In recent years, the high-quality television mini-series has become rare. HBO’s 2008 John Adams was an exception with A-list actors and the kind of production reserved for feature films, but there hasn’t been a successful television mini-series on the major networks like ABC, NBC, and CBS in the past few years. The Pillars of the Earth makes the case for the return of the epic mini-series with top-notch acting, a fantastic story, and the production talents of Ridley and Tony Scott.
At the start of The Pillars of the Earth, the sole heir to the throne of England has been killed. His ship was burned, and supposedly no one escaped. Stephen (Tony Curran) and Maud (Alison Pill) emerge as the two competitors for the throne after the king is poisoned. Stephen, with the backing of the church, takes the throne, but Maud is not going down without a fight. Sir Percy (Robert Bathurst), Lady Hamleigh (Sarah Parish), and their son William (David Oakes) are instrumental in the downfall of Bartholomew (Donald Sutherland), Earl of Shiring, and Bartholomew’s daughter Aliena (Hayley Atwell) and son Richard (Sam Claflin) are left destitute. The country breaks into war with people choosing sides and the powerful using every last resource and ally to crush their enemies, and at the center of the conniving and manipulation is Bishop Waleran (Ian McShane).
Meanwhile, a humble architect Tom Builder (Rufus Sewell) is travelling to the next village hoping to find work with his pregnant wife Agnes (Kate Dickie), his son Alfred (Liam Garrigan), and his daughter Martha (Skye Bennett). On the way, Agnes dies in childbirth and Alfred tries to abandon their newborn child since he reasons that they do not have the means to feed him. The baby is rescued by a monk from a nearby village. When Tom runs into the monk again, Tom wants to stay in the village and work, but they already have a church and no need for an architect. Back when Tom was travelling, his family had encountered the beautiful Ellen (Natalia Worner) and her son Jack (Eddie Redmayne), and as fate would have it, they end up in the same village as Tom and his family. Jack sees Tom’s dilemma and decides to burn down the church. This way, Tom can stay in the village, find work, and see his son who has been adopted by the monks. Jack’s gamble pays off, and Prior Philip (Matthew Macfadyen) hires Tom to build a new cathedral. When the cathedral gets in the way of Bishop Waleran’s new palace, however, Prior Philip and the whole village gets wrapped up in the warring and politics of the royal family.
The plot sounds complicated and the cast is admittedly enormous, but the characters are so well drawn and developed that no one feels like a throw-away character. Everyone down to the most minor of characters plays a role in how the story unfolds. Many important minor characters did not even make it into the plot summary above. The luxury of a mini-series as opposed to a movie is that the audience gets the chance to really get to spend time with these characters, see them grow, and get to know them. The Pillars of the Earth is a story that spans generations and covers royal power struggles as well as the smaller personal stories like the romances between Tom and Ellen or Jack and Aliena. At the same time, there is a set beginning and end to their stories which does not make it conducive to a television series. The nice thing about a mini-series is also that someone can get wrapped up in it the way that people got wrapped in The Sopranos or Lost without needing to devote the same amount of time to multiple seasons, which is why I am surprised that the mini-series medium is not used more often.
The Pillars of the Earth is the epitome of an ensemble piece, and it is difficult to pick out a favorite performance. I would be neglectful, though, if I did not mention the outstanding performances of Ian McShane, Matthew MacFadyen, Eddie Redmayne, and Natalia Worner. Ian McShane is perfect as the bishop who collects secrets and blackmails the rich and powerful of the kingdom with the threat of eternal damnation. For Lost fans, Bishop Waleran is the Ben Linus of the Middle Ages: evil, manipulative, and completely fascinating to watch. McShane is brilliant, and I cannot imagine anyone else playing this role so well. Matthew MacFadyen as Prior Philip, in contrast, shows something rarely seen in film or television which is a person of faith who is kind, good-hearted, and relatable to the audience. As Bishop Waleran puts it, Philip actually believes what he teaches, and because of that, his devotion to God is seen in a positive light apart from the politics of established religion.
Eddie Redmayne’s performance as Jack is played so subtle that I want to watch the series again just to examine his acting choices. Redmayne broke onto the Broadway scene last year in Red starring opposite Alfred Molina and wound up taking home nearly every major stage acting award. As the sculptor Jack chips away little by little at a slab of stone to reveal a face, Redmayne slowly lets the audience see more of Jack’s character bit by bit, and the audience loves him more because of it. Finally, Natalia Worner brings fire and heart to Ellen, a woman who has seen the greatest love and cruelty in the world and is unafraid of the fires of Hell. She is a passionate lover, a devoted mother, and a “witch,” and she embraces all three labels without reservation.
I only had one minor complaint with The Pillars of the Earth. In a few of the battle scenes, they utilized a different kind of camera to capture some of the close-ups, and those shots did not match up in quality. They felt out of place, and fortunately they were used only sparingly by the editor. Other than that, Ridley and Tony Scott brought me into the world of The Pillars of the Earth with all its treachery, violence, and romance, and if the ending weren’t so perfect, I would have been sad to leave. I hope more filmmakers and television producers see The Pillars of the Earth and bring high-quality mini-series back to network television because I would love to see people gathered around the television together as they were for The Sopranos and Lost.
SPECIAL FEATURES
The Blu-ray release includes three making-of featurettes. The first featurette covers the whole production and has interviews with book author Ken Follett, the screenwriter, Ridley and Tony Scott, and the cast and crew. The second featurette looks at the visual effects in The Pillars of the Earth, and the third covers the making of the gorgeous animated title sequence. On that subject, I absolutely loved the title sequence, and even after seeing it 8 times over, I never skipped over the opening credits. Kudos to the animators behind it.
"The Pillars of the Earth" is on sale November 23, 2010 and is not rated. Action, Drama, Romance, Television, War. Directed by Sergio Mimica Gezzan. Written by Ken Follett, John Pielmeier. Starring Alison Pill, David Oakes, Donald Sutherland, Eddie Redmayne, Hayley Atwell, Ian McShane, Liam Garrigan, Matthew Mcfadyen, Natalia Worner, Rufus Sewell, Sam Claflin, Sarah Parish, Tony Curran.
