The book for me kind of rumbled on from incident to incident. There was no fluid story line. It was like someone was trying to shove information into brain without a break. (#math). Each person has different character qualities that can be picked up in the descriptions and accounts of the text, but the show does better. The book (kind of like my blog) just rambles on. This guy killed this guy, then killed this guy until he was dead, then fought another battle so hes a good general, and pirates.
The movie even tho it is made to be dramatic at least it gives us more of a timeline, kind of like a chapter breakdown. We get to see character facial expressions and can read body language. We get to see what type of living situation each is accustomed to. Apparently wardrobes back then were top notch. The parts between the bloodshed and sex scenes bring light to a character. For example, When Julius got executed we saw a lot of angry dudes killing him dead. It was a collective effort until it was Brutus was up for stab. I got more of the sense that it was almost like a sad mercy killing until he actually thrust the dagger into Julius.
I enjoyed and had a better understanding of the films based on the books. Usually the books are better because we can fill in the blanks with our own imagination. The Shakespearean texts are harder to follow. A lot harder. More times than not the book is better than the movie also. Of course like most time than not the movie is varied from the book. I do not think the film did justice to the characters either. What I am also curious about is what in the hell were they doing with their hands when they were speaking. Like seriously... who does that. Only person that comes to mind is Ricky Bobby. I think they watched Ricky on the news and took a page from his book.
I agree with your statement that books are usually better than the movies. But in this case, Rome really opened it up for me. Plutarch was so difficult to get into! There was no character development, rarely any dialogue, just endless facts and anecdotes about each person.
ReplyDeleteThe show really brought the era to life for me. The costumes and the mannerisms of each character made the events feel more real even if it was a staged interpretation of them. While, Rome does have it's faults, I think for what it is, it provided a great starting point into looking into the lives of three people who were so connected politically.
Its truly amazing how much money they put into this show. While I believe it does help us as viewers to interpret the time period better, I feel like a show with a smaller budget with the same actors would have done just as well. I feel like there are so many subtle things in this show such as body language (as you mentioned) as well as lighting effects and even things down to location that lay everything out on the table and it helps to make something as complicated as Brutus much easier to follow. - Alex Graham
ReplyDeletePlutarch was definitely hard to follow. I don't know if it was my meds, but I had so much trouble staying on top of the point with Plutarch. Dude really rambles. Thank goodness HBO gave me some visual stimulation because my brain was not into the words.
ReplyDeleteI loved the show, now I really want to watch the whole series. They made a world of the past really come to life for me.
The blog just autofilled and came up on break, which was a total bummer, but I realized I hadn't read your post yet and "I am going to stray from the main ideas and run to the side note. Clearly they threw as much money into this series as they did blood" made coming on tonight totally worth it
ReplyDelete