Attila, le Hun

"Attila" is a romanced story of Attila the Hun (Gerard Butler), since his childhood, when he lost his parents until his death. The screenplay shows his respect to the great Roman strategist Flavius Aetius (Powers Boothe, with his usual face of 'bad guy'), his loves, the gossips, intrigues and betrayals in Rome, all of these evolved by magic and mysticism. Attila certainly was one of the most evil man along the story, but the screenplay shows him as a great leader, strategist and lover. If you decide to forget the story and attain to the plot itself, you will see and enjoy a great epic movie. The underrated Gerard Butler has another magnificent performance. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Atila, o Huno" ("Attila, the Hun")

Admittedly, this movie may not be accurate, however it did encourage me to look up the actual history..Meanwhile, it was my first introduction to the actor Gerry Butler, for which I am very thankful..I look forward to watching other movies he makes..This movie as well as the subsequent ones, ie Phantom of the Opera, Timeline, Dear Frankie, even Dracula 2000, I think show how much this guy puts into his roles.. I feel he shows real depth to whatever character he portrays- heh- he made me sympathetic to Attila the Hun! Actually I read somewhere that they still celebrate Attila's Birthday in Hungary.. If one puts the story in a historical perspective I believe one could make an argument that our History might have been different if he had prevailed.. The Roman Catholic influence was not all roses..

Presumably the writer of this mini-series had to read the history of Attila and Aetius before he could change it into the pap presented. You would think it would have been easier to leave as written, and certainly more interesting.

Just to give one example. After the battle and the death of the Roman ally King Theodoric, this movie has Theordoric's son insisting of leaving immediately to fight his brothers for the throne, and thus depriving the Roman general Aetius of the strength to decisively destroy Attila. Thus a mildly interesting and fairly predictable plot as far as it goes. The historical reality is that Aetius advised the son to leave to take care of his brothers as he was insisting on revenging his father against Attila. Aetius preferred not to destroy the Huns as his and Rome's whole strategy at that time had been to play groups such as the Huns off against other barbarian tribes that had entered or threatened the Empire. To my mind a more interesting development.

Of course it might have taken slightly more effort to get this idea across to viewers but the effort would have been a far more memorial series which the poor sets and acting could never achieve. While I can understand budget limitations that make good sets and hordes of extras difficult I cannot understand the almost perverse need to change history even when the original is much more interesting.

An amusing watch just the same but disappointing that for the cost of another writer it could not have been so much better.

This was an astonishingly great series.I don't usually watch mini-series as a rule, but I caught the end of this one and then came back for more! Kudos to USA for giving us quality TV in a "reality TV" world. Everything about this was standout - acting, filming, writing, directing, everything. The attention to detail was superb and it was a gripper from the start.

Please produce this as a video for home purchase!

Finally, where is Gerard Butler and who has been hiding him. We need to hear more about him and see more of him on the big and little screen. He is not only great to look at, but one of the best actors I've seen in ages. Russell Crow - who's that?

More More More Gerry Butler.

Presented as a series this overlong epic fails to tell Attila's story, the early part is totally correct, when under King Rua he was raised and becomes a leader later, but as shown in the picture never went to Rome, he meets Falvius Aetius when he had a brief exile between the Huns, the agreement with Emperor Theodosius who has to pay a heavy tribute in gold to avoid Attila's attack at Constantinople, given enough time to rebuilding the City's walls, while Attila gathered all Huns tribes at his command and swept the Balkans and central Europe, then Rome make a deal with Theodoric to struggles against Attila at Orleans that appears on the picture, Theodoric dies on battle, and the German barbarians went back leaving Romans at Attila's hand, the movie is surrounded by mysticism over a lost sword that will prove that Attila was the chosen one, witchcraft were expose over such old legends, his death as appears on movie has two different versions, they chosen the most plausible, despite had a strong and valuable casting the production itself is of low quality, the buildings are quite fake, the battle weren't enough convincible, anyway an average production!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2009 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7