User reviews

As italian, but most of all as moviegoer, I was waiting for a production like this in Italy for a long time. They strictly made their point, I was totally immersed in the movie's atmosphere made by natural light of photography. Matteo Rovere did a very great job with cinematography to make it as realistic as possible.

My review is influenced partially because I haven't watched a European movie for several years and it was refreshing to revisit. This movie is certainly not suitable for younger people or anyone who dislikes realistic violence. I usually shy away from violent movies, especially where the violence serves no purpose.

What stands out about this movie is that it feels realistic. Most of Hollywood has drastically shifted into a synthetic reality that is more like a day-time soap opera, but has added plenty of violence. and SFX. By contrast, this movie had characters exhaling misty breath in freezing cold rain, inside a cage made of rough bits of timer. You really felt as if you were watching the real thing at times, or a very detailed documentary. The characters also behaved realistically, something Hollywood has lost the ability to reflect.

The costumes (despite criticism from another reviewer) were probably realistic for 750BC as the characters were mostly slaves that were imprisoned in the quieter parts of what is now known as Italy. Many characters had beards because they didn't have access to Schick shavers. However, the actors probably lacked muscle and leanness that the actual inhabitants would have had. By contrast, the social elite in 750BC would have dressed immaculately.

The fight scenes were very well performed. Far less cut-scenes than you usually see today in Hollywood and far more awareness of exactly what is going on around the violence. However, at times I felt the violence was too much and wasn't adding value to the story.

In case you're wondering, even the ancient Romans were unsure of how accurate the stories of Romulus and Remus were. Today, we talk of what being a "good citizen" (especially promoted by the United Nations). The Romans had the concept of a "good Roman", so, in all probability, the current story of Romulus and Remus was popularised through a "good Roman" filter.

If you're in the mood for a thoughtful, violent, somewhat historically accurate film about the establishment of a world-class Empire, this is absolutely worth watching. It's in Latin, so, you'll have to read subtitles. The violence is very graphic, probably on par with the original Robo Cop movie, although, more realistic. Just think of watching a great BBC documentary with no voice-over and with a lot of graphic violence.

Romulus and Remus : The First King (Il primo re) is an Italian film shot in the Latin language, featuring the story of Romulus and Remus, the legendary founding brothers of Rome. This movie, although chronicling a legend, sticks more to reality, without the nursing wolves or other fantastical elements of the legend. Instead, this film presents a real, gritty and interesting account of the tale.

I ended up enjoying this film quite a bit. The Latin language in the film is interesting; it is wonderful to hear the language on the big screen, and is almost a surreal experience, as the language is little used in other aspects of the modern world. The action is gritty, with campy blood spurts that border on comical - something I ended up enjoying and that added charm to the film. One of the big pluses for me was the feeling, atmosphere and cinematography of the film. This feels like a world steeped in myth, with individuals struggling with reality, luck and myth and the intersection between these. The portrayal of the vestal virgin and sacred fire of Rome, for example, is interesting. The vestal does not have magic powers, but instead uses cunning, curses and the intimidation of her position to influence and control events. The mist steeped forests, overflowing Tiber River, and interesting atmosphere add to this world, where myths, beliefs and legends feel concrete and real.

On the mediocre side, we have the acting. Relatively fine, but with no special performances. The way the brothers are written feels rushed, and the motivation for one brothers turn to despotic power is never really elaborated on. He just goes quickly from noble to despotic with little motivation. The actors themselves are fine, although some performances feel subdued - a possible side effect of using Latin over Italian in the filming process.

On the poor side, the story feels quite rushed here. There are many positive aspects of this film, but the story itself does not fit the wonderful atmosphere of the rest of the film, much to its detriment.

Overall, a solid 7/10. In my mind, this means the film is of good quality and I enjoyed my time with it. I could easily recommend this film for fans of Roman history, or those looking for a good ancient action drama with some cool apsects to it. Worthy of a watch for sure.

