Thursday, April 30, 2009

Rome is pretty damn good

My new addiction, along with Sam Seder's Pilot Season sequel running on MyDamnChannel, is the late, great HBO series Rome. While met with general critical approval, it was chided a bit for being bigger and glossier than the BBC's I, Cladius, but less substantial.
I disagree. While Robert Graves' novels -- I, Claudius and Claudius, the God -- will always be my personal favorites, the BBC series gave no context of the world the Julians and Claudians lorded over. I think Rome makes a good showing of the soldiers and plebes who enabled the ruling class. It was not some gleaming marble utopia; it was decadent, primal, pagan; sexuality and avarice were not just accepted, they were central to daily life. When Caesar triumphed after his victory over Pompey, he rode a chariot mounted with a giant phallus that signified his virility.
Having said all this, the video I've embedded below is the depiction of Octavian and Anthony's victory at Phillippi over Brutus and Cassius. It was the best YouTube video I could find. All the others were fan generated montages and music videos.
Ugh.

1 comment:

Carm said...

I don't think I can click your ads anymore. Boehner's Spending Fight? I know you don't control the ads, but John Fucking Boehner? WTF?

-MB