'Revolution' DVD and 'John Adams' Blu Ray

Arthur

Right, this topic would probably be more at home on the British Grenadier forum and I should know better than starting a film discussion on a wargames forum, but here it is anyway...

Warner Brothers has recently released a re-vamped DVD version of Hugh Hudson's 'Revolution', cleverly re-titled 'Revolution Revisited'. For the life of me, I have never understood why that film received the critical panning that it did, to the extent that it's still commonly described as one of the worst bombs of the 80's. I am no unconditional admirer of Hugh Hudson, but 'Revolution' always struck me as a solid piece of filmmaking with a very good central performance by Al Pacino.

The 're-imagined' version leaves me somewhat skeptical though : the main differences with the theatrical release are the ending (much less satisfactory than the original one, methinks) and a horribly intrusive voiceover. The idea is to make the viewer empathize more with the Al Pacino character, but for the most part, the narration simply states (and sometimes overstates) the obvious, to the extent that it ruins an otherwise beautiful reunion scene between Pacino and Nastassia Kinski. Oh well, after having been unavailable for over twenty years, the film is at least visible again. The disc is a US-only release, but it's not region-locked and will play on all machines regardless of their region coding. Amazon.com has it, amongst other online retailers :

http://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Revisited-Al-Pacino/dp/B001TK80D4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1246318590&sr=1-1

Also in the US, HBO has also released a Blu-Ray version of its 'John Adams' miniseries. And lest you accuse me of going into technoboy mode here, the gain in image quality is indeed spectacular - you get to see those little uniform details you would have otherwise missed in standard def. Like the 'Revolution' DVD , it's a region-free release that will play on any machine the world over.

http://www.amazon.com/John-Adams-Blu-ray-Paul-Giamatti/dp/B001684L0A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1246319287&sr=1-2

Movie buff rant over, now to your quills, gentlemen... Hide

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Eccles · Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 1:52 am Post subject:

I quite like Rovolution and went looking for it a couple months ago.

It had the same feel for the AWI, for me, as 'Chasing the Deer' had for the second Jacobit Rebellion. Quite different from popular opinion.
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Cornet · Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 1:57 am Post subject:

I haven't seen "Revolution" but Pacino can be quite bad, so I never questioned the critical panning. "Bad" doesn't quite cover it ... occasionally, I will watch him in a film and wonder why the director hadn't burned the camera masters before they could be edited. Based on your recommendation, I will have to give "Revolution" a try.

I haven't seen "John Adams" either, though I read the book it's based upon. The book was very good for a popular history. I had wanted to see his HBO production, but we didn't have HBO at the time. Again, based on your recommendation, I'll have to give it a try.
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Eccles · Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 2:01 am Post subject:

It captured the civil war aspect better than any film I've seen. Most people would have you believe its an 'us vs them' scenario.
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Cornet · Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 4:50 am Post subject:

Ronan the Librarian · Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 2:08 pm Post subject:

I didn't think "Revolution" was the worst film I'd ever seen, and certainly not as bad as critics said. The battle scenes, especially those with hordes of Rebels wearing civvies, were actually quite good.
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goat major · Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 2:13 pm Post subject:

I thoroughly enjoyed John Adams and would definitely watch it again.

A bit lacking in military stuff - but to be fair that wasnt the subject matter. Also at times i felt i didnt fully understand from the production what was motivating Adams - it seemed like a portrayal of all the things that happened with him and around him but i didnt really get a strong enough sense of the man himself.

There were also some cracking English accents. King George was Dick van Dyke-esque Smile

Giles · Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 2:17 pm Post subject:

"John Adams" is oen of the best 18th century depictions ever made. It's attention to detail is very high and the CGI vistas of Boston harbour alone are worth the price of the DVD.
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Giles · Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 2:20 pm Post subject: