The Pillars of the Earth
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TV Series on Pillars of the Earth
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Salisbury
(last edited Mar 17, 2010 03:17AM)
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Mar 16, 2010 08:31AM
A TV series has just been filmed based on the Pillars of the Earth book. The fictional Kingsbridge Cathedral was inspired by Salisbury Cathedral, England. Lots of blogs from the author and film pictures on our website www.salisburycathedral.org.uk
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The TV series of The Pillars Of The Earth, in my opinion, was very well done.
It's different in some areas, but other than that... it's amazing.
Omygosh, I have watched it soo many times. I love Kingsbridge and its people!
The television series of Pillars of the Earth fell well short of the mark. The story-line stuttered through the introduction of a number of characters placing more emphasis on action than emotion. Few filming's compare favorably to the original novels but I found this series seriously lacking in doing the original novel justice.
I loved the book and I enoyed the TV series as well. I plan on watching the series again soon to see if I can find Ken Follett in the movie. I am really hoping that they do a World Without End series.
I loved the book and I have been desperately waiting to watch the mini-series!
Until now I was afraid to watch the series in fear of being so disappointed which is common when a book such as this hits the screen. Reading the comments above I may have to reconsider.
The TV series is really good if you read the book and liked. I didn't like the Pillars Of The Earth, but the series complemented the book really well.
The mini series was an excellent adaptation. Of course it couldn't include every subplot, but it hit the high spots. The era was portrayed very realistically.
It missed much of the drama and despair, all of the vision and love.
I thought that the film adaption was very good. Of course, some of the plot was missing, and a couple of the characters had been modified a bit, but all in all it was very well done and I loved it. Actually, I'm pretty sure that you can instantly watch the mini series on Netflix. I also heard that a mini series of "World Without End" (sequel to Pillars) is coming out in 2012 or something like that... I can't wait!
The book is one of my very favorites, so the mini-series would of had to be nothing short of exceptional for me to love it. And it.......wasn't. I couldn't understand the reason for changing some of the plot. It just didn't make any sence to me to change the story up when the orginal was so great. I had a really hard time wondering why they spent so much time on the "incestial" relationship between Regan and William. WHY? I didn't get that from the book. I really felt that a lot of the mini-series felt very awkward and stange. I do feel that they casted the characters well. I really like the woman that played Ellen and the man that played Jack.
I was disappointed with the TV Series after having read and loved the book.
The book was so awesome and filled with details and character development that I wasn't expecting the series to live up to the book, and of course it didn't. I did however enjoy seeing the cathedral and other buildings that were described in the book.
I absolutely loved the book. But I haven't seen the mini-series. After reading these comments, I'm not sure that I should.
Try it. Just one CD has a enough to tell if your going to like it.
The mini-series was pretty good. Of course, they took some liberties such as the time frame and Jack's age. I liked it, mainly because I liked the cast.
I thought that the mini-series was pretty good. I thought the cast was pretty good, too. I liked how they were able to span it over the years just like the book did. I think it's worth watching.
I loved the story. There is something about reading the pages of a book that leaves you more connected with a story than a movie or tv series. However, I really liked the mini series. They did a good job of the adaptation of the story from book to movie. The series was especially good for those who didn't want to read a thousand plus pages, but I'm glad I read it before I watched the mini series. I feel like I got two perspectives on the same story.Now about the characters. The guy who plays Tom usually plays evil characters. It was interesting to see him in another light. The mother and son Hamleigh's relationship was so hard to watch on screen, but I think they picked the right people for the job. For some reason I didn't like the acting of the guy who played Jack, but I think they were spot on for Alfred.
I read the book and watched the series, which I really enjoyed. Love the characters and the depiction of the novel.
Absolutely loved the tv series. Am currently reading the book and almost finished.
I read both the Pillars of the Earth and World Without End many times before watching the mini series. I'm usually disappointed if I've read the book first, but I thought this TV series exceeded my expectations. Like others have said, all elements of the book could of course not be included, but I think it was pretty close.
I watched the series with my boyfriend who has not read the books, and he thought the series was incredible.
I listened to this book-- 31 hours, the longest audio book I have ever listened to--and I honestly don't remember a lot of it so I can't comment on what was included/omitted from the TV series. I loved the series because I thought it was visually stunning, especially in widescreen HD. My husband actually watched the whole thing and he is very picky about what he is willing to spend his few hours of free time watching.
I'm about half way through the mini series now after finishing the book last week. The only thing the two have in common are the title, that names of the characters and that they revolve around the building of the cathedral. I know the movie is never as good as the book, but this movie is so far off base it's starting to make me angry.
The mini-series is quite well done, but it's really too short. It lacks of many important moments that are so well written in the book. You cannot dream and be anxious when so many passages are cut away... Nevertheless, it's a good remake, but the book is absolutely far better.
I watched the first episode then gave up. I think they got it half right and half wrong. Mostly, it was the casting and plotting. Follet created some iconic moments in that book, which were turned into footnotes in the mini series. The casting of William Hamleigh was so wrong. In the book he's an oafish, blonde bully, but in the mini series it was like they picked someone who had auditioned for the part of jack. The book is so much better, they shouldn't have mucked around with it.
