Fall of Eagles

If you like mini-series I Cladius, you will like this series. I watched this as a young teenager and learn more on what brought the world, World War I that all of the boring history lessons I took in school. Also, the breath and scope of this TV mini-series just can not be remade today. Only HBO has the clout and finances to tackle this type of material.

The acting in this series is old school British theater and is a little talkative for the modern MTV generation who are use to more action, however, it is very rewarding to listen to the words and watch the scope of history unfold. You will understand that the end of the series that it is individuals who make history and individuals have the power to literally to change the world.

This mini-series is well worth your time and attention.

There is a scene in Fall of Eagles, when the German General Ludendorff falls into a fit of rage, screaming "Traitors! Traitors!" Ludendorff will appear later in history, near a certain beer hall in Munich, with an equally enraged colleague, who will visit upon us another world war.

After thirty years, BBC have finally released Fall of Eagles on DVD. What's more, they've done it right, with a beautiful transfer. This elaborate production presents the defining event of the twentieth century, the Great War (World War I), from the points of view of those who brought it about and were themselves consumed by it.

Some may regard Fall of Eagles as soap opera, and it is indeed staged like one, with almost all the scenes shot indoors. However, British television has always worked well within this constraint, as in I Claudius and Elizabeth R. The sets are magnificent and varied, shot in and around some imposing locations. The costumes are lavish and intricate, making me appreciate how "dressing the part" in those times could be called part of one's duty. I can't imagine how the women managed.

Except for Patrick Stewart, Barry Foster, Michael Kitchen, and Gayle Hunnicutt, the cast is made up of character actors unfamiliar to non-British audiences, especially when hidden by beards and mustaches. However, the depth of talent in this huge cast is striking, with convincing portrayals, from the walk-ons to the leads. The producers also should be praised for running a tight ship, which could easily have become an unwieldy mess, due to the parallel and complex events, the 13-episode length and the fact that the directors varied from one episode to the next.

Though the story is made up of undocumentable private dialog (except perhaps via diaries), skillful writing, directing and acting create an intimacy that makes one truly to feel like a fly on the wall. Some of the scenes are indeed contrivances. For example, the future empress of Russia, Alexandra, is told by the current empress Marie Dagmar about her concern, that she, Alexandra, wife of the future Emperor, is not Russian Orthodox but German Lutheran. This should not have concerned the old Empress, since she herself was a Danish Lutheran who had converted and was embraced by the Russians. Alexandra not only converts to Russian Orthodoxy, but does it with a militancy that's downright, well, German. Though such an exchange probably wouldn't have taken place, it serves the historical and dramatic purpose of establishing religion as a major factor in the fate of the Romanov dynasty. Alexandra had something to prove, and she did so with a disastrous vengeance. Another value of apocryphal scenes like this is to portray characters as real people, rather than mere "names on a page".

Through the intimacy of these private scenes, we can see how the lack of detachment from their own affairs and complete detachment from the affairs of their subjects is the central thesis of Fall of Eagles: that mundane concerns and banal motives in an age of romantic excess, drove monarchs, ministers and consorts, who in turn drove history. Oh yes, did I mention the word "hubris"?

Do not let the length of Fall of Eagles put you off. This is one of those wonderful viewing experiences, so rich, so deep, that while watching it the first time, you resolve to watch it again, because you know that characters and events will fall into place, in a seamless, poignant, often maddening saga of real people, caught up in real events, rushing like lemmings to their dooms or, in one case, to a pitiful denouement.

And speaking of the Kaiser, Fall of Eagles is not just a routine chronicle of events, but a particular interpretation of history, not only in its choice of dialog but in its perspectives and emphasis. For example, the actual trigger of the Great War depicted here is more complex than what you may recall from your generalized history lessons. So, yes, there is a bit of revisionism here -- that the Kaiser by no means bears sole responsibility for this tragedy -- which you may or may not be inclined to accept. (As a history buff, I do.) Though Fall of Eagles is conventional, i.e. top-down, in perspective, it makes clear that history is not only driven by individuals in power but by the currents and events confronting them and, in this history, overwhelming them.

If you are truly concerned about how we got where we are today, you owe it to yourself and your children to witness this amazing epic.

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Further thoughts:

1. There are two soundtracks, one for the opening credits, the other for the end credits. (Opening theme is Mahler, I think.) Both are in perfect accord with their subject, the closing music, in particular, a chilling depiction of the title.

2. There is an indispensable program guide included with the DVD. Each episode is supplemented by well-written capsule biographies. There's even a genealogical chart to help keep the dynasty members and their relationships (one might say incestuous relationships) straight in our minds.

3. There are three interviews with two players (not including Patrick Stewart, alas) and a director. Gayle Hunnicutt, in particular, stands out for her insightful observations.

When this series ran on WTBS in 1979, I was hooked, & was able to catch every episode, save the LAST ONE! The BBC did a good job with it, but I, too, have been fruitlessly hunting for it for many years. I thought it was very well done. Even though they apparently didn't have a grand budget for much exterior shooting, the writing, as I recall, was fairly accurate and represented just what a "family affair" the royal houses of pre-WW1 were. I was particularly interested in this broadcast, especially the last episode, because I had just finished reading "The Secret File on the Tzar", an examination through all the NKVD and KGB files relating to Nicholas II's arrest and final family reunion in the basement. I consider it a minor classic, and, like several others, would like to find a personal copy.

This superb series will be available on DVD in the US on May 2, 2006! Amazon and Barnes and Noble are already offering it for pre-sale. I've been waiting for this series for many years! When Fall of Eagles was first shown on PBS in the 1970s I fell in love with the fine directing and acting and above all the attention to the historical details. The last time I saw it was in severely edited form on TBS 15-20 years ago. Favorite scenes that have lingered in my memory over the years include a minute by minute documentary on the Crown Prince Rudolf-Maria Vetsera suicide at Mayerling, a great episode on Empress Elizabeth of Austria and her troubled relations with her mother-in-law Archduchess Sophie, a fine retelling of the story of Queen Victoria's oldest daughter Vicky and her problems as German Crown Princess and Empress, and above all several excellent episodes dealing with Nicholas, Alexandra, and the other Romanovs.

For years my Dad has been searching for this series and now the wait is over. You can purchase the newly released DVD set at Amazon.UK. I could not find it on Amazon.com but it is available on the UK version. I have searched and searched the internet, libraries, and video stores and no luck. My Dad is friends with owners of video stores and they tried through their contacts but came up empty handed. For fun I decided to look again and found it has been released since Oct. 18th. I am not sure what the exchange rate is but it came to 34.99 in British pounds and that was with shipping. I can only guess somewhere in the area of $60. I did not think that was so bad considering the size of the series.