Druids (2001)

Admirable film.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

'Vercingetorix (2001)' or Druids by Jacques Dorffman is a so-so recounting about Caesar and Vercingetorix , it boasts a nice cast with Chistopher Lambert , Ines Sastre and Klaus Maria Brandauer . This is an inferior Sword and Sandals tale and a standard film from the 2000s . It's made middling scale with some spectacular battles and in Peplum style .Young Vercingetorix (Chistopher Lambert) came of age in 60 B.C., as soldiers of the Roman Empire ran roughshod over Gaul and his brave father was imprisoned and fired alive by Romans , then he seeks vendetta , as every battle needs a hero . A wise and philosophical druid called Guttuart (Max Von Sidow) , tells the avenger Vercingetorix that he should seek peace , justice and vengeance by winning freedom for Gaul from the Romans. It concerns about angry Vercingetorix and conqueror Julius Caesar and their famous existence on Gaul , including feats , fights , political events , betrayal , wars and lover (Ines Sastre) . Vercingetorix provokes a general rebellion against Roman domination , he rallies his people and tribes when they are threatened by an army commanded by Julius Caesar (Klaus Maria Brandauer) , as an entire nation's destiny lies in the hands of one man. His people made hima leader, the empire made him a renegade , history made him a hero.Although the deeds described are historically inaccurate , some events are vivid and authentic . The action is regularly done with middling interpretations and the story occasionally drags for an uneven script by Rospo Pallenberg who previously wrote Excalibur , however to be liked for Christopher Lambert fans . The picture is partially based on real events . These are the followings : Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix (dead at 46 b.c) was an insightful and heroic warrior , whose valiant father was captured and executed by Romans , he was leader a massive rebellion against Roman domination . He seeks peace ,order , justice and victory by winning freedom for Gaul from the invaders Romans , and soon he raises an army of his own to defeat Julius Caesar , but in time Vercingetorix is betrayed by a great leader and he joins a powerful army to vanquish Caesar and bring Guttuart's prophesy to life. Vercingetorix was definitely defeated in Alesia , where took place a long siege . He was taken prisoner and led to Rome . Then he's coerced to a handcuffed parade throughout the Rome streets , being killed after six years in prison . Later on , Caesar, married Calpurnia, and is appointed Consul for life and then he crossed river Rubicon . His history is written by Julius Caesar himsef in 'Comments about War of Gaul' or 'De Bello Galico', also he wrote in brilliant and elegant style 'Comments about Civil War' or 'De Bello Civili'. The film contains a colorful cinematography by Stefan Ivanov and Plamen Somov , shot in Bulgaria, Sofia . And atmospheric and evocative musical score by Pierre Charvet. The motion picture was regularly directed by Jacques Dorfmann and shot both in English and French . He's a good writer and especially producer as ¨Quest of fire ¨ , ¨Bethune¨, ¨ Shock treatment ¨ , ¨ Army of Shadows ¨, and occasionally director as ¨Vercingetorix¨ and ¨Shadow of the wolf¨. Other adaptations about Vercingetorix and Caesar are the followings : Vercingetorix (2004) TV by Uli Edel with Jeremy Sisto as Caesar and Heino Ferch as Vercingetorix . ¨Julius Caesar conqueror of Gaul¨ by Americo Anton with Cameron Mitchell, Rick Battaglia , Raffaella Carra , Carlo Tamberlani . Furthermore , known Shakespearian renditions as 'Julius Caesar (1953)' by Joseph L Mankiewicz with Louis Calhern as Caesar and Marlon Brando as Marcus Antonius and " Julius Caesar" a Stuart Burgue version (1970) starred by Charlton Heston , Diana Rigg .

