The two political camps are in a bitter face-off over the future of the republic. Each accuses the other of seeking unbridled power, and claims the mass of the people back them.
Invective flies across the aisle – hypocrite, despot, tyrant and worse. The people’s representatives curse one another on the floor of the Senate.
All of this plays out on TV, but it’s not
C-SPAN you’re watching, it’s HBO’s “Rome,” the eries that comes out today in an extras-packed DVD boxed set ($99.98).
The sometimes uncomfortable parallels between the struggles during Caesar’s rise to power and our own roiling times seem less an effort by “Rome’s” makers to draw such comparisons than they are a lesson in the verities of politics. Whether it’s 52 B.C. or A.D. 2006, the thirst for power involves equal measures of deceit, self-righteousness and violence.
One story arc in “Rome” concerns
Caesar’s return from the Gaul campaigns, his confrontation and triumph over his co-consul, Pompey Magnus (Kenneth Cran-
ham), and his eventual assassination. But while the superstars of the era are all here – Julius Caesar (Ciarán Hinds), Mark Antony (James Purefoy), Marcus Junius Brutus (Tobias Menzies) – “Rome” is driven by far humbler characters.
Two soldiers – Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson) – carry the main thread of the story. They end up in an unlikely alliance when Vorenus, a career officer, and Pullo, locked in jail, wind up together hunting for Caesar’s stolen gold eagle standard. Their surprising recovery of it, and saving Caesar’s nephew, seal them in a tumultuous relationship.
Their friendship comes to a head near the end of the first season when Pullo is sentenced to die in the arena. He’s been working as a paid assassin and was arrested. Vorenus has sworn to make no effort to help him. But as Pullo is about to die after killing several of his attackers, Vorenus jumps into the arena to save his friend.
A feature on the DVD, which boasts more extras than HBO has ever put on a release, re-creates this arena battle in often excruciating detail. It’s an appropriate spot to point out that what “Rome” might lack in foul language, it more than makes up for in sex and gory violence. The arena scene goes into great detail on how, through a combination of mechanical and computerized special effects, they can make it appear that a gladiator had an arm or head cut off. The propmaster cheerfully explains that they had 100 liters of blood on hand for the scene.
As the features point out, “Rome” has an interesting backlot story. The shoot was done in Rome, where some of the actors lived for up to two years. They also created a scale replica of the Forum on a 5-acre lot.
Of course, the reason to watch the series is to immerse yourself in ancient Rome, and these 12 episodes offer plenty of that. “Rome” fans will get one more season of the show, when HBO brings back the final season in January.
Staff writer Edward P. Smith can be reached at 303-820-1767 or at esmith@denverpost.com.
