The Dovekeepers

It was definitely not an action show ,but a drama, with much narration. Hard to follow at points and slow in others. I am glad I did not pay to see this at the movies , even Sam Neill was dry. Roma Downey & Mark Burnet take yet another step further away from presenting a good Christian story,( i.e. their Bible and A.D. stories toning down the divinity of Jesus and leaving out Satan claiming to such things because they wanted it family friendly, but this movie is not) full of fornication. I lost track of all the adultery ,out of wedlock sex and children born out of wedlock. Like a day time soap. Shame...but it is obvious they have plenty of "water" around...

I read the book and loved it, I was hopeful for this adaptation to live up to the book... But no such luck. They left out one of the major characters entirely, one who actually narrates a 1/4 of the book, as well as many other important characters and events from the book. They didn't do justice to any of the characters' back-stories, leaving the viewers without any real understanding of the characters and their motivations. The book was a beautiful piece of historical fiction that told the story of strong, devout Jewish women and the things they did to survive the times and the conditions and the Roman siege. This miniseries was just a historically inaccurate soap opera.

I'm not typically into these types of movies, but I will watch anything with Cote De Pablo in it. I would literally watch a movie with her standing in place.

Having said that, she did a great job, and this was well worth watching. Beautiful scenery.

The book the Dovekeepers was interesting with much information about history. The movie is only sex and left all the information out. Also, the movie is very disjointed. I recommended this movie to friends and was embarrassed. What a total disappointment. Where were the scenes of of the destruction of the Temple, the hazards of traveling across the desert, that the person they were talking to was Josephus the great Historian, that Masada was built by Herod, the importance of the dovekeeping and sending of messages, who were the Essenes,where were the fields and what did they grow, what was the Mikveh, the explanations of the rituals done by Shira and her methods of holistic healing, etc. Where was all the information that was given in the book. We know about sex and lust but not about the history that was provided in the book. This movie removed the essence of the book leaving nothing of interest.

I never read the book so I don't know what the intention or full story was. (This version seems to exclude a lot). And I can forgive the lack to authenticity. (Blue eyed, flame haired Judean 2000 years ago? Yeah, right.) It's fictionalized history.

What's unforgivable is the the lack of likeable characters (except maybe the German slave and Josephus who was at least a realist/pragmatist.)

I'm all for love and romance, but come on! The women come across as dumb, weak, easily seduced and/or mean (scorned wives mad at mistresses). The men predatory when not just complete a-holes.

Perhaps it was the way this particular story was told, but what the Jews were fighting for wasn't really emphasized/shown. We see the Romans take revenge, but (based on the story here) they were attacked first. Revenge is what the Romans do. Sure, revolt/rebellion/dying for freedom is a topic of argument between Shirah and Josephus, but it's never made visceral for the viewer.

Ultimately, I didn't really care what happened to the Romans or the Jews. The only ones I felt bad for were the children with such lousy parents.