Dynamixor
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
Curapedi
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.
Hadrina
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
SnoopyStyle
In 60 B.C., druids led by Guttuart (Max von Sydow) witness a comet and prophesies the coming of a king to oppose the Romans. Vercingetorix (Christopher Lambert) lost his father when his uncle Gobanittio conspired with the Romans. Guttuart nurtured him to be the king of Gaul. Julius Caesar (Klaus Maria Brandauer) befriends the unknown young man as he kills his uncle to avenge his father. He joins Caesar to invade Britannia for half of the booty. The Gaul tribes are double-crossed by Caesar after one of the leaders revolted. Vercingetorix raises an army to battle Caesar.The opening of a comet traveling in space lays out the movie's high ambitions. At times, this is a big production. It's the hubris that makes the fall so much greater. The dialog is horribly clunky and laughable. The dubbing is terrible reminiscent of the bad dubbing from earlier time. Lambert is not a particularly subtle actor but he could fit the role. His hair is so ridiculous that it's almost hopeless to take him seriously. There are great actors in this and it's so sad to see them in this. Director Jacques Dorfmann is simply over his head. Even the extras look uncertain. Dorfmann has no sense of cinematic style. He is more or less being one of those weekend re-enactors. I'm not even going to dig into any historical inaccuracies. I don't really care about that if this is a good movie. It's not.
garymathews8
I sat through the first half of this dross on a flight from Shanghai as it was the only film they put on with an English dialogue. OK I know I was tired but I just couldn't believe it as scene after scene of uncoordinated rubbish unfolded before me - mumbled lines, meaningless relationships, plain bad acting. We arrived in London before the move was anywhere near the end and not one single passenger complained when it was unceremoniously switched off.Avoid like the plague. Spend two hours doing something else like going to the dentist. You'll have more fun and feel less like you are wasting your life.PS can anyone think of a film that demonstrates that Christopher Lambert actually CAN act - what exactly does he get paid to do?
ntsci
Its not a great film, but its one of the most historically accurate films about ancient wars I've seen. The incident is right out of Ceasars wars and it is one of the greatest military victories of all time.Vercingetorix's deserves recognition for his heroic actions. But how do you make a heroic last stand that failed completely into a decent movie. With the 300 Spartans or the Alamo, you can say the defeat lead to ultimate victory, but for Gaul, Vercingetorix's defeat meant the end of Gaul's independence. So how do you do a bio pic of Vercingetorix; a man who was heroic, and noble, but defeated.In the film Vercingetorix sets himself up as bait to a trap, but then becomes the victim of the trap and the bait for the entire Gaulic nation to kill itself against Roman fortifications. There is a moment when you realize that Vercingetorix's strategy could work, but is doomed to fail because he cannot co-ordinate the army outside of the town from inside a besieged town -- if only. Vercingetorix with one large Gaul army inside a town and they are running out of food. There is another Gaul army on the outside. Together they outnumber the Romans several times (4 to 1 perhaps, Ceasar claimed the odds were even worse, for him). But the Romans have built an double encirclement where they are simultaneously besieging Vercingetorix and being besieged by another Gaul army. Rome wins and the Gaul capitulate. Just watching the respective strategies makes the film worth watching. No other army but a Roman army could have pulled off such a victory.I think a lot of the problems people have with the film have to do with dreariness of the ending. I felt genuinely sad at Vercingetorix's failure to accomplish anything. I was wishing there was a secret passageway where the Gauls could have escaped, but alas, they were doomed. Even if they had won, Rome would have been back... and Rome typically punished countries that defeated legions very severely.But I enjoyed it, and I'd watch it again.
Langlois Stef
Why is there is not a 0/10, 1 is far too generous.The Director has destroyed the image of the first National hero to unit my country against a common enemy. Christophe Lambert is as credible in Vercingetorix as Paris Hilton in Mother Theresa. You are tired of life, you think about suicide? Watch this movie, you will see there are things worse than your life, it will cheer you up. In technical class nowadays my little cousin does better film editing than the director with better special effects. Bad acting + bad directing + bad historicity + bad costuming + bad weather (oups) + bad hairdressing + bad acting (doh! already said that one) = Vercingetorix/DruidsNothing can redeem the movie in my eyes and certainly not the lamest troops moral boosting speech that C.Lambert/Vercingetorix does to a bunch of underpaid eastern European bystanders who have no clue about what he is talking about and have been told to wave their arms angrily with determined looks in their eyes at the end of it....Bollywood Movies (India's business) does 1000 times better for 0,0001% of the budget, it may be time for some French director to rethink their career, leave Blockbusters to Hollywood, leave Historical inaccuracy to Hollywood and go back to romance, sex, cheating and dark humour movies....
