Product Description

(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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #567 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-08-15
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: AC-3, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 6
• Dimensions: 1.40 pounds
• Running time: 619 minutes

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 bloodily splatters the glory of Rome just as savagely as Monty Python and the Holy Grail soiled the good name of Camelot (but with far fewer laughs; very few funny things happen on the way to this forum). Set in 52 B.C. (Before Cable), 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 hour alone, she offers her already married daughter as a bride to the recently widowed Pompey. One eagerly awaits to see what (or who) she'll do next as much as we anticipate her comeuppance in the final episode.

Rome is a painstakingly mounted production that earned eight well-deserved Emmy nominations in such categories as costumes, set design, and art direction. Michael Apted (Coal Miner's Daughter) was honored with a Director's Guild Award for the first episode, "The Stolen Eagle." But artistic considerations aside, instantly addicted viewers will agree with Atia, who notes at one point, "I adore the secrecy, the intrigue. It's most thrilling." --Donald Liebenson

Beyond the Series

The Roman Empire in film and television

The Roman Empire in documentaries

More HBO DVDs

Stills from Rome (click for larger image)

Customer Reviews

Unique and Timeless
This series is unique and timeless in so many ways. The fact that it didn't attract a following sufficient for another season is disappointing but not surprising; people seem to equate Rome with epics, and while I like movies like Gladiator, I'd much rather see a drama rooted in the social and historical realities of the period. This series may be the first and last of that breed. No, it is not a scrutinizing, one hundred percent accurate portrait; you could not tell a story about ancient Rome relevant to the general viewer without making it just that, a story. But historical epics like Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven give us rather dry characters who seem to be humanists dropped into a historical period. This is the story of characters driven by the realities of their time, who very much belong to the period. Add to this a brilliant cast and high production values, and this series will surely live forever.

HBO's Best Show EVER.
I thought that THE SOPRANOS was going to be HBO's greatest show, but it started to become very tedious after the fourth season. Then ROME came along and in just 2 seasons, it made me forget entirely about THE SOPRANOS. This is just a brilliant show filled with great performances, great dialogue, great direction... but this is not your parents' Charlton Heston or Elizabeth Taylor epic. This is a brutal, gritty, vulgar, sexy and realistic portrayal of those who lived in these times as presented to our time.

Many deserve accolades for their work insofar as performances are concerned like Ciaran Hinds as the frighteningly human Julius Caesar, James Purefoy as the bawdy Marc Antony, the delicious Polly Walker as Atia, the radiant Kerry Condon as Octavia... but the real accolades go to Kevin McKidd and Ray Stevenson, as the proud but flawed Lucius Vorenus and the lusty, violent Titus Pullo, respectively. It is their relationship that is at the the core of this show, and as much as the political and emotional intrigue of the series is fascinating, I find myself longing for a show that was just about the relationship and adventures of Vorenus and Pullo. Their friendship has a very mismatched-buddy-cop chemistry, but in a form of entertainment that has exhausted that cliche, it really works between these two. They play off each other wonderfully, and individually, they're terrific. I can only hope that this show will, in the future, be as or more respected and revered as THE SOPRANOS.

Premature Cancelation
Thanks HBO for cancelling this series years before it's time.

HBO didn't promote the show well enough. More money and effort should have been put behind it's promotion. The public can be slow and fail to recognize quality entertainment, but this show clearly would have appealed to a large audience of Americans that love violence, war, sex, and selfish, power hungry monsters. I found this realistic, vivid portrayal of Roman society fascinating even when certain historical events were altered or omitted. In terms of customs, social norms, life on the streets -"Rome" is highly recommended and unprecidented. The expensive sets were fantastic of coarse, but the real appeal for most viewers has to be the richly developed characters. There are times when the writing could have been better and more attention should have been paid to the complex political struggles that we witness unfold and less to soap opera melodrama. It is really too bad this unique series only lasted two seasons and most people don't even know what they missed.