''Masada'' is an American television

miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...

that aired on ABC in April 1981. Advertised by the network as an "ABC Novel for Television," the TV series' script is based on the 1971 novel '' The Antagonists'' by Ernest Gann, with a screenplay written by Joel Oliansky. It tells a fictionalized account of the historical siege of the

Masada Masada ( ', 'fortress'; ) is a mountain-top fortress complex in the Judaean Desert, overlooking the western shore of the Dead Sea in southeastern Israel. The fort, built in the first century BCE, was constructed atop a natural plateau rising ov ...

citadel in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

by legions of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

in AD 73. The siege ended when the Roman armies entered the fortress, only to discover the

mass suicide Mass suicide is a form of suicide, occurring when a group of people simultaneously kill themselves. Mass suicide sometimes occurs in religious settings. In war, defeated groups may resort to mass suicide rather than being captured. Suicide pacts ...

by the

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish defenders when defeat became imminent. The miniseries starred:

Peter O'Toole Peter Seamus O'Toole (; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was an English actor known for his leading roles on stage and screen. His numerous accolades include the Academy Honorary Award, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and four Golde ...

as Roman legion commander Lucius Flavius Silva, Peter Strauss as the Jewish commander

Eleazar ben Ya'ir The Sicarii were a group of Jewish assassins who were active throughout Judaea in the years leading up to and during the First Jewish–Roman War, which took place at the end of the Second Temple period. Often associated with the Zealots (althou ...

and Barbara Carrera as Silva's Jewish mistress. It was O'Toole's first appearance in an American miniseries. ''Masada'' was one of several historical miniseries produced in the early 1980s, following the success of the miniseries ''

Roots A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients. Root or roots may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusin ...

,'' that aired on the ABC Network in 1977, and ''

Shogun , officially , was the title of the military aristocracy, rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor of Japan, Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, exc ...

'', which aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

in 1980.

Plot

Part I

In the year 70 AD, with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the

Second Temple The Second Temple () was the Temple in Jerusalem that replaced Solomon's Temple, which was destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC), Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. It was constructed around 516 BCE and later enhanced by Herod ...

, the Jewish rebellion against Roman occupation is declared over, but Eleazar ben Ya'ir and his family flee the city, vowing that the Judean War is not ended. Eleazar and his followers make their headquarters on top of the mountain fortress of Masada. From there they conduct raids on Roman occupied villages in the south of Judea. These guerrilla attacks threaten the credibility of the declared Roman victory. The commanding general of the 10th Legion, Cornelius Flavius Silva, arranges a meeting with Eleazar to negotiate a truce. Returning to Rome, Silva's hopes to implement a truce in Judea are quashed by the Emperor Vespasian, because of political pressures in the

Roman Senate The Roman Senate () was the highest and constituting assembly of ancient Rome and its aristocracy. With different powers throughout its existence it lasted from the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in 753 BC) as the Sena ...

. Silva is sent back to Judea, after securing the services of veteran Siege Commander Rubrius Gallus. Silva is informed that his second-in-command, general Marcus Quadratus, and head tribune Merovius, are spies for the emperor's political enemy. While Silva is still in Rome, through the treachery of these two men, the truce is violently broken by the Romans.

Part II

Learning of the breaking of the truce upon his return from Rome, Silva marches the 5,000 men of the 10th Legion to the foot of Masada and lays a siege to the apparently impregnable fortress. He directs Quadratus and Merovius on a suicidal assault of the fortress, in order to remove them from his forces and make them an example to any others who share their political leanings. Rubrius Gallus directs that a ramp be built to almost the summit of the mountain, intent on breaking through the Masada walls with the aid of a 50-foot (15.24 m) siege tower that is being constructed out of sight of the rebels. When Eleazar successfully attacks the Roman soldiers building the ramp with catapulted stones, Silva quickly rounds up hundreds of Jews from the surrounding area to use as slaves to continue the work, believing correctly that Eleazar will not attack fellow Jews. This makes Eleazar change his tactics to

psychological warfare Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), has been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations ( MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...

, allowing the heat of the sun and revealing the surplus of water on Masada to demoralize the Roman troops. He acts to capitalize on the Romans' belief in reading the future from the entrails of sacrificed goats, leading a party through the Roman sentries at night to feed the goats maggots, knowing that their discovery during the rituals will be seen as a bad omen. Eleazar's problems are further compounded by his own religious doubts and opposition from the more pacifist groups on Masada.

