Armand it could be boring, strange, chaotic, sketch of a coherent story. in same measure, its pillar is Peter O 'Toole and that fact is one of virtues. portrait of the first emperor, it desires to present all the elements of his reign. and that ambition has almost good results. the battle scenes - not inspired but nice, the characters created by good cast, the decisions as fruits of period's crisis, the crisis as forms of ambiguous search of sense. a fresco. not the best but interesting for rediscover old pieces of the roots of Europe. a film with Peter O'Toole. that is the perfect recommendation for see it. because his old Augustus has the flavor of a profound experience to use the possibilities of the role.

bkoganbing Peter O'Toole and Benjamin Sadler share the role of the first Emperor Augustus of the new Roman Empire in this literate adaption of his story. For those of you who have read, seen, and enjoyed I Claudius, Julius Caesar, and Antony And Cleopatra, this film will be all the more enjoyable.In the other works I've mentioned Augustus aka Octavian is a peripheral character in the drama. Here the story is seen from his perspective, in the present with Peter O'Toole where he is dealing with the problem of his daughter Julia played by Vittoria Belvedere in 12 BC. If you've seen I Claudius you know the story and the intrigues surrounding that. The slant is different in this, her husband and Augustus's trusted friend Marcus Aggripa has died, leaving her with three children. She now wants to marry for love, but Augustus influenced by his wife Livia, his second wife I might add played by Charlotte Rampling has her marry Tiberius, Livia's son by her first marriage. However Livia as determined as she is to see her son succeed her husband, she is not the manipulative monster as she was in I Claudius. That was author Robert Graves own interpretation.In flashback we see Benjamin Sadler as young Octavian who with his trusted companions Agrippa played by Ken Duken and Maecenas played by Ronald Barr as they first join Octavian's grand uncle Julius Caesar at his final campaign against the heirs of Pompey in Munda, Spain. After that we see for the only time I know the events of Julius Caesar and Antony And Cleopatra from the point of view of Octavian. Those events bear very heavily on the reasons Augustus makes the decisions he does. We also see Sadler courting the young Livia played by Martina Stella who was of high noble birth and let everyone know it. This is the genesis of the character played by Rampling here and by Sian Phillips in I Claudius who was at one time married to Peter O'Toole.I made it a point to do some research Ronald Barr's character Maecenas and what you see is what apparently was. He's described as effeminate and that's putting it mildly. Apparently Augustus and Aggripa didn't have a problem with him hanging around and as a minister of the empire later, Maecenas was quite efficient and effective. Imperium: Augustus is one fine and almost flawless made for TV film, it should have gotten theatrical release. If you liked those Shakespeare classics and Robert Graves' I Claudius, this is an absolute must view for you.

Vishal Agrawal Augustus is a great movie. The range of the movie is wide. The movie depicts his role in the Hispanic war along with Caesar until his death. There are certain sections in the movie which are very true to history. Some of them which are not true to history are not very important as well. Movie begins with old Augustus mourning the death of his friend, son in law and General Agrippina with his daughter. Movies keeps going back in to long flashbacks. The transition is brilliant. This movie works for me at all levels acting, camera, characterization, range and above all facts. I prefer an 'Augustus' over 'Lawrence of Arabia' for the simple reason it shows what happened and not an interpretation of the director. Some of the important details are missing from the movie which in my opinion is OK even if they are missing like Augustus butchered the son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar; Augustus's daughter was first married to Mark Anthony and Augustus's sister's son. I think movie wasted the character of Cicero but its OK as the movie was only about Augustus. The characterization was convincing. The whole section where Augustus assimilates power is very well done. Peter O'Tool as Augustus is quite good. Benjamin Sadler as Octavius is OK. Massimo Ghinni as Mark Anthony is very good. All the senate scenes are done in a very good taste. Good movie.

John von K Well I have not the faintest idea how accurate this mini-series is historically but it's not as bad as previous IMDb reviewers have suggested.It is a talk-athon and some of the dubbed actors are really out of their depth. The young Augustus is played well, multi-layered and rather complex and unpredictable. Mark Anthony and Cleopatra are an aside, and performed in a bland obvious manner. Charlotte Rampling is frighteningly real.But it is O'Toole's show all the way as the older Augustus.After 30 years of "wafer thin ham" acting this and his performance in "Troy" show what an experienced actor can do with a good part. It is a grand part for an actor and makes the 3 hour journey quite moving at times. So the grand total as an entertainment experience is....6/10