"Pillars of the Earth". Review of the series
Long novels with many characters should be adapted not as films, but as TV series. It wasn't "Game of Thrones," which holds seven books at once, that proved this. This was proved back in 1965 by Sergei Bondarchuk, who decided to turn "War and Peace" not into a squeeze of Petya and Natasha's love, but into an almost seven-hour epic. It's impossible to remove it better.
Ken Follett's historical novels are very popular in the UK, and so popular that a monument was erected to their author in Spain. I'll tell you why later.
In general, Follet might not have had a monument erected if he had continued to write harsh and boring thrillers. But, having switched to historical novels, he suddenly became the author of a bestseller, constantly appearing in the ratings of the most popular novels among the British. It is very difficult to achieve such a loving closeness to the people in historical books, otherwise graduates of the history faculty would drive around in limousines. But, as the example of Alexandre Dumas showed, you need to allow yourself a little imagination to add romanticism to the boring flow of human history.
Ken didn't invent pathetic two or three characters hanging out at court. He imagined an entire county of Shiring with a castle of the same name in Southeastern England. Within the fictional county, Follet has a fictional Kingsbridge Monastery. And they decided to build a fictional cathedral in the monastery. By placing the county with the monastery and cathedral in the midst of the 12th century Civil War over Henry's legacy, the author got a fascinating story about how kings and counts enthusiastically cut down each other and the civilian population for the sake of power and money, while normal people are trying to create something good. Follet's novel was made more fascinating by the fact that he didn't really care who won the war, Stefan or Matilda. The abbot of the monastery didn't give a damn either. For both the author and his favorite characters, the main thing is to build a cathedral, and, it turns out, for the reader, too. I also met such a direct disregard for the powerful and their games, it seems, in the "Women's War" by the same Dumas. A rare occurrence in the world of historical novels.
But there are many drawbacks behind a perfectly sound idea — Follet's events are too melodramatic and initially smack of a happy ending. Although, on the other hand, he crushes the characters like George R. R. Martin — right and left, good and evil. But the result is known — the cathedral will be completed, otherwise why write and film all this? To the disadvantages, one can add the notorious historical inaccuracy, especially noticeable in the TV show. The series now shows the scarcity of the plot — although for $ 40 million it could have been shot better if it had been done not in expensive Austria, but somewhere in Bulgaria or the Czech Republic.
Of particular interest is the cast, especially the young ones, who, after the release of the series, quite actively began to be involved in a big blockbuster movie. The wildly charming and diverse Eddie Redmayne got into Les Miserables and played Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Hayley Atwell, who played his sweetheart, has long staked out the image of Peggy Carter, Captain America's companion. On the other hand, the famous Matthew McFadden and Rufus Sewell had been in the public eye before. But Ian McShane is experiencing a second youth — after The Pillars, he tried on a Black Beard and became the only decoration of the dreary fourth Pirates of the Caribbean. And then I got into "Snow White and the Huntsman," "Jack the Giant Slayer," and the soon—to-be released "Hercules." He's an outstanding scumbag.
Actually, about Spain. The image of the cathedral, as it became known after the release of the sequel novel "The World without End" in 2003, was Santa Maria Catedral in the Basque Vitoria. Crowds of Pillars of the Earth fans staged a real pilgrimage to a quiet Spanish town, which significantly expanded budget revenues from tourists. A monument was erected to Follet for this. And the series, which was immediately filmed based on the sequel novel, turned out to be really boring. That's what they say, I haven't seen it myself. Les joueurs francophones d'Afrique ont désormais accès à une offre de bienvenue intéressante sur 1xBet. Lors de votre adhésion, que vous soyez à Madagascar, au Burundi ou en Tunisie, assurez-vous d'utiliser le code promo 1xbet congo dans le formulaire d'inscription. Ce code active un bonus de 100% sur votre premier dépôt jusqu'à 130€ pour les paris sportifs. Le casino n'est pas en reste avec une offre de 1950€ et 150 tours gratuits sur les machines les plus populaires. Les méthodes de paiement locales comme Moov Money ou Airtel Money sont disponibles.
