AttyTude0 If you like great period costumes and lavish settings you will like this shallow effort. If you want information about this Russian empress pick up a history book.Personally, I had never heard of this film before I ran into it on YouTube. Now I understand why. For one thing the casting is dreadful. Look, I know the white race has been rendered very unpopular lately by the reverse-racist "multiculturalists," but anybody who's ever seen a portrait of CTG knows she was a fair-skinned, blonde and blue-eyed woman of rather ample proportions (don't take my word for it; pick any biography with her picture on the cover). Therefore, I found the olive-skinned, dark-haired/eyed slim Catherine Zeta-Jones distracting and annoying. Somebody already mentioned Jeanne Moreau and Omar Shariff so I won't go over that again. Add to that the fact that the history is wobbly at best and you've got pretty much all you need to know to make up your mind if you want to invest time on this film.Forgettable.

MinuetEnJazz Once again, A&E brings us a beautiful looking production. The costumes, sets and, of course, performances by an exceptional cast, are stunning as always. However it seems that the writers were getting a bit tired while working on this one. It lacked the cleverness and vivacity of productions such as Vanity Fair and Pride and Prejudice, and the drama we enjoyed in Horatio and Tess. I was also disappointed to find that the version available in N.America is only 90 minutes long, and includes only Catherine's early reign. If you want to see the entire production you apparently need to get the 3-hour version, available in Germany.All in all, it is worth watching, if only for the visuals and wonderful acting. Catherine Zeta Jones is brilliant and displays her versatility in this dramatic role. I cannot begin to comment on the equally strong performances of the rest of the cast, being restricted to 1000 characters here, but as I say, certainly worth the watch.

zetafan9_25 This historical drama has a most interesting story. Catherine The Great was a powerful women and she brought Russia into the modern age.Catherine Zeta-Jones is terrific in this film. She plays the part well expressing the independence and greatfulness of Catherine The Great. Highly recommended.

TxMike The great Catherine Zeta-Jones, before she became internationally famous, plays "Catherine the Great" in this 1995 film billed as an "A&E Original." It is filmed in what I will call an "antique" look, with a light olive-colored overtone to it and few brilliant colors. Still, it is very beautifully filmed and looks appropriate for the period, the middle 1700s. Zeta-Jones is marvelous as a very believable Catherine II.The film begins in 1745 Russia where, at the age of 15, Catherine was plucked from the Prussian (German) backwater to be wed to Grand Duke Peter, 17, the presumed heir to the throne. Her job was simple - to provide Peter with a son and eventual heir. Problem was, after 7 years Peter and Catherine had not consumated their marriage, and Peter seemed completely indifferent to his wife, but flirted with other ladies. Ultimately the empress orders a virile young courter to seduce Catherine and impregnate her, then Peter starts sleeping with her to make it seem the baby is theirs. In a scene to establish Catherine's true role, the newborn baby boy is taken away without the mother even seeing it.In 1757, at war with the Prussians, Catherine is persuaded to send a letter of support to the troops, but the letter is intercepted and the empress confronts her. Catherine asks the queen to send her back to Prussia, the empress says "no", then asks, "After I'm dead, will you seek power?" Catherine pauses only a couple of seconds and says, sternly, "Yes!" At a friend's suggestion that she and Peter could share power, she replies, "He loathes the sight of me", and she decides the only solution is to gain sole power.In close anticipation of death of the empress, politically-smart Catherine seduces a high-ranking general to gain military support for her. When the empress dies, Peter is proclaimed "Czar Peter III", and Catherine, his wife, isn't even allowed to speak to him. She is sent in seclusion to Peterhof. His reign lasts all of 6 months, when all military leaders in turn swear their allegiance to Catherine, then she is declared "Empress Catherine II" by the clergy and seizes the throne in 1762. Her stated mission was to "drag Russia out of her mideival stupor, into the modern world, and free 10 million serfs." In a word, a revolution. Peter was put out of his misery.The film continues with some account of the fighting with the Turks, her difficulty establishing a love relationship with the man she adored. History established that she became a "conscientious ruler", building schools and hospitals, promoting modern ideas, and attracted scholars from other countries. However, she did not follow her intent to free the serfs and instead promoted the interests of the upper classes. She died in 1796 at the age of 67.The film gives a great historical glimpse of an important chapter in Russian history, the coming to power of Catherine the Great, but I can only rate it "7" of 10. It is not as "engaging" as other great "historical" films I have seen recently, like "Longitude" and "Amistad", just to name two. Still, it is a very worthy film and Zeta-Jones becomes Catherine. In addition to Zeta-Jones, John Rhys-Davies is great as the scruffy revolutionary that eventually was beheaded. He played the loyal "sidekick" in "Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark."