The Last Days of Pompeii

With a remarkable cast & spiffed up story based on the book, this made-for-TV movie was a joy to watch. All that being said, I must assert that Duncan Regehr totally sold this series - Yes, he was Damn Hot as the gladiator Lydon. Following the splendid job he did playing Erroll Flynn in "My Wicked, Wicked Ways", I was hoping Hollywood would snatch him up & turn out blazing action/adventure flicks with a film noir edge - but nothing happened, or possibly even a remake of "Captain Blood", but still - no. From 1985 on, insipid, look-alike pretty boys got all the leads, it seems. Aside from that, this version of the "Last Days of Pompeii" had a stellar cast with some stunning scenes, sets, & special effects, & um, oh - the gladiatorial fight sequences were every bit of okay, too!

God bless the '80's. Only then could a mini-series be this long, have so many varied stars and near-stars and revel in the excess of squalor, silliness and Styrofoam. The little hamlet of Pompeii (where people pray before the Egyptian goddess Isis, Christians are tossed to the lions, gladiators fight to the death and female citizens wear makeshift tube tops in the steam bath!) is situated in front of a matte painting of Mt. Vesuvius. Over the course of the 245 hour mini-series (okay.......245 MINUTES.....it just seems like that many hours) a plethora of cliched, soapy situations take place. Hunky Gladiator Regehr longs to leave the game, hooker with a heart of gold Down is secretly a Christian (!), Greek Clay pines away over goddess-to-be Hussey and wealthy, but untitled Beatty strains for social credibility. Also on board are Nero as a villainous religious fanatic, Quayle as the stuffy governor, Borgnine as the keeper of the gladiators and Olivier as a reclusive man of means. Most preposterous of all is Purl as a blind slave who knows every nook and cranny of the city (this mere casting tidbit alone has caused some people to fall on the floor laughing.) Viewers will need an abacus (or some other ancient counting device) in order to keep track of who is who, who loves who and who wants to kill who. This is only a smattering of the large canvas of characters, a very uneasy mix of British and Americans and an even uneasier mix of talent and no-talent. Even the actors who are usually good are undone by the trite, pat script in which everything comes to a boiling head just at the moment when Vesuvius is doing the same. There is built-in camp in seeing flimsy, permed-haired men foppishly discussing all the "women" they are lusting after and it's nice to see ultra-hunky Clay in his teeny toga and sometimes even less. Also, Down gives a poor man's Joan Collins spin to her whore character which by the end has become a performance of such rich cheese that it lingers in the memory. Nero gives her a run for her money in a hammy, attention-grasping portrayal. Olivier swoops in, however, and mops the camp floor with them all in his big, important scene while McKenna looks on admiringly. (Someone forgot to tell him that Sam Goldwyn and Alfred Hitchcock are dead and he's wasting his talent in a by-the-numbers TV mini-series.) Predictible, ludicrous, but, to a point, watchable, this is the type of movie in which the city is falling apart yet characters can run around and find each other instantly, in some cases even falling inadvertently into the arms of the one they were screeching for! There's definite curiosity value in seeing 2 Lancelots, a Juliet, Heathcliff, and the Virgin Mary acting alongside Fonzie's girlfriend, Mr. Rogo from "The Poseidon Adventure" and the guy who got raped in "Deliverance", but it wears thin awfully fast.

I would like to see this movie released to video or DVD; why hasn't it? This is so unfair to those of us who would like to see a film we have not seen in a long time, and would like to see again, or have never seen at all. In the case of this film, I have not seen it again since it first aired on T.V originally 17 years ago. Or at least, somebody should air it on cable or network T.V. so that others may see it. Not even this has been done for this miniseries. Why or why not? I am simply fascinated with Pompeii and ancient Rome! Thank you.

79 A.D. 52 years into Pax Romana and 46 years after the death of Christ, Decadent Pompeiians make life uncomfortable for Christians when they aren't outright killing them. Wealthy citizens struggle to relate to their slaves whilst social climbing. Slaves, as depicted here generally appear more concerned with self-esteem issues than how back-breaking their labour is and the volcano behind them is set to blow any minute.

A decadent coast city with flaky rich people, wide-scale prostitution, and a dangerous cult all co-existing while the ground shakes? It is like modern Los Angeles only without the hard drugs or racial tensions.

The easiest criticism to make about this mini-series is that it tries to tell too many stories at once and tells none of them properly with an ending alluded to not merely by history but the title. A grab bag of subplots on offer have a few intriguing elements amidst the mostly boring ones but added together they make for an incoherent muddled mess interlocking too neatly at the end.

There are a lot of examples of clunky historical epic expositional dialogue beyond the narrator at the beginning which turns into heavy-handed metaphysical discussion the viewer might not be ready for.

Whatever potential appeal this mini-series might have had appears to have heavily been placed upon a location shoot and legacy casting of actors who had triumphed in roles set in the ancient world.

Olivia Hussey and Ernest Borgnine had both been in Jesus of Nazareth (1977) along with Lord Laurence Olivier who had of course also appeared in Spartacus (1960). Anthony Quayle had been in Masada (1981) and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964). Brian Blessed and David Robb had been in I,Claudius (1976). Brian Coburn was in Julius Caesar (1979) and The Day Christ Died (1980). Howard Goorney was in Antony & Cleopatra (1981) and Peter & Paul (1981). Stephen Grief was in The Cleopatras (1983). Nicholas Clay played the title role in The Search For Alexander the Great (1981). Howard Lang had been in Ben-Hur (1959). Marilu Tolo is credited as having been in several gladiator movies in the 1960s.

As for the much celebrated homoerotic undertones, I cannot really say I know what those might be but my guess would be they has to do with Lydon - the gladiator played by Canadian actor Duncan Regehr. Different people look for different things I reckon and because of it they might see things which are not there.

I've read the novel written by Bulwer Lytton, I visited Pompeii about 5 times and have read scores of books on the city and its dramatic destruction. This is the best screen adaptation of the book so far. It sticks quite well to Bulwer's novel and adds quite a few pleasant characters and events. Of course this mini-series is not perfect, even has countless flaws : the Temple of Isis, the houses of Glaucus and Diomedes come directly out of the set-designers' imagination, sending Christians to the lions is a bit too cliché, some aspects of the novel have been changed to make it all more dynamic (the novel is very slow-paced actually). But all in all, the plot is interesting, changes and additions good. Nead Beatty's portrayal of Diomedes is just brilliant!! Lesley-Ann Down is gorgeous as Chloe... The day this mini-series comes out on DVD, I'll buy it right away!