I saw Pillars of the Earth without reading the book. I then red the book and watched the series again. This review has the aim to compare the two experiences.
Pillars of the Earth is, as a stand alone series, excellent. The title sequence alone gave me goose bums the first time I saw it. It gives you high expectations and you're not disappointed. Great production design, passionate drama, endearing characters. Not one boring moment. It's not perfect, with a rushed and silly ending as one of the little weaknesses I can remember.
We can safely say that one of the strong points is the cast. Hayley Atwell as the strong, damaged and beautiful Aliena, Eddie Redmayne as the mysterious and talented Jack. Matthew Macfadyen as the dry, naive and smart prior of Kingsbridge. Without talking about Rufus Sewell as Tom Builder and Natalia Wörner as the independent mother of Jack, Ellen. They are all perfect. Ian Mcshane as the cunning Waleran Bigod is maybe the only one too perfect for the role, replaying some medieval sadistic version of Al Swearengen, his character in Deadwood. But that's hair-splitting. The second strong point is the story, of course. I would never have imagined that the building of a cathedral would be so complicated. Between quarrel with the neighbours (the evil Hamleighs), permit from the King (who's not 100% in power), and cunning from the boss (Waleran), some people would lose their might to live;
That brings us to the book of Ken Follett and the adaptation by John Pielmeier. (Himself playing excellently one of the monks that advises Prior Phillip). Being completely taken by the series I had nothing to complain about his adaptation. Once I red the book and saw the series again however First of all the series feels rushed. I have red some review that Pillars lacked time. Once you've red the book it's so obvious and true. Why did they specifically chose an 8 episodes series and not 10 episodes. Besides the obvious financial reason I see none other. It's classically known that some things are left behind when a book is adapted to screen. Here they have added things. The King Stephen hallucinations and nightmares. I didn't miss it in the book;-) This arc is kept during 4 episodes or so, with Jack going with Prior Phillip to Lincoln. When you see this in the series after reading the book you know it's a bogus excuse to get Jack in Lincoln so that the king can attempt to murder him. I guess they wanted to improve the suspense so that people would tune in for the later episode. After reading the book it doesn't feel so natural as before. It feels manipulative. The two final episodes are the most different from the book. As a book reader you miss two three things that were in the book. The little squabble between Aliena and Jack feels forced. The pursuit of Waleran in the cathedral seems more silly than before. But the final image is one of the strongest you could have visually imagined to end this series. And the actors, as predicted, were well chosen. Reading the book I could not imagine other actors playing the parts.
So they did a very good adaptation but sometimes it feels like they did simplify and not adapt . And they added an unnecessary dramatic arc and it's a pity. But nevertheless they succeeded in most of the challenges that a book as Pillars can present and thanks to the series I discovered the books and it deserves to exist on its own and they deserve all the congratulations in the world to have given us a so qualitative series. A dilemma presents itself: will I read "World without end" before watching the series? I think I might. I will
Pillars of the Earth is, as a stand alone series, excellent. The title sequence alone gave me goose bums the first time I saw it. It gives you high expectations and you're not disappointed. Great production design, passionate drama, endearing characters. Not one boring moment. It's not perfect, with a rushed and silly ending as one of the little weaknesses I can remember.
We can safely say that one of the strong points is the cast. Hayley Atwell as the strong, damaged and beautiful Aliena, Eddie Redmayne as the mysterious and talented Jack. Matthew Macfadyen as the dry, naive and smart prior of Kingsbridge. Without talking about Rufus Sewell as Tom Builder and Natalia Wörner as the independent mother of Jack, Ellen. They are all perfect. Ian Mcshane as the cunning Waleran Bigod is maybe the only one too perfect for the role, replaying some medieval sadistic version of Al Swearengen, his character in Deadwood. But that's hair-splitting. The second strong point is the story, of course. I would never have imagined that the building of a cathedral would be so complicated. Between quarrel with the neighbours (the evil Hamleighs), permit from the King (who's not 100% in power), and cunning from the boss (Waleran), some people would lose their might to live;
That brings us to the book of Ken Follett and the adaptation by John Pielmeier. (Himself playing excellently one of the monks that advises Prior Phillip). Being completely taken by the series I had nothing to complain about his adaptation. Once I red the book and saw the series again however First of all the series feels rushed. I have red some review that Pillars lacked time. Once you've red the book it's so obvious and true. Why did they specifically chose an 8 episodes series and not 10 episodes. Besides the obvious financial reason I see none other. It's classically known that some things are left behind when a book is adapted to screen. Here they have added things. The King Stephen hallucinations and nightmares. I didn't miss it in the book;-) This arc is kept during 4 episodes or so, with Jack going with Prior Phillip to Lincoln. When you see this in the series after reading the book you know it's a bogus excuse to get Jack in Lincoln so that the king can attempt to murder him. I guess they wanted to improve the suspense so that people would tune in for the later episode. After reading the book it doesn't feel so natural as before. It feels manipulative. The two final episodes are the most different from the book. As a book reader you miss two three things that were in the book. The little squabble between Aliena and Jack feels forced. The pursuit of Waleran in the cathedral seems more silly than before. But the final image is one of the strongest you could have visually imagined to end this series. And the actors, as predicted, were well chosen. Reading the book I could not imagine other actors playing the parts.
So they did a very good adaptation but sometimes it feels like they did simplify and not adapt . And they added an unnecessary dramatic arc and it's a pity. But nevertheless they succeeded in most of the challenges that a book as Pillars can present and thanks to the series I discovered the books and it deserves to exist on its own and they deserve all the congratulations in the world to have given us a so qualitative series. A dilemma presents itself: will I read "World without end" before watching the series? I think I might. I will