This vivid storytelling about the Caesar life is one of the greatest stories ever told.This Roman story told in impact form on a great scale with several spectacular scenes, though is a fairly standard for epic TV.Lavishly TV miniseries from Sulla government until death Caesar.It concerns about his infamous existence, feats,political greed,corruption,tragedies,wars and lovers.One of the last television's most prestigious production with electrifying performances,this is definitely the best TV version available about the famous historic character developed of the following way : The tyrant Sulla(Richard Harris) defeated to Marius and conquers Rome ,Julius Caesar(100-44 BC),as nephew of Marius,is condemned to death,but helped by Pompeius(Chris North)flees towards Orient where is kidnapped by pirates asking a ransom.When is freed,he returns to Rome where is married with Calpurnia(Valeria Golino) and begins the political career.Meanwhile,his daughter Julia marries with Pompeius and Caesar asks him his army to fight against the barbarians.But Caesar conquers whole the Gaul.The final defeat takes place at Alesia where Vercingetorix(Heino Ferch) is definitely vanquished and coerced to handcuffed parade through the Rome streets.Julius Caesar is appointed as Consul for life and crossed the river Rubicon.Pompeius and Cato(Christopher Walken) fear that Caesar will use the troops for ruling the empire and declare himself king and they flee to Greece and are defeated in Farsalia.Pompeyo escapes to Alejandria, Egypt where is beheaded by Tolomeo and Potino. Of course also is developed the usual version of the Egyptian temptress'lust for Caesar,young royal,Cleopatra(Samuela Sardo)wants to rule Egypt and she seduces the conqueror to gain the kingdom and he helps her gain control of Egypt.Later they return to Rome,but the thing don't turn out so well.An old man prevents him on the Ides of March.Caesar is murdered by his nephew Brutus(Ian Duncan) and Cassius(Tobias Moretti) and senators,starting the second triumvirate by Marc Anthony,Lepido and Octavius Augustus .The son of Caesar and Cleopatra -Caesarion- was assassinated by order of Augustus.This stylish,visually stunning epic-scale Roman biography contains,drama,action,romance and overwhelming battles including the computer generator soldiers,though the crowd is most part by ordering ,in spite of it, still looks great.The movie displays a few top American stars in main characters somewhat at variance with an array of notable British acting talents.There are memorable performances from leading roles and the movie's wealth of expert personages-drawing extends rightly to the minor roles,one of which is played by Richard Harris,he seems terrific in his last performance.Harris whose memory the movie is dedicated but he died during the filming.Directed with imagination by Uli Edel,the picture proved that the public would go for epic series if the impact was strong and the performance attractive enough.Lovers of Sword and sandals genre and good acting will find much that is rewarding. Anothers versions about Caesar life are : The classical by Josep'h L. Mankiewicz(1953) with Brando and James Mason and by Sturat Burge(1970) with Charlton Heston and Jason Robards.

There is a problem with the Roman army's uniforms: in this movie (like in many others about the Roman Empire), the Roman soldiers are not properly equipped; I mean especially the helmets: they have Imperial Italic helmets, but these helmets appeared 40 years after Caesar's death, during the reign of Augustus! In this period (82 – 44 BC), the Roman army used Montefortino and Coolus A-B helmets. Also, in the movie there are some Praetorian soldiers, but these troops were created by Augustus. There are many books and data bases about the Roman army! The Montefortino helmets are much simplier than the helmets used in the movie; so, I think it's easier to "produce" such helmets. If a movie cannot show me the real uniforms, how could it show me the real facts?!

Having been obsessed by Cato the Younger for many years, I received my M.Phil from Oxford with my thesis: Cato the Younger: The Beginnings of his Political Career in the 60s BCE, and my PH.D on: Cato the Younger - Myth and Reality, I was apprehensive about watching this film. However, Christopher Walken was excellent in his portrayal of Cato the Younger. Shunning the more Ciceronian approach, the main thrust of the character was to warn against any individual assuming extraordinary power, in the first instance, Pompey, and much later in the film, Caesar. The warnings of Cato were well acknowledged by the Senate (contrary to the film) and indeed, his influence caused the Senate to refuse Caesar the opportunity to return to Rome as a free citizen, e.g. numerous individuals, including Cato, said that they would prosecute Caesar for his illegal activities whilst consul in 59 BCE. Regardless of the historical inaccuracies in this film (and there are many), nevertheless Walken's performance of Cato is what made this film excellent in my view.

Just as I expected, the film contains tons of factual errors but I won't go into all that. I just want to get past that and fast.The biggest problem (and the reason I'm writing this) is the main leading actor. First of all, he doesn't physically look like the man he is supposed to. Secondly, his behavior is very timid and cautious. This guy doesn't have the elegance and determination that the dictator had. No sign of the genius. Why for the love of coffee was he cast?! Also, he is being portrayed as modern man with modern values so that the modern audience could relate to him easily.I guess it's because the movie makers need the money and audience is money. The other possibility is that they simply have not known what they were dealing with here. As this is a movie about one particular man, the main character is the single most important thing. I just can't recognize him from this product. These historical movies offer false history and many many people will live in lies because of these. It's a pity.