The Pillars of the Earth [Blu-ray]

Great series

7 hrs is NOT enough. An elaborate cast, set, costuming, script adaptation of Ken Follet's classic novel. Historical content, leading one to believe a British monk & mason invented Gothic church architecture, including the winged `flying' buttress. The truth is acknowledged near the end, but not before getting the viewer totally enthralled in this action/adventure/romantic epic drama. Builders, monks and royalty of the middle Ages between the years 1120 and 1170, shot on a Budapest location.The awesome cast has been listed elsewhere, as large as the production itself. First class in every way. Truly this should become a recognized Century 21 classic, a modern "Gone With the Wind." Impressive in every detail, even having the book's author in a merchant's role, episode 7.The series is "NOT RATED" but beware, if it makes a difference, there is full frontal nudity, violent scenes, sex, & bold language. Blood, decapitation, incest...well, enough warning. I'd still recommend this to today's 12-year-olds and beyond because of the powerful story, dramatic filming, and historical/educational dramatization. You ENTER the Middle Ages immediately after passing through the opening credits. Spellbinding. Mesmerizing. Bewitching. Stellar.YES, SUBTITLES.Some helpful genealogy you might want to copy/paste/print:King Henry I: only son died at sea; Maud (birthed Henry II); nephew StephenTom Builder: wife Agnes; son Alfred; daughter Martha; son JonathanBartholomew: daughter Aliena (birthed Tom); son RichardJacques Cherbourg: son Jack via lover EllenPercy Hamleigh: wife Regan; son WilliamEight episodes each about 53 minutes:1 ANARCHY- Henry I dies after the king's heir is lost in the sea burning of the royal ship. Nephew Stephen wins throne. Daughter Maud & son have followers. Tom Builder looks for masonry work and crosses paths with Ellen and her son, Jack.2 MASTER BUILDER- Kingsbridge church burns and there are political deals aplenty. Ellen is accused as witch, & possible holder of a great secret. William gets motherly incest as well as rape added to his achievements. Maud is off to safer France. Tom begins a cathedral.3 REDEMPTION- Tom and William battle over quarry stone. Richard and Aliena seek mercy from father's hanging, and make a deal, a costly one.4 BATTLEFIELD- William and a mystery knight battle for the Shiring Earldom. Stephen and Maud have armies that battle too. Philip looses a battle with Waleran's torturers.5 LEGACY- Gloucester and Stephen both offered for a prisoner exchange. Then Maud and Stephen continue warring. A Kingsbridge festival is terrorized. Jack and Alfred battle over a girl and Tom must sent one packing.6 WICHCRAFT- Maud's back in France and Stephen reigns on. Richard has a Kingsbridge return. Alfred pops the question, marriage and builder style. A HUGE building tragedy, again. Jack's seeking his French family, and work.7 NEW BEGINNINGS- Jack studies geometry & stone building near Paris, a new Gothic style. Aliena treks to France too. Kingsbridge recovers and grows, as does the cathedral and Philip gets an offer from Waleran.8 THE WORK OF ANGELS- 8 passing years and Jack focuses on twin tower conclusion, but the roof begins to crack. Aliena & Richard yet seek an Earldom. Waleran's yet with ambition, as is young Henry.A satisfying ending, other than the fact that you have grown to love this series and never want it to end. Sorry for the epic length of this review but "Pillars of the Earth" is worth 6 Amazon stars--if I could award that many.

