Sorry, this movie sucks

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The 'Fall of Eagles' refers to the end of three great Royal houses - the Habsburgs of Austria, the Hohenzollerns of Germany, and the Romanovs of Russia. Over a seventy year period, we follow the course of history from the marriage of the young Franz Josef through to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II.Each of these great Empires became republics by the end of World War I, a war which, this series implies, could so easily have been avoided. Also there were family links with England which fell apart after the war.With a cast that includes such familiar faces as Barry Foster as Kaiser Wilhelm, Patrick Stewart as Lenin, Charles Kay as Tsar Nicholas, Gayle Hunnicutt as Tsarina Alexandra, plus Maurice Denham, Miles Anderson, Jan Francis, Diane Keen, Rachel Gurney, Charles Gray, Michael Kitchen, and many others, plus a strong narration from Michael Hordern putting each story in context, this series moves along at a good pace and is never less than engrossing, even with a minimum of outdoor filming and with major events (such as the massacre at Winter Gardens) represented by inserted footage of the time.'Fall of Eagles' is one of the great classic series which is worth your time if you have any interest in European history.

Looking back at the old programs from the 70's coming out on DVD, one realises that TV reached a peak at that time and has gone downhill ever since.This miniseries harks back to the days when Britain only had two TV channels, the BBC and ITV. This meant that not only was there more money to spend on individual programmes, but half the viewing audience would watch them. Along with I Claudius, Fall of Eagles was the best of the best, and I doubt that it could be made today, with the myriad of channels spreading the available money thinly. I grew up with live drama on the BBC ever Sunday night - plays by Shakespeare, Shaw and more controversial writers. Contrast this with the inane reality offerings of today! This series was the first time I had ever seen Patrick Stewart, who has remained Lenin for me ever since, just as Michael Caine will always be Alfie and Christopher Eccleston has remained the tragic slow witted Derek Bentley. The acting and production values are outstanding throughout, although the actors are noticeably stage actors, and some episodes, especially the final one are very "talky". The series holds up startlingly well compared with big budget films covering the same events, Nicholas and Alexandra and Reds, to name two. My main complaint is that there is no captioning for the hearing impaired on the US release, which means that impaired people such as myself cannot follow allthe dialog despite the crisp theatrical delivery of the actors. This is a particular handicap in the more "talky" scenes - I was unable to follow any of the last episode where the Kaiser went into exile rather than being hanged as a war criminal. A detailed synopsis of each chapter would have helped, but captions are essential in an aging population. I really hope to see more of these great TV series of the past, but hope that they will add captions.

If you like mini-series I Cladius, you will like this series. I watched this as a young teenager and learn more on what brought the world, World War I that all of the boring history lessons I took in school. Also, the breath and scope of this TV mini-series just can not be remade today. Only HBO has the clout and finances to tackle this type of material.The acting in this series is old school British theater and is a little talkative for the modern MTV generation who are use to more action, however, it is very rewarding to listen to the words and watch the scope of history unfold. You will understand that the end of the series that it is individuals who make history and individuals have the power to literally to change the world.This mini-series is well worth your time and attention.

For years my Dad has been searching for this series and now the wait is over. You can purchase the newly released DVD set at Amazon.UK. I could not find it on Amazon.com but it is available on the UK version. I have searched and searched the internet, libraries, and video stores and no luck. My Dad is friends with owners of video stores and they tried through their contacts but came up empty handed. For fun I decided to look again and found it has been released since Oct. 18th. I am not sure what the exchange rate is but it came to 34.99 in British pounds and that was with shipping. I can only guess somewhere in the area of $60. I did not think that was so bad considering the size of the series.