I really loved this book. Can't wait to read the second one but have a few others books to finish before I get into another 900 page book. A large book like that just takes so long to read.
I am on to "World Without End" and it so far feels like "Pillars" which is a good thing. I chose not to watch the series just to keep the story "by the book" in my head.
I loved Pillars and World Without End. I bought my mom the dvd set of Pillars the show last week for her birthday. Now I deffinately have to borrow it :) Also, supposedly they are going to do WWE as a min-series too. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1878805/
The DVD version was good. However, I did not realize how extremely intnricate Follett had woven his characters, motivations, etc until I saw the movie. You pull one tiny bit of a thread out of place and the whole structure seems to lose purpose and meaning furthur down the line. I suppose it would be great if I hadn't read the book first. As it was, I could only work my way through 1.5 disks before giving up.
Thom wrote: "The television series of Pillars of the Earth fell well short of the mark. The story-line stuttered through the introduction of a number of characters placing more emphasis on action than emotion. ..."I completely agree with this.
Heather wrote: "I loved the book and I enoyed the TV series as well. I plan on watching the series again soon to see if I can find Ken Follett in the movie. I am really hoping that they do a World Without End series."World Without End was made into a series, it is available on Netflix.
I loved the book and I have been desperately waiting to watch the mini-series to see everything and....and I was disappointed with the series. I just don't understand the reason for changing some of the plot. Why do that?? why change the story up when the original was so great, was amazing! Beacuse the only thing the two have in common are the title, that names of the characters and that they revolve around the building of the cathedral. I know the movie is never as good as the book, but this movie is so far off base that makes me angry when I watched the series!
Separately both the book and tv show were good, however if you plan on reading the book and enjoying that story truly come to life in the show you will be sadly disappointed. The show should have had a completely different title. I can usually have an open mind about this but on so many levels this show failed to capture the book, along with telling almost a completely different story
I read the book in 2009 when in Afghanistan. I bought the TV series when it came out but just watched it recently. So much of it seems different from the book.I don't remember the book having a lot of hard sex such as the rotten Bishop who says about the monks being around a woman-goes something like this in TV series: "they can still smell cunt". I cannot remember this being in the book.
It seems the movie puts far more importance in characters having sex (screwing on film) than in all the work that went into building the cathedral.
It seems that the Church is constantly being attacked and is constantly shown to be evil. Yes, there were evil men and women but that is all this movie emphasizes. We see and hear little good about the Catholic Church in the time frame of the 1100s-1200s.
I would have to read the book again in order to be more precise but I know for sure that those who made this series put a lot of emphasis on sex and ridiculing the Church. I see little in the movie that shows just how much thought, skill, and ingenuity went into building a cathedral and all that it entails.
The darkness is emphasized in this TV series. It seems there is little time when good and good feeling existed.
I enjoyed watching the movie but it is very different from the book.
At the beginning of the final chapter (8), the king says to Alyenna's brother who is presumably back from the Crusades something like "you killed a lot of Jews ,didn't you"? I do not recall this being in the book. It was never the intention of sending this man out to "kill Jews". Those who wrote the script for this eight part TV series added it because they had a certain agenda and it is to use this show as a way to degrade and mock the Catholic Church.After spending my lifetime (in my occupation) dealing with all kinds of personalities it is clear that the writers and producers had an agenda to make this Catholic Church look worse than any devil. Perhaps Ken Follett wanted it this way. I am in my 60s and spent a lifetime figuring out criminals and it is clear that this TV series was designed to mock the Church.
Of course the script writers would never add that it was this Church that first started helping the poor and the sick and actually ran very good manors and systems and that without this Church there would have been a lot more bloodshed.
But the writers are shrewd. They add touching things like loyal young love and good action scenes where eventually the bad guys get their due. They also put in enough sleaze to make it appealing to those who love soap operas (rape, incest, hints of sodomy among monks - not an issue in the book but important to the writers of the TV series).
If you want a story that appeals to the emotions of the masses then you will really like this TV series. If you want what was in the book you will find that the writers of the TV series had an agenda in changing the story.
It seems to be the American way to trash and slander certain groups and faiths. Of course these writers would never slander groups like Muslims and those of the Jewish faith because the retaliation by leaders of these Faiths would be swift and damning.
I would tell viewers that they will get an interesting tale that has sex and murder and slander but do not expect this story to be about the actual book written by Follett, but did Follett give his OK to have his story shown in a very sleazy manner?
I just recently read the book and feel in love with it (I start world without end this afternoon), so naturally when I found out there was a mini series I hurried home to find it and binge watch the whole series... but unfortunately... I found the Starz mini drama to be sadly lacking. It may be because I watched it so soon after reading the book that the plot line seemed to be totally off from the original work but I was seriously disappointed in how it played out.
Faye wrote: "I absolutely loved the book. But I haven't seen the mini-series. After reading these comments, I'm not sure that I should."I loved the TV series, while there are lots of negative comments on the series, it is well
worth watching.
PS the book is one of my all time favourites.
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