A splendid film, reminding a Latin text. Not for the use of language but for the admirable precise simplicity. A film about birth of Rome. The story is familiar, at the first sigh, from school years. In fact, a profound inspired history of Rome. Level by level, event by event. Because it is a film about brotherhood and murder, about "the others", about gods and atheism, about power, love, sacrifice, weakness in force , about relations and, sure, about the death as seed for a great project. A film who you feel. And it is enough.

With little expositional dialogue, this movie kept me guessing. I knew the myth of the founding of Rome, but this movie shows the brutal life of those living in the time. Very well framed and filmed.

As others have mentioned, the cinematography/photography is impressive. The dates are debatable but the basic legend is consistent. Acting was superb. Now the honesty. As much as I love foreign films and non-mainstream, this was dull for me. I do not expect hollywood action garbage and do not watch those films. It may also be a matter of timing. Maybe I watched it at a time when I needed something fast paced instead. Good movie though.

Look, I'm sure the people in the past were a lot more rough round the edges than we are, especially the poor or those who were trying to survive a life or death situation. So this film captures the rawness of life back then. It revolves around a band of men trying escape certain death who just happen to be called Romulus and Remus. Because of the protagonists there is also the usual growling, snarling and slightly overdone acting here and there to contend with as modern actors try to connect to what their ancestors were like. It's a bit too much at times.

We all know the story, so it doesn't need rehashing, although this doesn't follow the myth fully. What I liked about the film was the attempt to make it as 'historical' as possible. It is after all a fictional story, Romulus probably didn't exist, it's a myth that a lot of Indo European cultures have (twins and the death of one, founding fathers being linked to gods etc) but they have tried to recreate the look and feel of Italy in 700-800BC.

The Archaic Latin dialogue was interesting too but I feel it held the film up as at times as it's guess work by the linguistic experts who advised the writers - there are whole sections of the film with no speaking, or with quite ponderous discussions - mainly because they don't know enough of the language. You feel if it was in modern Italian it would be less stilted and would flow more. Fascinating all the same.

Anyway I enjoyed the film apart from some of the gore and mumbling, long scenes. It's nice to see a different take on a historical drama.

I would say that overall this is an interesting attempt to do something new and creative.

I enjoyed the atmosphere of an ancient prehistorical world, in which superstition is everything and all actions have to be interpreted. Also, the concept of "war of all against all", is well represented. Until there is no unitary power, individuals and tribes will endlessly live in fear and fight each other for supremacy, making use of all available psychological and practical means to oppress each other.

What I want to focus on, is the political side of the movie. Being Italian myself, I know that for an Italian director can be a bit troubling to do a movie on the mythical foundation of Rome, you don't want it to sound too celebratory of Roman power, because then it would stink of fascism (celebrating ancient Rome was an important part of fascist propaganda).

So, how does this "issue" develop in the script?

Let's start by saying that the movie is loosely based on the actual myth.

Remus is a kind of Machiavellian authoritarian ruler, disregards religion and tradition and simply wants to take advantage of it to make others do what he wants.

Whereas, Romulus is a pious, good hearted person that we can foretell will be a righteous and fair king loved by its people.

Alba Longa, the first rival of Rome, is portrayed as a tyrannical power oppressing villages in the area. Therefore, the birth of Rome is a reaction against Alba Longa, oppressor of the humble and lost peoples of Latium and against a ruthless nihilist amoral Remus, then it is a kind of democratic anti-authoritarian birth!

I think that this turn is a very creative way not to make it look like the birth of a mighty oppressive imperial power (that Rome indeed was to be) but a subtle way of pretending it was a mythical foundation of a democratic power.

This film isn't as striking as Revenant or as thematically deep as Valhalla Rising, but it sure gets close.

I didn't choose to mention those two titles casually. Il Primo Re uses a similar range of storytelling devices: minimal dialogues, stunning visuals, a very realistic environment, metaphysical experiences. This provides the film a very immersive style, that can be perceived probably a bit slow, but that also elevates the release's quality.