This mini-series deserves praise for fabulous actors, high production values and a script that captured the spirit of the book as well as the times very well.While I am in agreement with several other reviewers that the symmetry of the hangings at the beginning and the end of the book are deeply missed ("The boys came early to the hanging" is the opening line of the first and last chapters of the book), the adaptation makes what appear to be carefully thought out choices to make the story "work" better for a TV audience. The movie emphasizes the political struggles of the time far more than the book and the royals end up getting far more attention as a result. A prophecy that never appears in the book, but works as a story-telling device, binds this thread. There is implied incest in one storyline in order to make characters appear even more beyond-the-pale immoral than they already are that doesn't appear in the book and is unneccessary. A ring and a letter are invented to make a story of treason stick because we can't have 100 pages of information to peice the mystery together ourselves. An improbable trial takes place toward the end of the mini-series in order to get rid of a character no one likes (he is murdered and the trial involves someone wrongly accused) and to avoid having to spend time deepening a peripheral character who, in the book, becomes the new prior after Philip is too old to carry on. They mess with how long it took to build the cathedral, etc... There are other deviations from the book's plot as well, but the point is that most of these changes work to simplify the plot enough to condense it into 8 hours.One of the glories of the book for me is the fact that Follet uses his imagination to create an inner life for his characters that feels very modern. The medieval world can feel very alien, with it's very real fear of hell, violence very thinly under the surface of life for many people, etc... Follet takes real history about the fact that at least some of peoples' motivations don't change and gives us something that even a non-scholar can connect to. The reason the book is so incredibly long is that Follet lovingly creates this world, never leaving out a shading (one could argue that this works with how long it took to build a cathedral and how much slower the pace of life was at the time as well). The book and the mini-series are different enough that you can experience either of them first and still find the other satisfying.My husband, who majored in medieval history in college, put the book down in disgust when he read the description of Tom and Ellen and how quickly they became a couple (something the mini-series addresses by creating a decent interval between when Tom's wife dies and these two finally getting together). He would argue that the internal dialogue that Follet creates for his characters is far too modern for the medieval setting. He actually enjoyed the mini series and is thinking of trying to overcome his problems with Follet's writing to try and read it again. I missed some of the story points from the book, but loved the fact that the miniseries had the same feel as the book and that so many of the characters jumped off the page because of the fine acting involved.My point is, watch the mini-series AND read the book -- they are both worth it.

Having read and enjoyed Ken Follet's book I was intrigued to see how it could possibly be portrayed in film. The book is long and detailed so this must have been a huge undertaking.Firstly it is extremely well acted by the three main characters, Eddie Redmayne, Rufus Sewell and surprisingly Ian McShane who you would not usually expect to find in a period drama of this type.Secondly the whole setting about the building of a 12th century cathedral alongside a monastry is well done with convincing film sets throughout.Lastly the main themes of the book are covered accurately until close to the end. Unfortunately it deviates greatly from the book here in concentrating on the demise of the villain of the piece rather than what could have been the historically accurate killing of Thomas Beckett in Canterbury Cathedral. Why the film makers chose to skip the book's ending and invent their own was my only disappointment.

This 2010 made for TV miniseries diverges widely from the book, which may upset many fans and carries a 15 age rating. The story revolves around Tom Builder [Rufus Sewell] a master stone mason who is trying to simply feed his growing family and wants to build his dream cathedral, all set against the actual historical period known as ‘The Anarchy’ [1135-1154, when England and Normandy were engulfed in a bloody Civil War of secession between Stephen and Matilda].The box set contains all 8 episodes on 3 discs. Features are sparse, containing play, English language and English subtitles for the hard of hearing and scene selection on each disc but with one special feature apiece, these being disc 1 a making of, disc 2 special effects and the final disc a titles progression feature. While the main feature runs for 7 hours and 8 minutes.This well produced series has a fine cast of actors who play the characters well but everyone seems to have ‘dark’ secrets and their own agendas as we meet self serving clergy, power crazed aristocrats, double dealing knights and everyday villains. There is something for everyone, convincing battles, numerous stand-offs, rape, incest, witch burnings, ‘sinful’ lust, unrequited love, found love, betrayals, inadvertent betrayals and duplicity of all kinds, but is anyone above it all?At the end of the day this is a fictional drama built around a real period in history so just suspend belief and allow this entertaining story to carry you along as it does tend to capture everyday life in a grubby manner, being almost an ‘Upstairs and Downstairs’ view on the period giving a decent indication of what ‘life’ may have been like at the time.If you enjoy historical costume dramas like ‘Rome’, ‘The Tudors’ and ‘The Borgias’ then this will probably please you, but bear in mind if you’re looking for a copy of the book in film form, you’ll probably be bitterly disappointed.

