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.

Best fight scenes , huge masses of soldiers , very credible movie.I saw that movie when I was a child and I was very impressed . I saw again when I grew up and still impressed. I was fascinated by the story of fighting between Dacia and Rome and when I saw this movie the stories became reality. Great performance for the unforgettable actor Amza Pellea as Decebal (the king of dacians) and the best movie of Sergiu Nicolaescu. This is a super-production in the spirit of '60 movies (Spartacus , Battle for Rome).

A movie with great Romanian and international actors. The movie is better than The Gladiator or other actual historical movies.

Unlike many Hollywood movies of the same period (Cleopatra, Ben-Hur, Fall of the Roman Empire, etc) this one is almost perfect in the historical accuracy sence. They used the latest archeological data available at the time (Trajan's column) to show Roman legions in their glory. Cinematography is great. I've heard they used something like 5,000 extras to create battle scenes. Unlike its sequel (Collona), this movie is a masterpiece for everyone who likes cinema and ancient history. I think that if it would be released in the USA it would be nominated for Oscar. Its a shame that this video is hard to find and is not available in major stores.

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.

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.