The Dacians

Nicolaecu's movie is one of the greatest Romanian films ever made. The leading role of the king belongs to Amza Pellea, who wonderfully combines the force of the ancestors and the art of giving life to such a character.

The genuine landscapes bring the viewer into a prodigious world of mystery and ancient beliefs which are now violently invaded by the roman conquerors. The co-production benefits not only from the performance of the actors, the settings or the daring achievement in directing of Nicolaescu, but also from the unique, yet true story.

This is what i call a good movie, but this is the comment of a novice in matters of movie critics. For those who enjoy spending precious time on movies, this is worth watching.

This is really a very impressive movie, one of my favourites. And what is its major advantage? It's a deep and natural empathy for the ancient past without any need to add some artifical tricks. Music score perfectly matches with all scenes. Landscape views with marching or fighting legions are superb. Unfortunately, at least VHS record is very hard to find and DVD doesn't exist so far. There should be no doubts that this movie, as well as some other similar releases, deserve a better international recognition of fans and connoisseurs.

The newspaper "Adevarul" (the Truth) releases on DVD the "Historical" series of movies made by Sergiu Nicolaescu in the '60s, '70s and '80s. This contains the movies "Dacii" (the dacians), "Mircea", "Mihai Viteazul", "Nemuritorii" (the Imortals), "Capcana mercenarilor" (the mercenaries' trap), "Pentru patrie" (for the country). They are restored from film rolls from the National Film Archive (or national television archive), but quality is limited to VHS resolution. Given the film and audio technology level in 1967 the soundtrack is mono with subtitles in English and french. Colors are restored, but some scratches are visible throughout the movie, given its 41 years of age. Visual or audio effects were no concern for Nicolaescu, since its movies are based on historical facts transcending time and people. Fight scenes are real, using 5000 plus extras synchronized and filmed with multiple cameras, since no more than two takes were possible in one day at that scale. I don't know if the movies will be available outside the country, since are distributed only with the paper. http://www.filmeleadevarul.ro/istorice/category/filme/dacii/

Attractive Romanian film (actually a Romanian-French co production filmed in Romania) belonging to the swords and sandals genre and telling the story of how the Dacians confronted and resisted the Roman Empire at around 100 AD. Great action scenes, attractive outdoor locations (in pastoral like locations) are a plus. This was made in 1967, when many films of this sort were made in the West (the so called Peplum, including Spartacus, Cleopatra and countless Italian movies), yet this particular film seems to be little known outside Romania. It is a well made, entertaining film with fine color photography. Since the Dacians are believed to be the ancestors of the Romanians, I suppose part of the purpose of the film was to raise nationalist consciousness, but this is thankfully not too heavy.

I wish people were less "detached" and less bored sometimes, to appreciate valuable movies for what they really are - valuable movies. As I am about to finish watching "Columna" on TV here in Bucharest, I'm thinking how lucky we are to have this fascinating history. To us, both "Dacii" and "Columna" are excellent and make very valid points as to how ancient Dacia was conquered by the Romans.

I am sorry that these movies (as many other Romanian historical movies) are not easy to find in the West, as the viewer comments on here seem to indicate. (I'd initially come on here to see where they could be found, to recommend them to a friend in the West). I think they would also prove useful, providing a wealth of information and "insight" for anyone wanting to learn more about this part of the world.