Hannibal

Rome's worst nightmare Hannibal Barca (Alexander Siddig) man who was born to defeat Romans. A nice epic movie based on true story of Carthage's one of the finest military commander Hannibal Barca, he marched an army, which famously included war elephants, from Iberia over the Pyrenees and the Alps into northern Italy, Man who defeated roman army in their homeland Italy in series of battles out of which the most famous included the Battles of Trebia, Trasimene and Cannae, he stayed undefeated for over an decade in Italy till he was called back to secure his homeland Carthage after roman invasion. A very interesting movie for people who likes Epic Battles. Alex Siddig truly rocks in this movie.

I did read Livius' Ab Urbe Condita, largely based on which the film was made. Thus I could not help comparing the film with what Livius originally wrote. (The Anglicized name of Livius is Livy. But I will stick to Livius in this review because I do not like the practice of Anglicization of proper names in general.)

Livius' spent more than ten books on the Second Punic War. So it is a very difficult task to condense the story within 90 minutes. The film has done relatively well. The most important events have been included. (It would have been better if Hannibal's political achievements after the conclusion of the Second Punic War had not been omitted. Hannibal was not only a great general, but also a good statesman.)

The major problem that I see with this film is historical inaccuracies.

The first moment that I was a bit turned off was when Hannibal said he would enter Italy via France. But the name France was not to exist for hundreds of years. Unlike Spain or Italy, France did not get its modern name until the beginning of the Middle Ages. I can understand that the director did not want to confuse modern audience with historical names like Gaul. But still, calling that region France in Hannibal's time is preposterous. The same with "Turkey" at the end of the film. Come on. The Turks would not be known in Europe for another 1500 years. (Fortunately they did not decide to call Carthage Tunisia.)

The scene that Hannibal ordered his soldiers to bring firewood and wine to break a big rock blocking his way in the Alps is based on a story told by Livius. But the authenticity of this story has long been disputed. Given its historical insignificance, I am not sure whether it was wise to include this story in the film while omitting many much more important events.

his performance is admirable. and this is the first virtue of film. the second virtue - the BBC high science to give to public a seductive, impressive, fascinating portrait of the Hannibal actions. but, each god has its sacrifices. in this case - the historical accuracy. the first excuse - for a real close to testimonies image , it needs a series. and a smaller target. but a good, a real good thing defines this beautiful film - the return to the history lessons - as memories and fragments of rumors about the words of teacher about Zama , elephants and the force of Carthagena- but, maybe, in same measure, as return to the sources about the great hero and his wars against Rome. and this is the best detail in this case.

An interesting docudrama telling the story of Hannibal Barca, the ancient Carthaginian general who led his forces against Rome.

Throughout the film we follow Hannibal, from his childhood when he swears to forever be an enemy of Rome to his crossing of the alps and ultimately the decisive Battle of Zama where his forces face off against those of the Roman general Scipio. Despite some minor historical inaccuracies (the modern names France and Spain being used to describe their ancient counterparts) the story is told very faithfully and despite being a TV production the film has great production value and almost feels cinematic at points.

Alexander Siddig gives a wonderful performance as Hannibal, so much so that it's his version of Hannibal that comes to mind when I think of Hannibal Barca. Shaun Dingwall is also great at portraying Scipio and in the few scenes they share together they play off each other very well.

Overall it is a very good docudrama and was my personal first introduction to the history of Hannibal and Carthage. I'd highly recommend it for anyone interested in ancient Roman or Carthaginian history or ancient history in general.

The BBC makes a lot of good historical documentaries and the story of Hannibal has everything needed for a great one. This treatment was very far from it, simply because it was too short. Given the length of Hannibal's campaign, much longer than Alexander's, a two hour documentary would be the minimum.

Okay, BBC doesn't have the budget and our knowledge of Hannibal is incomplete, not to mention that much of what we do know is in contention. Still, Hannibal's genius didn't just lie in his crossing of the alps and Cannae, but in general logistics. His being able to outmaneuver his opponents again and again. I would love to have seen the crossing of the Rhone, both Trebbia and Trasimene, and a lot more detail on Cannae and Zama, all of which are timeless classics in classical history. The fact that our knowledge is incomplete also allows for a lot of opportunists for informed guesswork and gap-filling, which the producers have missed out on.

All this is a huge shame because Siddig was a very believable Hannibal and a good actor. In general, BBC documentaries do history much better than Hollywood, because attention is given to accuracy, and the target audience is more specific. It's just unfortunate that they're limited by such things and budget and time constraints. Given the length of this show, it is unlikely that it will be released on DVD, and it will be a long time before there will be another attempt at Hannibal...