In the first century A.D., Flavius Silva, commander of the Roman Tenth Legion in Palestine, leads his forces in combat against the remaining Jewish Zealots who have taken refuge in the seemingly impregnable fortress of Masada. There the engineering and military might of Rome faces the passion and ingenuity of and his people...

Masada (1918) was an American mini-series filmed for network TV. Based on Ernest K. Gann's novel The Antagonists, as well as the allegedly true historical siege of the Masada citadel by legions of the Roman Empire in 73 A.D, this six hours mini-series sees Peter O'Toole as Flavius Silva, commander of the Roman Tenth Legion in Palestine.

When a small group of Jews, led by Eleazar ben Yair (Peter Strauss) refuse to let the Roman army invade their way of life, Eleazar takes his people up to the, believed, impregnable fortress of Masada. Under orders to capture the small city, Flavius is under pressure to bring the siege to an end peacefully - for if he doesn't his successor is likely to wade in and slaughter the Jews.

What's great about this production is that it doesn't fall for the standard cliches by making the Roman's the bad guys and the Jews the heroes. Here both sides have their positive and negative points, reflecting this battle in a more realistic light. Flavius is not a man who hungers for war and in fact agrees with his nemesis's ideas and values when they first meet to try and iron out their differences.

There are no extras included on this DVD, which is a shame because a 30 minute documentary, Back To Masada which starred Peter O'Toole, was commissioned by the network so that viewers would understand the historical events that this movie was based on.

While the lack of any extras and a fairly poor DVD transfer (the opening section of the third episode suffers from a juddery transfer and the print of all episodes isn't as clean as it could have been) let this release down, you can't really grumble when you're getting over six hours of an excellent production for under £20.

If you've never seen this production before then you're in for a treat.

9

Pete Boomer