Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14506 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-06-18
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: PAL
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 82 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The first and only film shot entirely in subtitled Latin, Sebastiane is Derek Jarman's first work as a director (though he shared the job with the less well-known Paul Humfress) and is a strange combination of gay nudie movie, pocket-sized Ancient Roman epic and meditation upon the image of Saint Sebastian. It opens with the Lindsay Kemp dance troupe romping around with huge fake phalluses to represent the Ken Russell-style decadence of the court of the Emperor Diocletian in AD 303, then decamps to Tuscany as Diocletian's favourite guard Sebastian (Leonardo Treviglio) is demoted to ordinary soldier and dispatched to a backwater barracks because the Emperor (Robert Medley) suspects him of being a covert Christian. The bulk of the film consists of athletic youths in minimal thongs romping around the countryside, soaking themselves down between bouts of manly horseplay or sylvan frolic. It all comes to a bad end as the lecherous but guilt-ridden commanding officer Severus (Barney James) fails to cop off with Sebastian and instead visits floggings and tortures upon his naked torso, finally ordering his men to riddle the future saint with arrows, thus securing him a place in cultural history. The public schoolboy cleverness of scripting dialogue in Latin--a popular soldier's insult is represented by the Greek "Oedipus"--works surprisingly well, with the cast reeling off profane Roman dialogue as if it were passionate Italian declarations rather than marbled classical sentences. The film suffers from the not-uncommon failing that the best-looking actor is given the largest role but delivers the weakest performance: Treviglio's Sebastian is a handsome cipher, far less interesting than the rest of the troubled, bullying, awkward or horny soldiers in the platoon. Peter Hinwood, famous for the title role in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, can be glimpsed in the palace orgy. The countryside looks as good as the cast, and Brian Eno delivers an evocative, ambient-style score. --Kim Newman

Video Description
DVD Special Bonus Feature:

Face to Face: Derek Jarman in conversation with Jeremy Isaacs. This interview, which is part of the Art and Craft of Movie making Season was originally broadcast by the BBC on 15 March 1993, less than one year before the death of Derek Jarman.

Synopsis
Derek Jarman's debut feature film created a firestorm of controversy over its frank portrayal of homosexuality, violence, and the ultimate martyrdom of the Catholic saint Sebastiane in 303 A.D. A visually striking fantasy, SEBASTIANE begins at the court of Emperor Diocletian in an unforgettable sequence of Roman excess and Bacchanalian sexuality. Similar in tone to the opening sequence to Ken Russell's THE DEVILS, which Jarman designed in 1971, the film is also reminiscent of the orgiastic fantasies of Federico Fellini's SATYRICON and Cecil B. DeMille's THE SIGN OF THE CROSS. (Jarman was conscious of these similarities--a Roman soldier in the film, dreaming of the golden era of Rome, mentions "Cecilli Mille" and "Phillistini's Satyricon.") Accused of standing up for a Christian, Sebastiane (Leonardo Treviglio), friend of the emperor and captain of his guard, is demoted to mere soldier and banished from Rome to a coastal outpost. This remote place proves to be both a barren wasteland and an oasis of freedom where the men are free to act out homosexual fantasies and explore their hidden desires. However, Sebastiane angers outpost captain Severus by ignoring his sexual advances and devoting himself to God. Their ongoing battle erupts in a violent and stunningly homoerotic execution. Jarman's striking work is acted in Latin with English subtitles and features music by Brian Eno.

Customer Reviews

Censored Film!
Buyers should be aware that the DVD as released here is the censored version, as distributed over thirty years ago! The basic content / narrative remain the same, although this version loses some of the original intensity.

Romans without Hollywood accents
Sebastiane is a rather controversial movie but for those who wish to build up an eclectic library of DVDs then it would be a useful addition.

The film is famous of course for the graphic and cold brutality of the final scene. Overall though it's actually a rather slow film as it follows the tribulations (including boredom) of a group of Roman soldiers in the hot and barren Mediterranean countryside. Essentially, it charts the day-to-day happenings of the group and how they ended up executing the title character in such dramatic fashion (with multiple arrow shots from very close range).

Some characters are particularly annoying (e.g. Max) but what would you expect from a bunch of squaddies thrown together in baking heat at close quarters? The film doesn't omit the famous Roman sordid sense of humour either and has its moments of innuendo.

It's interesting that it's all in Latin and this is what the famous Roman Army actually sounded like.

A bit self-indulgent
Er, a this movie is a classic and carries meaning on many levels, but I found it a bit self-indulgent and overbearing at times. Some of the scenes are just too idyllic in a silly “swords & sandals” type of way, while the poor Sebastian so obviously wants to be martyred that I soon lost my empathy with him. And the captain who lusts after him is just too obviously of the sadist type that cannot distinguish his power lust from his desire. Some beautiful shots, though, and it is worth seeing. There is something awkward about the film, however, that makes it less than perfect. It is as if Jarman didn’t keep enough distance between himself and his work, or he tried too hard to make a “European Art Film.”