In 12th century England, the poor are so poor that a pig is worth a life. Medicine is rejected as sin — or witchcraft. Churchmen poison one another wantonly, and beheadings are preceded by puppet shows.
But Tom Builder is a better man than most of those around him. He wants to turn stone into beautiful, soaring spaces, not castles for princes but cathedrals that reach halfway to God.
Rufus Sewell stars as Tom in "The Pillars of the Earth," a richly textured dramatization of Ken Follett's 1989 historical novel, a worldwide best seller and one-time "Oprah" book. The miniseries, a German-Canadian production airing in the United States on Starz, will unfold over eight hours and seven weeks in the Friday time slot where Starz had a hit with "Spartacus: Blood and Sand."
I found "Spartacus" ridiculous, although I can certainly understand watching it for the blood and sex.
"The Pillars of the Earth," though, is far more than "Blood and Mud," despite offering plenty of sword fights, impalings and executions for action fans.
The drama in "Pillars" is driven by its characters, especially Tom, and Sewell (most recently seen on American TV in "Eleventh Hour") is just the actor to make us bond immediately with our hero. This is true despite the fact that we've hardly met him when we watch him abandon his newborn son on a grave.
Times are tough for Tom. He was building a castle when the project fell rather violently through, leaving him and his family destitute. But the tragic turn of events introduces Tom to Ellen (Natalia Wörner), a self-described renegade nun who turns out to be quite a comfort, and her mysterious, almost mute son Jack (Eddie Redmayne), an artist in stone.
Meanwhile, back in Winchester, the war of succession known as the Anarchy is raging. King Stephen (Tony Curran) has succeeded his uncle, Henry I, after a suspicious shipwreck took out the king's only legitimate male heir. Earl Bartholomew (Donald Sutherland) is loyal to Henry's daughter Maud (Allison Pill), while Waleran (the great Ian McShane) is loyal only to himself.
The core of "Pillars" follows Tom as he builds a cathedral in fictional Kingsbridge for Prior Philip (Matthew Macfadyen), who is determined to "give God a beautiful home."
"This cathedral is more than just stone and wood and mud," the prior exhorts the exhausted workers. "It takes the earth with all its heaviness and transforms it into possibility, reaching for the light, which is hope, which is God."
Executive producers Tony and Ridley Scott and director Sergio Mimica-Gezzan have honored Follett's novel by giving its themes of art and beauty almost equal weight to its political intrigues and religious infighting. Fans of the 1989 novel, which has sold more than 14 million copies and runs almost 1,000 pages, may regret that the story had to be compressed for television, while medievalists might protest, as they did with the book, that historical accuracy is lacking.
But it's hard to complain about the $40 million production, shot in Austria and Hungary, and Follett has praised the producers attention to detail.
"The Pillars of the Earth" is the kind of splashy miniseries event that the broadcast networks can't or won't do anymore. Costs are so high and viewers' attention spans are so short that the extended miniseries these days belongs almost entirely to cable, especially premium cable.
Luckily, if you don't get Starz, you'll eventually be able to rent or buy "The Pillars of the Earth" on DVD. Meanwhile, you might do what I'm going to do: Read the book.