Addictive, hugely entertaining and never meant to be taken too seriously - brilliant - and what a cast; Rufus Sewell, Donald Sutherland, Ian McShane, Mathew MacFayden and Hayley Atwell to name but a few.Trying to summarise the whole plot would take far too long for a review so I'll give a very basic outline:-England is just out of the Dark Ages as Tom Builder (Sewell) sets out on the road to find work and shelter for himself and his family. Events take a dark turn for Tom. Eventually he finds himself in a place where his dream of building a Cathedral comes true. Unfortunately, both the town and church around Tom are riddled with deep, dark secrets and his plans for the Cathedral bring corruption and mystery out into the open. Add a wonderful background of Monarchy (Queen Maud and King Stephen), double dealing Knights of the Realm, evil Bishops, corrupt churches/monasteries, poisoning, battles, escapes to France plus political intrique and you're not even half way into the plot.The Pillars of the Earth is a piece of fantasy loosely based on the plot of a Ken Follet novel. There's more than enough (moderate-strong) sex, violence and strong language to reduce the whole series to little more than an historical romp at times. The market for this DVD is definitely aimed at those of us who enjoy TV drama such as The Tudors or The Borgias. I'm only adding those comments because I've read through some of the earlier reviews and seen how disappointed people were with the TV mini-series. For that reason I'll add a couple of words of advise: if you're expecting The Pillars of the Earth to be a true depiction of the novel you'll be disappointed. It's not. Neither is it historically accurate or particularly believable. You have to be prepared to suspend belief and allow this entertaining, gripping, darkly comic story to carry you along.Age Restriction 15 (contains strong language, once very strong, sex and bloody violence).Running time:- 7 hours 01 minute.English language and English subtitles for the hard of hearing.Special Feature - behind the scenes.No problems with running the DVD and the picture/audio qualities are good throughout.

I never read any of Ken Follet's books, so I had no idea what Pillars of the Earth was about. That is until I read the review of the DVD, I knew then that this was a " must have and watch". It is riveting - the fact that it is historical drama made it even more appealing to me. It is set in the period in history where England was plunged in a civil war fought between Stephen of Blois and Mathilda each claiming a right to the English throne. In spite of all the misery and lawlessness these wars brought with them, there is still the yearning to create beauty and the result is the building of the cathedrals all over Britain and Europe which, to this day, are a marvel to see.There is a power struggle taking place, not just for the throne, but for titles and land and most of all in the Church itself. The actors are great, especially Ian McShane as the evil cleric and Matthew Macfadyen as the idealistic prior. Of course, there were abuses and evil in the Church, but there is also piety. Ultimately, we have these marvels in architecture due, in most part, to the Catholic Church and this, thankfully, is made very clear in Prior Philip's address to the congregation. The other actors do credit to their parts, especially Rufus Sewell as the master builder, and his apprentice. I would recommend this DVD to all who love history and architecture. I am glad I bought this DVD and I shall watch it again and again.

Didn't know quite what to expect, but my wife and I have just finished watching this and it was very good. Fairly gutted when we finished it that it is a one off, but being based on the book, I suppose that is fair enough!First couple of episodes require a bit of patience - a lot of characters and the political context is established. After that we were hooked. Characters, story and production is fantastic. It must have had a massive budget because it looks great.It has just 8 episodes, each about 50 minutes. We've got used to 'slow burner' shows like Mad Men where nothing much happens during each episode. Pillars of the Earth is completely different. Each episode is packed with action, intrigue, double crossing and plot-hatching! Waleron and William are nasty pieces of work. Jack and Aliena become the stars of the show. I know some people get hung up on the historical inaccuracies, but come on, it's just a piece of fiction.Something a bit different and it gets five out of five from us.