Peter O'Toole and Benjamin Sadler share the role of the first Emperor Augustus of the new Roman Empire in this literate adaption of his story. For those of you who have read, seen, and enjoyed I Claudius, Julius Caesar, and Antony And Cleopatra, this film will be all the more enjoyable.In the other works I've mentioned Augustus aka Octavian is a peripheral character in the drama. Here the story is seen from his perspective, in the present with Peter O'Toole where he is dealing with the problem of his daughter Julia played by Vittoria Belvedere in 12 BC. If you've seen I Claudius you know the story and the intrigues surrounding that. The slant is different in this, her husband and Augustus's trusted friend Marcus Aggripa has died, leaving her with three children. She now wants to marry for love, but Augustus influenced by his wife Livia, his second wife I might add played by Charlotte Rampling has her marry Tiberius, Livia's son by her first marriage. However Livia as determined as she is to see her son succeed her husband, she is not the manipulative monster as she was in I Claudius. That was author Robert Graves own interpretation.In flashback we see Benjamin Sadler as young Octavian who with his trusted companions Agrippa played by Ken Duken and Maecenas played by Ronald Barr as they first join Octavian's grand uncle Julius Caesar at his final campaign against the heirs of Pompey in Munda, Spain. After that we see for the only time I know the events of Julius Caesar and Antony And Cleopatra from the point of view of Octavian. Those events bear very heavily on the reasons Augustus makes the decisions he does. We also see Sadler courting the young Livia played by Martina Stella who was of high noble birth and let everyone know it. This is the genesis of the character played by Rampling here and by Sian Phillips in I Claudius who was at one time married to Peter O'Toole.I made it a point to do some research Ronald Barr's character Maecenas and what you see is what apparently was. He's described as effeminate and that's putting it mildly. Apparently Augustus and Aggripa didn't have a problem with him hanging around and as a minister of the empire later, Maecenas was quite efficient and effective. Imperium: Augustus is one fine and almost flawless made for TV film, it should have gotten theatrical release. If you liked those Shakespeare classics and Robert Graves' I Claudius, this is an absolute must view for you.

It's so bad that I have nothing good to say about either Peter O'Toole or Charlotte Rampling, who have both risen far above bad material in the past. But there really no material here that's less that excreble above which to rise--O'Toole plow through his repetitive mononlogue for HOURS, while Rampling wears what I suppose was the matron version of the Stoic mask.a Young Octavian and young Agrippa remain mercilessly forgettable, but such is not the case with Maecenas--he is so over-the-top that he makes Richard Simmon's at the height of his fame look like a Sloth on barbitutuates. And their costumes .. . oh, my! hBut wait, everyone's costumes are either bizarre, borrowed from Walmart's Linens and Bedroom shop, or come from a Euro/Pound/or Dollars store. Poor actors! he The scenery and set dressing's no better, for it would seem Rome only had one dark, dirty, and dangerous alley, which also served as its only daytime sunlight-filled, clean, and jolly alleyway. And all the marble stuctures look like chalk, which is better than the wooden Julius Caeser who inspired this utter banality. never

My wife and I couldn't even finish the film. Truly, it was rather painful.First, the historical accuracy is compromised not so much by the events themselves as the ridiculous one-dimensionality of the characters. For instance, Augustus takes the "burden" of power only with great reluctance. Indeed, he is portrayed as if he's some sort of great humanist and believer in democracy.Second, the camp! My lord, the dialog is horrifically bad. I recall the soap opera my mother watched when I was a child having better dialog than this. The constant exposition and pontificating grates upon the ears like fingernails on chalkboard. Ugh. (Okay, I exaggerate a bit, but the dialog truly is bad.) The HBO series Rome is superior for no other reason than that its characters were at least believable, regardless of their historicity.Rome was also wise enough to know they couldn't stage epic battle scenes. The creators of this film did not. When Caesar attacks Munda, the battle scene is practically farcical.I will grant that the costumes are perfectly good. The sets are fine, though their CGI backdrops can be a bit jarring at times. The sound is bad, though—both in terms of the music, the foley work, and the dubbing of so many of the side characters.Anyway, it's completely not worth renting. As a history major, I was hoping for an alternative approach to Augustus than HBO's Rome, which, I feel, failed to capture his overall "feel" quite as well as they did Caesar or Antony. Instead, I should have just stuck to my reading.

Augustus is a great movie. The range of the movie is wide. The movie depicts his role in the Hispanic war along with Caesar until his death. There are certain sections in the movie which are very true to history. Some of them which are not true to history are not very important as well. Movie begins with old Augustus mourning the death of his friend, son in law and General Agrippina with his daughter. Movies keeps going back in to long flashbacks. The transition is brilliant. This movie works for me at all levels acting, camera, characterization, range and above all facts. I prefer an 'Augustus' over 'Lawrence of Arabia' for the simple reason it shows what happened and not an interpretation of the director. Some of the important details are missing from the movie which in my opinion is OK even if they are missing like Augustus butchered the son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar; Augustus's daughter was first married to Mark Anthony and Augustus's sister's son. I think movie wasted the character of Cicero but its OK as the movie was only about Augustus. The characterization was convincing. The whole section where Augustus assimilates power is very well done. Peter O'Tool as Augustus is quite good. Benjamin Sadler as Octavius is OK. Massimo Ghinni as Mark Anthony is very good. All the senate scenes are done in a very good taste. Good movie.