Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

bkoganbing The only thing that would have made Richard Wagner's life complete is for his friend and patron King Ludwig of Bavaria to have become the Kaiser of a united Germany rather than that Hohenzollern bunch from Prussia. He'd have had it made if that was the case.Wagner was a genius not only in the composition of music, but in the production end as well. He might well be regarded as the Cecil B. DeMille of grand opera, the themes he wrote about were epic in nature requiring productions that were also epic. Wagner was constantly in need of money to support his grand style of living that he felt a genius ought to indulge in, but also for his productions. He searched for years before lighting on the King of Bavaria who had grand ideas about high living and felt it an honor to be the grand patron of the foremost German composer of his time.Richard Burton in this long mini-series has plenty of time and plenty of dialog to capture the character of Wagner in all its aspects. Good thing the man was a genius because no one else would have put up with his bad behavior. Friends were there to serve him, even giving up their wives for his occasional passion and in one case for his great love, second wife Cosima played by Vanessa Redgrave.The three classical acting knights, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, and John Gielgud are all ministers to King Ludwig played by Hungarian actor Laszlo Galffi. They turn in fine performances of men driven to their wit's end serving a king who bungles into a war with Prussia that he loses and at the same time bankrupts his country both in creating grand palaces as his ancestors lived and in bankrolling the genius of Wagner. Richard Wagner's ideas of German superiority of raving anti-Semitism and of the unshakable belief in his own genius for good or ill reflected a lot of the bad in German culture. He was the Nazi's favorite composer and knowledge of that puts many off from his work today. Still his music does transcend the man and the one thing the mini-series Wagner has in abundance is his music. That and the multi-layered performance of Richard Burton is enough reason to watch Wagner even though it does bog down occasionally.

Air America I was delighted to learn from IMDb that this film was offered as the "Complete Series" and on DVD. However I was a bit disappointed that it was apparently produced from the video tapes rather than from the film itself. The quality is not that bad but it does not do full justice to this greatly anticipated effort. I was quite astonished with some of the scenes in both versions, apparently done at actual locations such as Bayreuth, Venice, Zell am See, and Tribschen. One of the most intriguing and original scenes was the superimposition of actual photographs of the original performance over the film scenes as viewed by King Ludwig II in his private viewing of "The Ring." All in all, this was worth the wait.

pekinman I hadn't seen Tony Palmer's epic film 'Wagner' since 1985 when it was screened in the original 9 hour version at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco as part of its production of Wagner's 'Ring' cycle. I recall the film being a seemingly endless, excruciating experience and I don't remember if I made it back after the 2nd meal break to see the end.Over the years I have wondered if my memory did justice to this film and so have wanted to see it again. Finally I found a copy of the 9 hour version at a fairly reasonable price and have just sat through a seemingly endless, excruciating experience.I happen to love Wagner's music and wanted to like this movie enough that I was able to pry out the few good aspects of it. There are two, count 'em, two excellent performances out of a cast of many; Gemma Craven is very touching and visceral as Minna Wagner, Richard's first much put-upon wife. The other fine acting comes from Richard Pasco as Otto Wesendonck, husband of Mathilde, Wagner's most important mistress. For the rest, the usual suspects show up in the roster, notably the ubiquitous, though always entertaining, trio of John Gielgund,Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, doing an upper crust Three Stooges routine. They at least offer some comic respite from the heavy-handed, galumphing script that sinks the rest of the cast; a cast that is by and large horribly MIS-cast. Richard Burton was too old, tired and infirm to bring any energy at all to the title role. He seems comatose most of the time and is an utter bore. At the time he mentioned this as the worst film he'd ever made. Vanessa Redgrave hasn't a clue as to Cosima Wagner's nature and consequently turns in one of her petulant-rebel performances that is more suitable to 'Isadora' or 'Blow Up' than to a 19th century Baroness. Redgrave is further in a scene involving her and the great Wagnerian soprano Gwyneth Jones, who acts far more expertly and believably than her famous co-star.Some vapid Hungarian puppy plays King Ludwig II and is ghastly. By the way, Palmer buys into the incorrect notion that King Ludwig II drowned himself after murdering the psycho-analyst who had him imprisoned in one of the castles. In point of fact, when an autopsy was performed on Ludwig's body they found no water in his lungs. His death remains an unsolved mystery. But details don't concern Tony Palmer. I often found myself wondering if he bothered to direct his all-at-sea cast. The editing is sloppy and the terrible cutting of the musical score is jarring and carelessly done. Some of the acting is horrendously bad, especially when they are trying to conduct an orchestra or play a piano. The actor playing Hans von Bulow is especially bad in this regard. All in all a typically shallow Tony Palmer production full of "powerful" visions, like burning horses galloping out of a fiery barn, and dripping, severed limbs during the battle of Dresen. The usual Palmer attempt to wrench gasps from his glazed-eyed audiences.Wagner was a fascinating person, the kind of creature that happens once every 150 years or so and deserves a first class bio-pic. This isn't it. By all means rent this if you are a die-hard Wagnerian, otherwise skip it, and by no means buy the dvds.One thing I would like to know is the name of the very beautiful choral composition that accompanies the credits.

DeeDee-10 With a stupendous cast headed by Richard Burton, this film takes on the life of Wagner and seems to raise the same complaints his audience had regarding his operas: long bacchanals of passion and excess. Art imitates life? You bet! Burton's monologues are brilliant as usual (I'm a long-time Burton fan) full of emotion and brilliantly performed. As to why everyone including royalty continued to support and love his music, chosing to ignore for the most part his despicible life in which he treated everyone shabbily including his wife, lovers, patrons, etc. . . .is it any different today? Don't we love our music/film icons ignoring their dark side? This film also made me want to rush to history books to read more about the era, especially about the young king of Bavaria. Take two nights to watch the video.