The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Well, that would have made for a tough film to sit through, don't you think, guys?Although it's true that that first read-through was probably pretty rough.Here is a short quotation from Ries via Thayer, which shows how well the filmmakers did their homework:"...Here it happened that Beethoven, who was directing (the Eroica) himself, in the second part of the first Allegro where the music is pursued for so many measures in half-notes against the beat, threw the orchestra off in such a way that a new beginning had to be made." In the first Allegro occurs a mischievous whim (bose Laune) of Beethoven's for the first horn; in the second part, several measures before the theme recurs in its entirety, Beethoven has the horn suggest it (the theme: LS) at a place where the two violins are still holding a second chord (the violins are suggesting a Bb7 chord -- the *dominant* of Eb Major, whereas the horn is playing the theme (a simple arpeggio) in Eb Major, a harmony which sounded quite "wrong" to 1803 ears!: LS). To one unfamiliar with the score this must always sound as if the horn player made a miscount and entered at the wrong place. At the first rehearsal of the symphony, __which was horrible__, but at which the horn player made his entry correctly, I stood beside Beethoven, and, thinking that a blunder had been made I said: 'Can't the damned hornist count" -- it sounds infamously false!' I think I came pretty close to receiving a box on the ear. (Much more dramatic to come *more* than "pretty close"!: LS) Beethoven did not forgive the slip for a long time."Thayer goes on to describe yet another rehearsal which Lobkowitz arranged for another prince, Louis Ferdinand of Prussia:"To give him (Louis Ferdinand: LS) a surprise, the new, and of course, to him utterly unknown symphony, was played to the Prince, who 'listened to it with tense attention which grew with every movement.' At the close he proved his admiration by requesting the favor of an immediate repetition; and, after an hour's pause, as his stay was too limited to admit of another concert, a second. (In other words, it was performed *three* times!: LS). The impression made by the music was general and its lofty contents were now recognized."In any event, I adore this made-for-television gem! Two things that make this film great are:1. We get to hear a period-instrument performance by one of the best such orchestras around!2. We get to immerse ourselves in Beethoven's world for a few hours, all done very beautifully. (The scenes *following* the performance are delicious!) HIGHLY recommended.LS

First of all, the performance of the symphony is terrific and beautifully recorded in 5.1 Dolby. The movie achieves a minor miracle in conveying how NEW and downright shocking this greatest of Beethoven's symphonies was. It also presents a believable and sympathetic view of his personality, passions, and temper.The movie is very good looking and fun from start to finish. The appearance of Haydn and his utterances about the new symphony are perfect, according to what we know about his personality.My favorites for this work have been Klemperer on EMI and Hogwood on Archiv, but I now prefer this performance over them all (including Bruno Walter's).Easily the best movie about Beethoven that I have seen.

The complete performance of the symphony was well worth the rental for me. It helped having all the visuals, at least most of the time, making this into effectively a music video of the Eroica. The visuals helped when they portrayed the reactions of the players and listeners to the music, but they were distracting when portraying the lame side stories, such as the young male servant making eyes at the girl, etc. I guess the point of that was to show that mundane life goes on even at momentous events such as this one which changed the music world forever. It's fun to imagine that everyone actually present was floored by what was being played, but only a few really got it, such as Haydn, Ries, a couple of the women, and of course Beethoven himself.But it's ludicrous that any orchestra, no matter how competent, could run through the piece that well on first sight. Even if they could play all the notes and markings they couldn't stay together without a conductor, at least not for that long. Beethoven is portrayed as out of the room or seated much of the time, so wasn't much help except when he wanted to be. And the transition from falling apart after about 20 bars to flawlessly executing the whole work on the next try was especially ridiculous.Ian Hart was embarrassing, clumsily trying to patch together pieces of Beethoven's character into an incoherent whole. He entirely misses the soul of the man, which Gary Oldman captured breathtakingly well in Immortal Beloved. You'd think Hart would only need to study Oldman's performance a bit and he would have done much better, but maybe Oldman just made it look easy.The movie would have been better if it had been a straight-to-DVD project, with the movie portion showing a more realistic first performance with more mistakes and musical misunderstandings, and saving the flawless performance for the bonus feature, letting the viewers know it's highly idealized in order to allow undisturbed enjoyment of the music and how it might have affected those who first heard it.This is a must-see for Beethoven lovers and will be very rewarding for anyone interested in music appreciation.

.. if you know how innovative the piece was it seemed a bit odd that the players 'got' the piece basically on their first run. Even if the 3rd and 4th movements sounded different from most other performances i own, it was oddly well-played for a first try.Other than that, the 'plot' was fairly flimsy, though seemingly historically accurate. As such, i'm not sure why the film was made.. it's far from glitzy enough to appeal to a general public (not to mention it contains "classical" music, yuck!), most of the actors came from TV, though it didn't really matter because the script didn't require a lot of actingIn all, a nice film to watch if you want to gain *some* insight into what the piece is about, but there are courses out there that teach you a whole lot more on the subject.