Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #293 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-07-24
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, German
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 594 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Family dysfunction. Treachery. Betrayal. Coarse profanity. Brutal violence. Graphic (and sometimes brutal) sex. No, it's not The Sopranos, it's Rome, HBO's madly ambitious series that bloodily splatters the glory of Rome just as savagely as Monty Python and the Holy Grail soiled the good name of Camelot (but with far fewer laughs; very few funny things happen on the way to this forum). Set in 52 B.C. (Before Cable), Rome charts the dramatic shifts in the balance of power between former friends Pompey Magnus (Kenneth Cranham), leader of the Senate, and Julius Caesar (Ciaran Hinds), whose imminent return after eight years to Rome after conquering the Gauls, has the ruling class up in arms. At the heart of Rome is the odd couple friendship between two soldiers who fortuitously become heroes of the people. Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) is married, honorable, and steadfast. Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson) is an amoral rogue whose philosophy is best summed up, "I kill my enemies, take their gold, and enjoy their women". Among Rome's most compelling subplots is Lucius's strained relationship with his wife, Niobe (Indira Varma), who is surprised to see her husband alive (but not as surprised as he is to find her upon his homecoming with a newborn baby in her arms!) Any viewer befuddlement over Rome's intrigues and machinations, and determining who is hero and who is foe, disappears the minute Golden Globe-nominee Polly Walker appears as Atia, Caesar's formidable niece and a villainess for the ages. In the first hour alone, she offers her already married daughter as a bride to the recently widowed Pompey. One eagerly awaits to see what (or who) she'll do next as much as we anticipate her comeuppance in the final episode.

Rome is a painstakingly mounted production that earned eight well-deserved Emmy nominations in such categories as costumes, set design, and art direction. Michael Apted (Coal Miner's Daughter) was honored with a Director's Guild Award for the first episode, "The Stolen Eagle." But artistic considerations aside, instantly addicted viewers will agree with Atia, who notes at one point, "I adore the secrecy, the intrigue. It's most thrilling." --Donald Liebenson

DVD Description
Rome: The Complete HBO Season 1 (6 Disc Box Set)

Special Features
This item has sub-titles in English, French, German and Dutch, and for the Hard of Hearing in both English and German.

Customer Reviews

A thorougly entertaining series...
Rome - something I often bypassed in shops and never really caught much of on TV - still, it intreagued me, and once the price had dropped on Amazon, I thought I would buy the first series and give it a try.

Set against the turbulant times of a failing Roman Republic and of a civil war brewing between Pompey and Ceaser, the first episode opens with Pompey grieving the death of his wife (Ceaser's daughter) through childbirth. Knowing that the final tie between them is broken, Ceaser knows he has to move against Pompey or be trampled altogether.

The series also follows the trials and tribulations of Vorenous a stern, often grim and seemingly straight laced Centurian and brash, foul mouthed, cheery and sex obsessed Titus Pullo. Their actions (Particulary Pullos,) seems to have considerable consequences on the outcomes of events within Rome.

The series is very entertaining, sword fights, much political intreague, plots, sub plots, and twists and turns. The camera work is fantastic, the sets unbelievably good and everything has a rich, authentic feel to it and you can quite believe where all that money went. The performances by the actors are excellent - particulary the hateful Atia who plots and schemes her way through every episode in the series, and Titus Pullo - a very likeable character indeed, for all his moral shortcomings.

Well worth watching - I'll be ordering season 2 off the back of what is a truly excellent first season.

Think Sopranos meets Gladiator ... and you have 'Rome'.
A truely exellent televisions series. Well acted, brilliantly written, fantastic production and quite possibly the best peice of historical TV drame that you'll ever see.

Dont let the prudish Mary whitehouse-types turn you off this series. Even if it is a little too graphic for some people, you should still appreciate it none the less. As for historical inaccuracy ... sure, it doesnt totally keep faith with the actual historical events, but when compared to other television and cinematic production on ancient Roman times; Rome is more accurate than others. 'I Claudius' was an excellent series too but 'Rome' is superior and more accurate with history. Anyway, the historical inaccuracies of 'Rome' are soon forgotten due to the brilliant story-telling of this series.

Think Sopranos meets Gladiator ... and you have 'Rome'.

A Touch of Class
As a professional Roman historian, I can safely say that this series is as accurate historically as it is tasteful, a fact that the average viewer might recognize if the reasonably accomplished British actors had not lent this dubious enterprise a spurious veneer of class.