I've always been fascinated by Roman history: not just its history of political conflict and power struggles in the Republic and, later, in the Empire, but even more, the daily life of the average person in the street. While the wars and emperors make it into the history books, it's the experiences of ordinary people that give us the real substance of history and answer the question, "What was life like back then?" It's always an interesting question, made even more interesting by the fact that Roman culture and society was in many ways startlingly modern: it's like seeing ourselves in a strange, distant mirror. These two documentaries from the BBC set out to answer that question, taking us back 2,000 years to witness life in the ancient Roman Empire.

We actually get a double feature here: this DVD contains both Colosseum: A Gladiator's Story and Pompeii: The Last Day. Each program runs 50 minutes, and offers an intriguing look at Roman history and daily life.

Colosseum: A Gladiator's Story follows the career of Verus, a Roman gladiator whose name and career stand out through the mists of time thanks to a contemporary poet's report of his most famous combat. The documentary follows his training and experiences as a gladiator, and along the way shows us the important place that gladiatorial games had in the Roman Empire, both as a popular public entertainment and as a political tool. One interesting aspect of Colosseum is that the characters within the documentary are shown speaking Latin, while we're given a voiceover of Verus' thoughts as well as the narrator's explanations in English. I'm not sure that it works perfectly, but it's an interesting idea.

Pompeii: The Last Day focuses on an event that happened during the same emperor's reign as the story of Verus' famous battle. In AD 79, Mt. Vesuvius erupted with devastating force, eventually entombing the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Thanks to the information yielded by the careful excavations of archaeologists, and the insights from the eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger, we get to see how this tragedy occurred and what happened to a number of Roman citizens of Pompeii. While there's an odd bit of repetition in the last five minutes or so, overall it's a smoothly paced and engrossing viewing experience.

Both programs take a somewhat novel approach to their documentary material. Rather than approaching the topic from a broad historical perspective, we are shown the material from the point of view of a handful of individual Romans: in Colosseum, from the point of view of the gladiator Verus, and in Pompeii, from the point of view of several people who observed the eruption or were killed by it.

This personal approach is handled extremely well in both programs, allowing us to see Roman history from a fresh perspective, seeing what life was really like for people of the time; it's amazing to realize the extent to which their culture was essentially modern, despite being nearly 2,000 years in our past. What makes this "personal approach" work is that it's very closely tied to facts: the filmmakers have not made up their characters from whole cloth. Far from it, in fact. The identity of Verus and the fight that made him famous, which we see dramatized in Colosseum: A Gladiator's Story, is based on actual contemporary reports; similarly, the personal stories in Pompeii: The Last Day are all based on either reconstructions from archaeologists of the fates of individual people, or on eyewitness reports from survivors.

The result is that both Colosseum: A Gladiator's Story and Pompeii: The Last Day are very film-like in their storytelling, while also doing an excellent job of presenting real information about Roman life. The documentaries are not heavily packed with information, instead focusing on giving a sense of what life was like through many small details, aided by well done costuming and visual effects with real settings. A reasonable amount of information is worked into each program, though, and both Colosseum and Pompeii offer the most up-to-date and accurate information about their respective topics. The result is that the programs are both informative and very interesting for viewers, whether they're already well-versed in Roman history or are newly interested in the subject.

The DVD

Video

Both Colosseum: A Gladiator's Story and Pompeii: The Last Day are presented in attractive anamorphic widescreen transfers, at their original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The image quality is quite good in both cases, with a nice clean print and clear, natural colors. The picture in Colosseum tends to be a little soft, particularly in the middle- to long-distance shots, but this is a minor issue. Overall, both programs are pleasing to the eye.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack for both programs offers a pleasing audio experience. The voiceover narration, the actors' dialogue, and the musical score are all correctly balanced, though the narration is a little bit muffled on a few occasions in Pompeii. The overall sound is clear and crisp.

Extras

Viewers will be pleased to find a nice selection of supplemental material here. A 38-minute section of "Interviews with the Filmmakers" offers a selection of interesting interviews with various people involved with both productions, presented in a lovely anamorphic widescreen format. For Colosseum, we get interviews with the producer/director, costume designer, visual effects supervisor, the actor who plays Verus, the stunt fight coordinator, and the production designer; for Pompeii we get interviews with the producer/director and the costume designer. The interviews can be selected separately, and there's also a "play all" option.

The other main special feature is a 17-minute featurette called "A Composer's Story: Making the Music for Colosseum"; viewers will likely be interested in this, since the music is quite good. Lastly we get a selection of text fact files on various aspect s of Roman history related to the topics of the programs, and trailers for The Life of Mammals, Blue Planet, Building the Great Pyramid, Walking with Dinosaurs, and Walking with Cavemen.

Final thoughts

Colosseum: A Gladiator's Story and Pompeii: The Last Day offer a fascinating and compelling look at daily life in ancient Rome: the first, taking a look at the career of a gladiator, and the second, exploring the effect of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius on a handful of the people living in its shadow. Both are very film-like in their presentation, while interweaving interesting information about what life was really like for the people of ancient Rome. Especially since the two documentaries have been given attractive widescreen anamorphic transfers, and there's an interesting set of special features, it's very easy to give this engaging and informative DVD a "highly recommended" rating.