The Dovekeepers

This was trash. I only watched the first night. I kept thinking this must get better. Nope. I should have given up on it improving. The message night one sends was that it is okay to have sex with married men.

I couldn't even figure out what the main plot of the movie was supposed to be about.

I also didn't understand the supernatural aspect. Where these just dreams or a guilty conscious.

I have not read the book. One review said the movie does not reflect the book. I would like to hear from others that have read the book. I would be tempted to give the book a try.

I never read the book so I don't know what the intention or full story was. (This version seems to exclude a lot). And I can forgive the lack to authenticity. (Blue eyed, flame haired Judean 2000 years ago? Yeah, right.) It's fictionalized history.

What's unforgivable is the the lack of likeable characters (except maybe the German slave and Josephus who was at least a realist/pragmatist.)

I'm all for love and romance, but come on! The women come across as dumb, weak, easily seduced and/or mean (scorned wives mad at mistresses). The men predatory when not just complete a-holes.

Perhaps it was the way this particular story was told, but what the Jews were fighting for wasn't really emphasized/shown. We see the Romans take revenge, but (based on the story here) they were attacked first. Revenge is what the Romans do. Sure, revolt/rebellion/dying for freedom is a topic of argument between Shirah and Josephus, but it's never made visceral for the viewer.

Ultimately, I didn't really care what happened to the Romans or the Jews. The only ones I felt bad for were the children with such lousy parents.

Really the only good thing about this film was the visuals. Everything else about it was just terrible. This movie was in essence a women's romance novel set during biblical times. The film hardly hold up to Judea/Christian values though. The two main women in the movie sleep with every man they meet. This is unacceptable in our time, but in this time in history they would have been killed for it. To add insult to injury they also practice witchcraft. No one ever seems to question any of this behavior though, and everyone acts like this is perfectly normal. I never did watch the second night. It was so terrible I could not bear another night of this trash. The characters are empty, and wooden. The men are all hunky (right off the cover of a romance novel). Do yourself a favor and skip this. Your brain will thank you for it.

I saw the movie then read the book. Not the same. In the movie Shirah lives she is still pregnant when found by Roman soldiers. In the book she gives birth to her daughter and gives the baby to Yael. Her lover and father of her baby slits her throat and then kills him self. Yael in the book says at the end when found by Roman soldiers says she is Shirah. Was disappointed that more of the history that is told in the book wasn't mentioned in the movie. There is a lot of history here. A lot of terrible things happened to the Jewish people. I went to Isreal in 2007 and went up to Masada and visited Herod's fortress. Knowing something about the history helped in understanding the story. The book was a little confusing at times, but it was more interesting because of the history mentioned.

I'm not typically into these types of movies, but I will watch anything with Cote De Pablo in it. I would literally watch a movie with her standing in place.

Having said that, she did a great job, and this was well worth watching. Beautiful scenery.