Part III

The political opportunist Pomponius Falco arrives and under the authority of the Emperor Vespasian relieves Silva as legion commander. Intent on ending the siege quickly through the use of terror, Falco orders Jewish slaves to be killed one by one, by catapulting them into the side of the mountain, until Eleazar surrenders. Eleazar, a religious skeptic, runs to the Masada synagogue and calls to God to stop the killing. Revolted by Falco's barbaric actions, Silva forcibly takes back his command, stops the catapulting, and orders Falco placed under arrest. The cessation of Falco's terror is seen by the Zealots as a response to Eleazar's praying and affirmation of his leadership to them. Rubrius Gallus is killed by a Masadan arrow as he carries out measurements on the siege ramp, only living long enough to confirm his plans to his second in command.

Part IV

As the ramp nears completion, Eleazar faces the fact that the final confrontation with the Romans is not far off. The Zealots break into Herod's Armory and begin to prepare for what they believe will be a straightforward storming of the fortress walls by the Romans. When the ramp is complete, the Romans wheel out the armoured siege tower and battering-ram. Eleazar then realizes that he had underestimated Silva's strategy. As the tower begins moving up the ramp, Eleazar has his people build "an inner wall that will absorb the blows of the ram and not shatter." Made from wooden beams from Herod's Palace roof and packed with dirt, they finish it just as the tower reaches the top of the ramp. The Romans quickly break through the stone walls of the fortress, but the ram does nothing against the improvised inner wall. As the wall is made partly of wood, Silva orders his men to set fire to it. Deducing that it would take all night for the wall to burn through, Silva has his men stand down. The rest of the night is tense for both sides, as the fitful wind may as easily spread the blaze to the siege tower as burn down the inner wall. The next day, the Romans break into the fortress, only to discover that Eleazar and his people had all committed suicide during the night. The closing line is said by a dispirited and despondent Silva, who mourns all that has been hoped and planned and lost by both sides whilst fighting for "a rock, in the middle of a wasteland, on the shore of a poisoned sea...".

Cast

;Starring ;Also starring ;Co-starring

Production

''Masada'' was filmed on location at the site of the ancient fortress, in the

Judean Desert The Judaean Desert or Judean Desert (, ) is a desert in the West Bank and Israel that stretches east of the ridge of the Judaean Mountains and in their rain shadow, so east of Jerusalem, and descends to the Dead Sea. Under the name El-Bariyah, ...

, Israel. Remains of a ramp, created during the filming to simulate the ramp built by the Romans to take the fortress, can be seen at the site. ABC, concerned that the audience would be unfamiliar with the historical background of the story, commissioned a 30-minute documentary, ''Back To Masada''. Starring Peter O'Toole, it recounts the history of the Jewish revolt against Rome. The network gave the documentary to its affiliates to run in the weeks before the premiere of the miniseries.

Soundtrack

The music for Parts I and II were composed by

Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer, conductor and orchestrator with a career in film and television scoring that spanned nearly 50 years and over 200 productions, between 1954 and 2003. He was consid ...

. Because of myriad production delays, Goldsmith was forced to move on to other previously contracted scoring commitments. Parts III and IV were composed by

Morton Stevens Morton Stevens (January 30, 1929 – November 11, 1991) was an American film score composer. In 1965, he became director of music for CBS West Coast operations. He is probably best known for composing the theme music for '' Hawaii Five-O'', ...

, based on the themes and motifs Goldsmith had written. In 1981,

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc. established in 1972, though MCA had released recordings under that name in the UK from the 1960s. The label achieved success in the 1970s through the 1980s, often by acquiring other ...

released on vinyl and cassette a re-recording of selections of Goldsmith's music performed by the UK's National Philharmonic Orchestra under the composer's baton. In 2011, Intrada Records issued a 2-CD set of the original recording of the complete score. In 2021, a more expansive 4-CD set was released, with alternates, unreleased material, and the original album version.

Awards and nominations

Home media

As was the case with ''Shogun'', an edited,

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

-length version of the miniseries was made for theatrical release in other countries under the title ''The Antagonists''. This was the version that was initially available on

home video Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...

. The complete ''Masada'' miniseries first made it to the video market on four

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

tapes in 2001. A two-disc

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

release titled ''Masada — The Complete Epic Mini-Series'' was released in September 2007. A Region 2 UK, two-disc DVD was released in January 2009.

References

External links

*
Movie Review: ''Masada''
The Prayer Foundation (described therein as "From the Video's Back Cover" with comments following). Retrieved November 8, 2015. *Masada TV Mini-Series () {{First Jewish–Roman War, state=collapsed 1981 American television series debuts 1981 American television series endings 1980s American television miniseries American biographical series American Broadcasting Company television dramas Jewish American television series American adventure television series Television dramas set in ancient Rome Television shows based on American novels Television series by Universal Television Television shows set in Israel Siege of Masada Television series set in the Roman Empire Television series set in the 1st century Films directed by Boris Sagal