The finest film made for television that I have ever seen.
Brideshead Revisited is the finest film made for television that I have ever seen. It is true to Evelyn Waugh's great novel. After watching this movie I bought the book and liked it as much as the videos. For those viewers who like to read, if you enjoyed the film you are almost certain to love the book.
After reading the novel, I viewed the tapes a second time and discovered that the movie was even better than I first thought.
What makes this video series great? The performances by a top flight cast are superb and the story is compelling. Jeremy Irons plays the part of Charles Ryder, an artist in search of his soul. His paintings are technially brilliant, but something is missing from them. An eccentric friend characterizes Ryder's work as full of "charm," and this evaluation is true -- the paintings are stylish, but soulless.
Anthony Andrews brings to life Ryder's Oxford college friend, Lord Sebastian Flyte, a spoiled aristocrat trying to...
No Improvement Over 2002 Acorn DVD Release
The only difference between this set and the original Acorn DVD release of 2002 (which was beautifully done) is the addition of the "Revisiting Brideshead" documentary and outtakes. The documentary is awful; the kind of thing that trivializes the work by superficial, self-inflated explanation from literary and media "experts" of things perfectly obvious to anyone who watches the series. I don't need a media critique telling me how perfect Anthony Andrews' performance was--I watched the series and saw so myself. I don't need to be instructed about the religious and sexual tension in the story--its there if you watch it. I was hoping the documentary would be conversation from the actors and crew about the filming, but I guess that would have been too simple. In fact, the several screens of text in the original DVD release that tell the story of the filming are much more interesting. This documentary is depressing, condescending and just stupid--I would skip it altogether.
As...
The Brideshead DVD Box Set is Excellent...
Through my own connections, I was able to obtain this item a month before its street date so you all get to know what you're getting.
The Brideshead DVD Box Set, while not perfect, is indeed excellent and I'll explain why.
As is increasingly the case, the actual disc carriages are part of a three leaved slide-out assemblage which folds up and then is stored in a case, just like with the Godfather DVD Box Set.
These case formats are an excellent way to fight piracy and look great but are not the best in in terms of long term box preservation as cardboard and photo-printed cardboard will degrade.
This release of Brideshead is the 660 minute version of the mini-series and I believe this is the longest and most complete version ever released!
The episode menus and scene selection are pretty, functional and fairly rudimentary, nothing exceptional here.
A little booklet with some director's commentary and info on Evelyn Waugh and the episodes is included.
There are no real...
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