundations are crumbling eaten away by corruption and excess. After eight years of war two soldiers Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo unwittingly become entwined in the historical events of ancient Rome. A serialized drama of love and betrayal masters and slaves husbands and wives ROME chronicles a turbulent era that saw the death of the republic and the birth of an empire.Running Time: 720 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 026359284823 Manufacturer No: 92848
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