[SIZE= 36px]The Pillars of the Earth [/SIZE]
Studio: Sony/Tandem Communications
Year: 2010
Rated: Not Rated
Program Length: 428 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 1080p
Languages: English, French 5.1 DTS-HD MA
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French
The Program
The Pillars of the Earth, based upon the 1989 novel of the same name by Ken Follett, is an epic, sprawling eight-part miniseries which delivers adventure, drama, and romance, combined with healthy doses of political and religious intrigue. Originally shown in the United States on Starz last summer, The Pillars of the Earth is an impressive achievement, both visually and dramatically. The story spans several decades in 12th Century England. It opens during the reign of King Henry I (Clive Wood), the son of William the Conqueror. Henry's only legitimate son, the heir to his crown, is killed in a mysterious shipwreck. Henry has two other children - a bastard son, Robert of Gloucester (Matt Devere), and a pre-pubescent daughter, Maud (played as an adult by Alison Pill), neither of whom would be acceptable as the monarch. Another potential pretender to the throne is Henry's nephew, Stephen (Tony Curran). If Maud were to have a son, that child would be in line to be the King, but Henry fears that he may not live long enough to see his daughter give birth.
The political uncertainty is complicated by the role of the Catholic Church. King Henry is not particularly enamored of the Church, but his nephew Stephen has pledged his loyalty to the Archbishop of Canterbury (Gordon Pinsent) and the ambitious and devious cleric Waleran Bigod (Ian McShane). The Church would like to see Stephen ascend to the throne, but that possibility seems to grow dim as the years pass and Maud gives birth to a baby boy. However, King Henry suddenly dies, and with no adult male directly in the line of succession, it falls to the Archbishop to crown the new King. The Archbishop, acting with the encouragement of Waleran, chooses Stephen. Maud and Gloucester then form an alliance with their father's friend, the nobleman Bartholomew (Donald Sutherland), and a lengthy, bloody war of succession ensues.
There is a parallel story line involving a master builder, Tom (Rufus Sewell), who is working on a project for the hot-headed William Hamleigh (David Oakes). William has an interest in marrying Bartholomew's daughter Aliena (Hayley Atwell), although his real desire is to obtain a title for himself. Aliena rebuffs his advances, so William and his scheming mother, Regan (Sarah Parish), develop another strategy for him to achieve his ambitions. William fires Tom after they have a disagreement, so Tom takes his pregnant wife and two children on the road in search of other work. Tom's true hope is to one day build a glorious cathedral, and the opportunity to do so arises when he arrives at the Kingsbridge Priory. Kingsbridge has a new prior, Philip (Matthew Macfadyen), who is in need of a new church but who has no funds to pay for its construction.
It is Tom's determination to build a cathedral which brings the disparate elements of the story together. Philip needs help from Waleran (who by now is a bishop) to get the project underway, not realizing that Waleran plans to manipulate matters to further his own ambitions. When Maud and Gloucester take up arms against Stephen, the resulting war threatens the upheaval of both England and the Church. Underlying all of this are two unresolved mysteries - the shipwreck which killed King Henry's son, and the equally suspicious circumstances surrounding the King's death.
The Pillars of the Earth is not rated, but it is very violent, with bloody battle scenes and graphic images of executions, torture and rape, mixed together with elements of witchcraft and incest. The acting is uniformly excellent, in particular a sterling performance by Ian McShane as the wily and treacherous Waleran. In spite of its length, this miniseries moves along at a rapid clip, a testament to the fine direction by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, who was at the helm for all eight episodes. The production team, headed by executive producers Ridley and Tony Scott, spared no expense in giving The Pillars of the Earth exceedingly high production values. There are a few weak elements to the story - for example, the beautiful daughter of a condemned nobleman not only survives but becomes a successful wool merchant, and a timid, squeamish young man somehow is transformed into the King's most trusted knight - but these are minor quibbles. Anyone who is fascinated by historical dramas is likely to be drawn into The Pillars of the Earth and to find it to be thoroughly riveting.