Just saw this film, and came here to do a review on an epic style film with some pretty good historical accuracy, certainly more than most films about historical characters. Here, we are given an account of Julius Caesar's excursion into Gaul. Of course this is 60 BC, so we don't know if French men all sounded like Maurice Chevalier.Nothing should surprise a person on the world wide web, and certainly nothing on IMDb should shock a person, but the ridiculous reviews that abound here are embarrassments to the people who wrote them.This epic film worked on all levels. I am not easily entertained. Yet this smacked of old style epic directing, of de Mille, Lean, Ford, and others who knew how to sustain an audience's interest, who made films for the audience instead of insisting the audience be made for the film.The film was well structured, full of action and drama, full of interesting characters. In fact, this is probably the most realistic looking representation of a couple of specific historical characters I have seen in film. To say more would be a spoiler.The film had a few flaws. The child who plays the young hero is very wooden, and sounds like he is reading words. A few lines look contrived, particularly early. There is no real comic relief.But the film flows very well, and has epic proportions. It is undeniably more entertaining than 90% of movies made after 1965. The characters seem alive and believable.Of the famous modern directors, only Verhoeven and Jackson can rival this one with keeping an audience interested. They would have known the value of comic relief, too.Now, for the real kicker. The ridiculous pans of this film that flood this site are a total humiliation for IMDb. This is an very good film. The low ratings make IMDb lose what little credibility it has.And it reveals what we already know. That the main trouble with IMDb is that it is not representative of intelligent critics or of the populace. The fact is that IMDb, by its nature, is a site for many in the Entertainment business, and their relatives.What we see here is "sour grapes". Some one in the cast or crew really got under the skin of a few people. And honestly, we do see proof to any rational mind that most of these "pan" reviews were written by one or two people with multiple fake user names.How do we know? Because this film makes two mistakes in getting good reviews. First, it alienates the control freak. This is not a "control freak's" film. The control freak characters come across as control freaks. Look at IMDb's top 250, at the top 10. Most of them glorify and mollycoddle control freaks.Don't underestimate the psychotic persistence of the control freaks. It's unfortunate that "mature" oriented films with "mature" and credible characters have to deal with this ridiculous rabid obsession of morons.The other major reason for unprovoked poor reviews is that the film is very risk taking and iconoclastic. To say more is to be a spoiler again. Low ratings from the "sheep" of the world is inevitable for risk taking film makers.The low ratings bespeak of IMDb users with severe psychotic conditions.This is a very good film.

I am generally an easy movie critic. I'd like to think of myself as a hardcore movie buff who has a strict scale when it comes to movies, but usually it does not take much to entertain me, and if the plot, acting, and directing are all halfway decent, I am very forgiving. Which is why I was astounded at how much I hated this movie. It's been a long time since I've seen a movie this bad, in fact, this may be THE worst movie I have ever seen. 30 seconds into it, I had already realized I made a mistake. But I am the kind of person that once I start a movie, I must finish it through to the end. So you can imagine how distraught I was at having to sit there for another two hours and watch this absurdity of a plot roll further and further downhill.Firstly, the characters are flat, there's no development to be seen, and it is utterly impossible to connect with them or root for them. You just won't care. Secondly, the plot is a disaster. Like reviewers before me have said, there are random scenes in which nothing of any importance to the plot whatsoever happens, and they go by quick and unexplained. It is very hard to follow and understand because the editing is atrocious and I have honestly never seen anything like it. The acting is actually enough to make you laugh out loud at the characters total lack of enthusiasm or believability. And everything looks lip-synced even though it's all supposed to be in English anyway. Furthermore, the historical accuracy is off, I am quite sure. I am no historian by any means, but I'm almost positive that the sophistication of the armor and weapons in this movie (which is supposed to be set in 60 B.C.) were not seen until at least a thousand years later in the middle ages. However, that's not to say that the props in the movie were good, rather they looked like they came from a discount Halloween store down the street.There are seriously far too many blunders with this movie to even list. I loved Christopher Lambert's performance in Highlander, and I liked the movie despite its cheesiness, so I figured that this would be something along the same lines. I was gravely mistaken. Christopher Lambert is beginning to prove himself an utter disappointment of an actor due to the caliber of films he has starred in recently and I will think twice before I see anything else he stars in.I am willing to bet a large sum of money that the director and producers of this movie are off somewhere laughing their heads off that people are actually taking the time to watch their movie, because really no one could possibly be serious in releasing a movie as preposterous as this. I am not one to always believe everything I read in reviews, and have liked a few movies that have gotten terrible reviews, but please trust me when I tell you not to waste your time with this one. Do something more productive. Like walking the dog, or mowing the lawn, or taking a crap.

I'm usually quite "easily amused", but this movie is one of the worst things I've seen in years. I wasn't expecting much, but as the movie was released during the initial "Lord of the Rings" and "Merlin" Craze that swept the world, I thought I was looking forward to 90 minutes of entertaining fantasy, and maybe a few bloody battle scenes. I couldn't have been more wrong: Pathetic acting, even by the background extras - ridiculous dialog - illogical storyline & plot - not even a "Has-Been" like Monsieur Lambert could save a single scene. After an hour of optimistic hope ("it HAS to get better soon... any moment now.... soon.... now...?") I gave up, and joined the 50-or-so people that had actually already walked-out of the cinema.