The interesting part is that Il Primo Re reinterprets a well-known myth but stays faithful to its roots, and merges is with realistic historical settings. The villages, armaments, religions depicted mostly are very close to those that could've been during the pre-roman period.Obviously Il Primo Re mustn't be considered a historically accurate film, but it certainly gives the feel of that archaic period.

What I particularly appreciated was the choice of using latin as language. It is not the first time this happens, an example is Mel Gibson's The Passion, but in The Passion the pronunciation that was used was the scolastic one, which was developed in the middle ages (and I personally know that from my high-school studies of the language). In Il Primo Re they managed to use the original pronunciation of latin, and I believe probably they adopted an archaic vocabulary and sintax, which is admirable.

Criticisms can be drawn: the final climax is not that huge as the build up suggests (let's not forget italian films have a much more limited budget), it doesn't manage to be as thematically deep as the films I've mentioned earlier and sometimes it drastically shifts to being an action movie. I personally acknowledge these negatives, but still feel that the positive aspects outweight the negative ones. This film is so far unique in italian cinema, it definitely attempts at being something new, and therefore I think it deserves consideration

Very little about Romulus and Remus indeed: the generic story could be about any other characters most of the time. Italians seem to have the very same longstanding tradition of Hollywood of making movies supposedly based in mythology but which actually ignore heavily the myths themselves. Edition is also problematic, with some transitions missing (I noticed this problem at least twice). The film would be very similar to any contemporary sword-and-sandal flick from Hollywood if it were not for the extremely nice idea of making the dialogues in Old Latin, following the audacious steps of good movies such as Passion of Christ and Apokalipto. There is an effort (I do not know how much seriously historically accurate; probably very little...) to explore how were the lives of people in early Iron Age in Italian peninsula: the divination scene and the bear headgear were some visually nice elements. However, the film is just sluggish and forgettable.

I just watched this movie - Romulus and Remus The First King and I finally gave up three quarters waiting for something great but what I got was a lot of crap. First of all the movie does not give you a date (770BC) that this all happened and where. I had to look it up on wikipedia!!!!! As far as the storyline goes, well nothing really much happens. I was frankly bored. I expected and was excited when I first saw the movie title but then that all fizzled out into boredom when I stared to watch it. I thought that I would stick with it, but I really wished that I had watched something else instead. They portray the italian tribes not far off from prehistoric man living in stick huts and in furs. When you consider that the Greeks were living in stone buildings and houses in 3000BC, and the vikings had wooden log houses, these men were obviously taken from a different era. I didn't expect them to speak Latin.The ratings for this movie are misleading and way too high. Don't waste your time and watch something good.

A film in which the origin of the foundation of Rome and the myth of Romulus and Remus merge to give shape to an epic pearl of Italian cinema whose dialogues are in Proto-Latin. A crazy, intense, primordial, realistic and exciting work.

The story of Romulus and Remo is fairly well-known through the annals of myth and legend. However, such a tale is difficult to translate into film. This attempt is a fairly good one, with relentless butchery, savagery, and constant struggle just to survive to 40. Most anthropologists would agree with this type of assessment.

There really is no protagonist or antagonist in this film, and the various battles are furiously brutal and realistic. The early pagan mystical aspects of ancient Roman civilization are also present. Some of the scenes reminded me of downtown Jersey City on a Friday night.

Kudos to the producers for not selling out to the Hollywood versions of history. One glaring question remains, however. How did the eventual leader of this group of ex-gladiators (like in Spartacus) who revolted against their captors, ever conquer the groups of savages that had horses, spears, and bows and arrows (superior technology for those days)? I find that a bit hard to swallow. Interesting viewing, however.

