The Pillars of the Earth

Based on Ken Follett's 1989 bestseller, this Starz Entertainment eight-episode 2010 miniseries chronicles the building of a fictional cathedral in 12th-century England, a time when real-life civil war plunged the country into chaos, as royals, aristocrats, and religious powers schemed against one another, while peasants and laborers suffered the consequences. The saga unfolds as the recently unemployed and aptly named Tom Builder (Rufus Sewell) comes upon a mysterious woman named Ellen (Natalia Wörner) and her son Jack (Eddie Redmayne)—an encounter that eventually leads to Tom's landing a job as master stonemason at the priory of Kingsbridge and overseeing the construction of the massive religious edifice. Watching over the proceedings are the double-dealing Father Waleran (Ian McShane) and the dedicated Prior Philip (Matthew Macfayden), while others entwined in various subplots include the incestuous Lady Regan Hamleigh (Sarah Parish) and her son William (David Oakes), and the upstanding Earl Bartholomew (Donald Sutherland) and his daughter Aliena (Hayley Atwell). Pillars of the Earth serves up plenty of melodrama, lust, and tyranny (along with prophecies, curses, dreams, and visions), but is most memorable for its evocation of the lives of ordinary folks living under a medieval monarchy. Compelling and handsomely executed, this international co-production combines American storytelling, British history, and European film craft to create the kind of fine dramatic long-form miniseries the networks abandoned long ago. DVD and Blu-ray extras include a “making-of” documentary, and a pair of behind-the-scenes featurettes. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)