Empires - The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance

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DVD details

Actor: Dale Kent, Dr. Jerry Brotton, Marcello Fantoni, Mario Biagioli, Ross King
Brand: Paramount
Editor: Richard Cox
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 220 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-04-05
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS Paramount

DVD Reviews of Empires - The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance

DVD Review: ...from ArtsyFartsy News, November 2008
Summary: 4 Stars

By now, ArtsyFartsy News subscribers know I enjoy nonfiction, especially when it comes to artists' biographies, the history of painting, color, artists' materials, etc. And - I like movies! Put this all together and get it all from The Medici - Godfathers of the Renaissance. It is a four hour docudrama that is both educational AND entertaining.
This beautifully photographed history lesson and biography chronologically unfolds, starting with fifteenth century Florence (I want to live there!).

The Medici family, using their charm, patronage, enormous wealth and eventually, their power initiated the start of the Renaissance. You know - like Michelangelo, Botticelli, da Vinci, Galileo and many others. The back story is equally fascinating as well. By sheer power, the Medici family was able to "produce" two popes, bankrupt the papacy and use money to "purchase redemption." The Medicis held court for over two hundred years. There's a lot of art history: David, the Pieta, Medici tombs, The Sistine Chapel frescoes plus more "inside stuff" to further your appreciation of how we still revere this art today.

This richly photographed and acted spectacle will be enjoyed by anyone who appreciates history and art. Excellent gift for yourself as well!

DVD Review: Beautiful
Summary: 5 Stars

This video is not only entertaining but very beautiful to look at. I recommend it

DVD Review: Would be great if it was not so biased
Summary: 1 Stars

I believe that the author has presented the story of the Medici from a xenophobic point of view. Through his very colored glasses, he cannot see any redeeming value for this great family that initiated the Renaissance which eventually affected every aspect of our modern life: science, art, architecture, engineering, business, banking, world exploration, etc.

If I had not studied the history of the Medici from other sources, I would think after watching this video that the Medici started the Mafia and that they were totally and irretrievably corrupt in all possible ways. The implicit connection to the Mafia is just as ridiculous as one somehow concluding that Henry VIII is solely and personally responsible for initiating wifely abuse in the history of mankind.

While, as other reviewers, I do find that the technical aspects of this video are well done, I do think that the negatively biased point of view of the author to be so overwhelming corrupting to make the story a worthless distortion of history. I will certainly not have my students watch this video and should Savonarola knock on my door I would certainly give him the DVD to add it to his bonfire.

DVD Review: "PBS Scores Again!"
Summary: 5 Stars

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! PBS, founder and creators of the mini-series, you've done it again! The film and film quality is beautiful-clear, crisp, concise and on actual location wherever possible too. The entire story of all the Medici's and all the people who came into their orbit like Michealangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Gallileo and even the Medici who rose to become one of the Vatican Popes. The voiceless actors were perfectly cast and said with their eyes, expressions and body language what they had no need to with their voices-leaving all explanations of scenes, events and emotions to be explained by an English speaking, non-accented narrator by an English actor whose name escapes me at the moment but who played the lead in the film, 'The Elephant Man'. If you're going to Italy, studying Italian history, accessing the lives or life and times of the Medici-this is one film series you need to get!

DVD Review: Overly Glamorized
Summary: 4 Stars

Timothy Walker's excellent review highlights some of the deficiencies in this DVD. To them I would add the irritation of a narrator speaking English with an Italian accent and glamorized portrayals of the principal players (Cosimo was short and ugly, the actor who plays him is tall and handsome; Lorenzo was a real womanizer, not the caring husband depicted here).

Having just finished Byzantium: The Lost Empire with John Romer, an older, portly narrator who knows his subject, I found this glamorization dishonest and irritating. Adding to that irritation is the fact that the time periods covered by the four programs were chosen arbitrarily and simplistically: (1) the life and times of Cosimo il Vecchio; (2) the life and times of Lorenzo; (3) the Medici popes and Michelangelo; and (4) The life and times of Cosimo I and Galileo. Thus, discussion of the great years of the family ends with the second program.

For the most part, the program wholly overlooks the contribution of Giovanni di Bicci, patriarch of the family, father of Cosimo and founder of the Medici Bank. When Lorenzo came along, the family began its slow decline. Not quite "shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations," but close. Only the family's enormous wealth preserved its influence for a few more generations.

As for Cosimo il Vecchio, wholly overlooked is the fact that because he was a money lender, he was terrified of what punishment awaited him in the afterlife. Much of his life was spent praying in his own cell in the Dominican monastery of San Marco, the same monastery where Savanarola lived. Both cells have been preserved and may be visited today.

In discussing Savanarola, the program graphically presents the Bonfire of the Vanities, but fails to mention what happened to Savanarola shortly thereafter. He was, upon order of the Vatican, publicly burned in the principal square of Florence. The Church did not like Reformers, especially during the Reformation.

To the film's credit, there are interviews with knowledgeable authors and academics. Ross King, author of Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling and Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power (Eminent Lives) made numerous cogent observations about the building of the Duomo, Michelangelo, and political life in Italy at the time, as do James Saslow of CUNY and Mario Biagoli of Georgetown. Dale Kent's comments are eminently forgettable.

The greatest value of the film for me lay in its presenting chronologically a lot of facts that I was familiar with but did not know the sequence in which they occurred.

Viewers who would like a more incisive and detailed take on the Medicis' financial dealings should consider reading Tim Parks' Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence (Enterprise) (Enterprise). Another realistic analysis may be found in Mary McCarthy's The Stones of Florence

Description of Empires - The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance

From a small Italian community in 15th-century Florence, the Medici family would rise to rule Europe in many ways. Using charm, patronage, skill, duplicity and ruthlessness, they would amass unparalleled wealth and unprecedented power. They would also ignite the most important cultural and artistic revolution in Western history--the European Renaissance. But the forces of change the Medici helped unleash would one day topple their ordered world. An epic drama played out in the courts, cathedrals and palaces of Europe, this series is both the tale of one family's powerful ambition and of Europe's tortured struggle to emerge from the ravages of the dark ages.

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