Matteo Rovere has achieved a difficult task: rewrite the well known legend of the foundation of Rome, in the past seen in peplum productions, with academic consultants, knowledgeable and enthusiastic professionals and limited budget and make a powerful movie quite different from the current Italian scene. We follow the Romulus and Remus brothers from a sudden disruption of their lives as shepherds to the final tragedy leading to the foundation of the eternal city. There is an intense effort to be as authentic as possible: all the locations are near Rome, sounds chosen and edited to be consistent with the historical environment, wood and hay huts, simple basic clothes and weapons. Sometimes one wonders they really were so primitive, but I noticed that knights from the etruscan city of Alba have more elaborate weapons. Even more important, the actors speak original Paleo Latin with subtitles, a choice I had enjoyed in movies like The Passion and Apocalypto. Pervasive violence and correct emphasis on the paramount importance of religion able to have a strong influence on men's decisions. Excellent photography (always in natural light!) evocative music score and at times moving scenes, at least for a lover of Roman history like me. The actors are excellent in their roles. This movie should have worldwide recognition.

The Italian director Matteo Rovere, with all the crew, did an awesome job with this movie. They collaborated with some of the most prestigious universities in Italy, with the purpose of trying to make this film as realistic as possible. The cinematography is excellent, even the photography is just perfect.

This movie is a work of art. One of the best films I've ever seen. Frankly, the fact that this is rated a measly 6.5 is just criminal and speaks volumes about why mediocre movies are made en masse. If you prefer to watch "Honey Boo Boo" or "Dude Where's My Car" don't bother watching this - it'll go over your head. If you have awareness of who Romulus and Remus were, if you have read a book outside of school before, or if you have any appreciation for culture, you may find yourself enamored with this film.

Unfortunately all the fake reviews yet again sway the ratings....truly boring, badly made, yawn....Italians do not know how to make movies anymore...

I don't know how long ago I went to the cinema to see an Italian movie. This time I had no doubt. This should be in your watchlist.

Wonderful locations and great actors.

I sat through the entire movie hoping it would get more interesting. Unfortunately, I finished it feeling disappointed and wondering why this movie was made.

The dialog was taken out of a 1960's "B" movie, and there really was no substantial story. No depth, no original thought - only a tired, barely functional film. As others have mentioned, there was some good cinematography, but not enough to carry the movie.

They just trotted out old themes that have been done way better by many movies. The corruption that comes out of power, the old question of - is it better to rule by fear, or by gaining respect from people by acting nobly?

After the movie was done, I was left thinking the Roman empire flourished despite being founded by two crazy brothers - Romulus and Remus.

As an Italian I'm always a little bit prejudice with italian movies. But. This one is pretty great. Certainly worth to be watched, even twice maybe. IMO a little bit too dramatical in certain detail, actors' expressions or too long on certain detailed shots. But a part from this little and forgettable stuffs, it is a great movie, with a great plot, great and well played characters. Again: worth to be watched.

1 it's not latin, how could it be more accurate than this? The language they speak is ancient but not latin, even if it has some latin and some latin-sounding words. Etrurian maybe? 2 it's how they dressed at the time in lower social classes. Slaves and poor people didn't dress like ceasars...no need to mention it but I read some funny comments. 3 more action for what? They created an empire which had more than enough violence in the coming centuries, this movie is about the (untold) foundation of rome, it's not The gladiator, and that's why it's good. Romans were not a bunch of barbarians. A lot of violence when it was necessary, and a lot of art, culture and tradition the rest of the time. This is about The R brothers, not an action movie. Just a good story/legend.

As in italian, i read first the italian reviews which were so positive, so i dragged my loved ones into seeing it to everyone disappointment.

The movie is bad, its like a silly "caveman wars" where 10 cavemen with clubs sticks, some occasional knife / axe roam around in the forest along with a witch woman killing enemies and occasionally each other in very violent and unneeded scenes.

Then they declare Rome will be built after some up and downs and the brother kill brother thing which however are are soon to be forgotten.

I dont believe this holds realism, and the imagery is not far from mud, muddy waters, and forest.

The oh so great cinematography is what.. some light that goes trough the trees? Seen that.. is it CGI or some incredible visual magic of real lenses.. ok .. but who cares really, is that worth the movie watching, not even close.