Interesteg What makes it different from others?

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

ma-cortes In 66 CE, set in Judea , a group of Jewish rebels, the Sicarii, overcame the Roman garrison of Masada with the aid of a ruse . After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, additional members of the Sicarii fled Jerusalem and settled on the mountaintop after slaughtering the Roman garrison . According to Josephus , the Sicarii were an extremist Jewish splinter group antagonistic to a larger grouping of Jews referred to as the Zealots led by Eliazar (Peter Strauss), who carried the main burden of the rebellion . Josephus said that the Sicarii raided nearby Jewish villages including Ein Gedi , where they massacred 700 women and children . In 73 CE, the Roman governor of Iudaea , Lucius Flavius Silva (Peter O'Toole , the only cast member who didn't fall ill) , headed the Roman legion X Fretensis and laid siege to Masada . The Roman legion surrounded Masada, built a circumvallation wall and then a siege ramp against the western face of the plateau .This is an interminable , but still good version , adapted from Ernest K. Gann's novel titled ¨The antagonists¨ during the first Century AD about a handful of Jews fighting to retrieve their freedom , recreating faithfully the siege of the impregnable fortress . The series is formed by 4 episodes , but there is an abridged rendition from the original TV presentation . This is a sort of would-be Jew epic with propaganda and jingoist overtones . The main cast is frankly well , though they give rating interpretations . The Jewish leader is well played by Peter Strauss , he is nice and as tough and two-fisted as a brave Zionist guerrilla should be ; while the Roman commander who feels of the loneliness colonial administrator , finely performed by Peter O'Toole , ponders the badness and goodness of the attacks . Support cast is pretty good , plenty of known and prestigious secondaries , giving enjoyable acting , as American actors are playing the Jews and British actors are cast as the Romans , such as : Barbara Carrera , Anthony Quayle , Paul L. Smith , David Warner , David Opatoshu , Joseseph Wiseman , Denis Quilley , Alan Feinstein , Clive Francis , Warren Clarke , Nick Brimble , and Timothy West as emperor Vespasiano , among others. This ¨Masada¨ film displays a rousing and imaginative musical score by the great Jerry Goldsmith . And an evocative cinematography by Paul Lohmann , being shot on location in Israel, where the historic events took place . The series was compellingly directed by Boris Sagal . Masada is an ancient fortification in the Southern District of Israel situated on top of an isolated rock plateau , akin to a mesa , being the Zionist headquarter for a group of Jews freedom fighters . It is located on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert , overlooking the Dead Sea 20 km east of Arad . Herod the Great built palaces for himself on the mountain and fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE . After the sack of Jerusalem Jews fled to Masada to get their freedom and their homeland . According to Josephus , the siege of Masada by troops of the Roman Empire at the end of the First Jewish–Roman War ended in the mass suicide of 960 people, the Sicarii rebels and their families hiding there.

drystyx From the late sixties till very recently, film producers had a very pro-Atheist agenda, and contrived most stories to fit into that narrow spectrum. This is one such example.The story is fairly well known. A Jimmy Jones style mass suicide of maniacs, the leaders of whom had as little to do with Jewish religion as today's suicide bombers have to do with the mosques they would only attend for rare occasions to persuade others to join their cause. It is where we get the word "zealots", which has come to connote more religious groups.The film does make it clear, however, that the leading zealots were not religious, and had issues with the spiritual ones who joined them.The leader of the group, played by Strauss, is a maniac from beginning to end. We are given enough of his personality to see why feeble minds would believe him, and we can interpret his nature pretty accurately. It boggles the mind as to how the Roman commander is fooled by him. He clearly uses his family man position to further his lust for power and blood. He is a true rendition of a homicidal maniac. The film tries to make it look as though he may have turned into a maniac when he got religion, but in real life, he is truly just a monster who only uses religion for his blood-lust. He has no real faith. One scene shows him supposedly crying for the innocent, and praying, but in real life, this would be completely for show, and would never fool a true Roman military mind.The Roman commander seems to be the sanest, and thus is viewed as an Atheist. His barbaric acts are done unwillingly. This fits in with the true Hollywood agenda of making people believe no one is ever killed by Atheism, which makes the film laughably ridiculous.However, the performances are great. Most of the minor characters are very good. The Jewish mistress is very believable.The fight scenes with Struass look poorly done, but not as poor as later movies in which we are expected to believe men loaded with full armor can move like acrobats, and no one ever has the Sun in his eyes.The contrived point of view cheapens what could have been a great movie.

mistressmalevolent By casting Americans as the Jews and Brits as the Romans the original intention must have been to make the Romans the bad guys, but despite a highly effective "bad guy" supporting performance by David Warner (who won an Emmy for this) the Romans come across as reasonable and fair-minded and with the exception of a radiant Barbara Carrera the Jews come across highly unsympathetically as religious fanatics and terrorists. This is largely due to casting the cream of British theater acting as the Romans and comparatively weak US television actors as the Jews, the best of whom is Peter Strauss, who although a decent actor, has his limitations shown up in every scene he shares with O'Toole, who is at the top of his game throughout. O'Toole's penultimate soliloquy at Strauss's house is wonderfully written and breathtakingly accomplished; it is so powerful, and his disgust at the fate of the Jews so profound, that the closing real-life scenes at Masada are greatly diminished in impact and fail to achieve their intended emotional effect, coming across instead as banal and jingoistic. Still, well worth your time and money

tiberiuskha I wish Masada was out on DVD for region "2" soon. It is a fantastic mini series with a superstar cast. It is historically acurate in detail. And has a climatic ending resulting on our reflection of life in general.To "surrender or to deny"???