For me, one litmus test regarding the effectiveness of historical dramas is whether they prompt me to research how much of it is based on fact. Ken Follett, of course, has been writing best-selling historical novels for more than thirty years and is a master of the art. In this case, the basic elements of the story are true. Henry's son William, then age 17, did in fact die in 1120 in what is known as the White Ship disaster while sailing from Normandy to England. Stephen became King after initially pledging fealty to Maud, leading to a lengthy war of succession. The Pillars of the Earth successfully blends these historical facts with Follett's fiction into a sweeping and compelling miniseries.
The Video
The 1.78:1 1080p Blu-ray transfer by Sony is typically outstanding. The Pillars of the Earth was shot digitally with HDCAM, and the images are exceptionally sharp and detailed. Colors are vivid and accurate, black levels are inky and deep, and contrasts are strong. Shadow detail is excellent, even in the darkest scenes. The framing is accurate and appears to be identical to the way it was aired on Starz. The Blu-ray image is a bit more pleasing than the program looked when I previewed it on DirecTV's HD Starz channel. The eight chapters are spread over three Blu-ray discs, so there are no annoying compression issues. Special effects are seamlessly integrated into the filmed images.
This miniseries was largely shot on location in Hungary by cinematographer Attila Szalay. It offers a number of spectacular scenes which will show off a home theater to its best advantage. There is one very dramatic scene of a burning church which is particularly arresting.
The Audio
The lossless 5.1 DTS-HD MA is equally impressive, combining a stirring musical soundtrack with many vivid scenes of swordplay, whizzing arrows, crackling flames, and general mayhem. The dialogue is mostly channeled through the center and front speakers and is always intelligible and undistorted. Viewers who have difficulty with British accents may find it useful to engage the English subtitles, which are easy to read and are usually located at the bottom of the frame (in a few scenes the subtitles are placed at the top of the frame, so as not to obscure important details at the bottom).
The Supplements
The extras on this Blu-ray set, all of which are presented in 1080p, focus almost exclusively on the making of the miniseries.
The primary supplement is a "making of" featurette which runs for 28 minutes. The producers, director and principal cast members all have an opportunity to discuss their experiences while making the miniseries. The featurette benefits from the participation of Ken Follett, who apparently spent a considerable amount of time on the set. The novelist explains that he was not willing to sell the film rights to the novel, which is nearly 1,000 pages long, if it was going to be transformed into a two-hour feature film. Indeed, there are so many characters and sub-plots that the novel would have been largely gutted if it had been pared down to feature length. The featurette also goes into some detail about how the locations in Hungary were scouted and shows the large crew hard at work building the highly realistic sets. This featurette is found on Disc One.
"Visual Effects Progression," a ten-minute featurette on Disc Two, is an interesting look at how digital effects, including digital matte paintings, are added to scenes. Each example begins with the original scene as photographed, followed by several layers of digital images until the finished product is displayed. Viewers should be warned that this featurette contains numerous spoilers, so avoid it until the entire miniseries has been viewed.
The Pillars of the Earth has very unique and interesting animated main titles, and the featurette "Main Titles Progression" is a revealing six-minute examination of how the titles were conceived and executed. This featurette can be found on Disc Three.
Sony also has included previews for Damages, Nowhere Boy, Welcome to the Rileys, and The Bridge on the River Kwai, all of which appear on Disc Three.
Blu-ray Live features will be activated on the release date.
The Packaging
As noted, the eight episodes are spread over three discs. The Blu-ray keep case is slightly wider than a standard keep case, and it comes packaged in a cardboard outer sleeve.
The menus are easy to navigate. There is an option to play individual episodes or play all episodes, but the individual episodes do not have chapters.
The Final Analysis
The Pillars of the Earth is an old-fashioned historical epic which takes advantage of modern sensibilities to portray the world of a thousand years ago in a more realistic - or, if you prefer, more graphic - light. An intriguing story, superb acting, and impressive production values add up to a miniseries which will keep you captivated to the end. A typically excellent Sony Blu-ray transfer adds to the enjoyment.
Equipment used for this review:
Panasonic DMP-BD50 Blu-ray player
Panasonic Viera TC-P46G15 Plasma display, calibrated to THX specifications by Gregg Loewen
Yamaha HTR-5890 THX Surround Receiver
BIC Acoustech speakers
Interconnects: Monster Cable
Release Date: November 23, 2010
