not as good as all the hype

Best movie ever!

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

9/10 vs. 5/10Having read so many positive reviews, I very much wanted to like I, Claudius.I appreciate their efforts, the costumes, and sets...but....eeeeh. I've enjoyed elementary school bands and high school plays more. Much more.The pacing is slow, and the performances remind me the pompous Jon Lovitz character on Saturday Night Live.... "I"m acting!!".I want the hour of my life back spent screening episode 1.

Although appearing as a series of acts in a play, "I, Claudius" is a masterpiece on every level!The acting is superb; the characters are believable; the costumes are authentic-looking; the make-up department is impeccable; and, every scene is well-done and ranges in mood from very interesting to outright shocking. Yet...less graphic, some of the horrifying events in this during Caligula's reign even puts "Caligula"(1979) to shame.I mentioned the make-up department because they really uglified the beautiful Siân Phillips to portray the conniving, nasty, and, vindictive "Livia" (just like what was done with beautiful Charlize Theron in "Monster.").Unfortunately, I missed "I, Claudius" back in the 1970s when PBS used to show wonderfully-made classics that I did watch such as "The World At War;" "Edward The King;" and, "Masterpiece Theatre," just to name a few."I, Claudius" ("I, Clavdivs") is a classic novel made for television. It's a televised-historical-play that's really second-to-none. On their budget, probably, this mini-series may come across to people nowadays as cheap and theatrically enclosed as there are no real 'outdoorsy' scenes...everything is played-out on what seems a stage. However, the story itself and the dialog, and, the manner in which it's presented, along with the acting and surroundings, is a true classic that only people-of-good-taste can appreciate.I love this masterpiece! :)

"I, Claudius" was the most tedious TV series of my childhood. It promised a lot, and delivered nothing, to satisfy my childhood expectations. No land battles, no naval clashes, no chariot races, not even a sword fight, for Mars' sake! In fact, you didn't even get to see the sky! It was a show in which people dressed like Romans moved about indoors, talked, laughed, sometimes screamed and sometimes got killed in dramatic scenes that lasted only 5 to 10 seconds, and then moved and talked more. Yet, this BBC production, set in the early decades of Roman Empire, had my parents, elder siblings and our relatives and neighbours, most of whom were from Kurdish country-side, glued to their television sets week after week, and talking about the characters and plot twists day after day.For the next thirty years, each time I heard about "I, Claudius", I was torn between the almost traumatic claustrophobia that the series left on my memory and the ever growing curiosity to find out the story that enthralled my childhood elders. In the last fifteen years, I hired "I, Claudius" from the video store twice, and returned them after watching only the first 15 minutes, still unimpressed.Then, it happened. Three weeks ago, bereft of choice in the video store, I again hired the DVDs, promising myself that I'd watch no less than the first hour, no matter what. Well, I ended up watching the 650 minute saga three times, back to back in nine days. I watched nothing else on TV for nine days; no news, no sport, no music clip. It was "I, Claudius" and me; I was happy. I even signed up to IMDb to write about it.The series showcases the mother of all internal family conflicts. The Roman Empire features like a family business that the dynasty is quarreling over. If you are not a 'fool' like Claudius, you are either killed or banished. Power kills, and absolute power... well, you know what it does. By the time young Marcellus stands up in the Arena and says "Let the games begin!" (at around 30-minute mark), you know you'll be glued to the TV for a long time, and say, "What a story!" at the end.This is TV at its best. The story, the script, acting, direction, camera angles, sets, costumes, they are all flawless. Close up shots of the faces are unmatched except perhaps by those in Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns. The series is teeming with memorable quotes (Augustus to an orator: "What gifts you Greeks have"; Tiberius about her mother Livia: "They say a snake bit her once and died"; Tiberius' astrologer: "Excellent! I knew it. It's all here. The chart doesn't lie." Claudius to Caligula: "You set the standard of sanity for the whole world"). There are many laugh-out-loud scenes in the series. Augustus Caesar walking before and questioning an endless line of men that has slept with his daughter is unforgettable. Claudius saluting the crowd in the arena and sitting in Caesar's chair is a calculated 'foolishness', yet still hilarious. Augustus' speech to Rome's bachelors, Messelina's competition with a prostitute, Claudius and his ordeal with his very tall wife, and many many others. In fact, there were many more comic scenes than tragic ones.It is impossible to praise individual performances. It is as though just under the characters' competition for supremacy in the Roman Empire, there is another, an invisible competition among the actors to win the hearts of the audience as the best character performer. And just the way Claudius is pulled behind a curtain and declared an emperor against his will, one feels like pulling out Derek Jacobi from the pack and declare him the best actor. Just like Claudius understates his intelligence, Jacobi understates his presence in the company of others, giving them the floor with minimum interference. He never seeks to dominate the screen until he's chosen as the Caesar. He has plenty of screen time by himself as the narrator.Only one downside. A technical one. The sound in the DVD recording was inconsistent, sometimes loud sometimes low volume.Do yourself a favour and watch "I, Claudius". You won't regret it. 10/10

Rent this and for the next few weeks that snaky, insidious theme tune will be inching its way across your subconscious. Especially as there's no other music in it, contributing to the stagey, slightly hollow presentation. Don't expect any long shots of the Colosseum or exciting chariot races, it's all on set.The historical context and arch dialogue delivered by star turns such as Sian Phillips, George Baker, Brian Blessed, Derek Jacobi and John Hurt may convince you that this is more highbrow drama than it really is. I enjoyed it, but it follows one theme: someone in the Roman court is overtly or covertly murdering their way to the succession either on their own or someone else's behalf, and the others are too dim or cowed to prevent it. I'm not sure how historically accurate it is, and watching innocent people get stitched up is only so entertaining in my book.It does get a bit repetitive after a while. Even the star turns are more entertaining than impressive. Phillips might be channelling Disney's Wicked Queen as Livia, while Hurt is not too far off Kenneth Williams in Carry On Cleo in his portrayal of Caligua.Some nasty stuff implied rather than seen but which would give Hostel 2 a run for its money make this non-family viewing, on the other hand those drawn to it for that reason would be disappointed by the lacklustre orgies. By disc four I had got quite depressed by its goings-on, there really seemed to be no respite from it. That's not to say it isn't very enjoyable at times, but it seems to peak just before Caligula's arrival.If you're still keen for a bit of Roman when you've completed the series, the movie Quo Vardis picks up where it left off, dealing with Emperor Nero's reign (Nero is well played by Christopher Biggins in I Claudius and Peter Ustinov in the movie).