List Price: $34.98 Our Price: $31.48YOU SAVE $3.5!
Buy it
DVD Cambridge Spies
This moody BBC 2003 dramatization of the most notorious debacle in the history of the British Secret Service raises the specter of the treachery of Philby, Burgess, MacLean, and Blunt for a generation of viewers who can only imagine the shockwaves generated by their duplicity. Inevitably the story suffers from the basically repellent quality of its raw material. Determinedly nonjudgmental, it frequently stumbles along a precarious path between romantic eulogy and fact-based fable of the perils of idealism. For all the handsome casting, the characters have little charm to compensate for their deeds. Their motivations are sketched only vaguely. Even in moments of personal vulnerability, however poignant the performances, sympathy is at a premium. But it has its high points as an atmospheric soap opera: the recreation of a period that stretches from the radical aspects of 1930s university life at Cambridge to cold war London, dipping into the Spanish Civil War and the Washington diplomatic circle en route, is vivid. The acting, too, is fine. Tom Hollander's rampantly dissolute Burgess verges constantly on parody. But Toby Stephens (Philby), Samuel West (a frosty Blunt), and Rupert Penry-Jones (an emotionally wrung-out MacLean) work wonders with Peter Moffat's insubstantial script. --Piers Ford
This BBC-PBS T.V presentation is superb. It is not something that you can look at while darning socks, knitting, washing dishes, talking on the phone or having an evening party-it is NOT light entertainment. Go to commercial TV for that. You've got to sit-down, shut-up and concentrate on what is going on. In fact, it took me two viewings to fully understand what actually was going on. LISTEN closely; the script is fantastic. All of the actors are superb with Tom Hollander as Guy Burgess a standout. The production is on a par with some of the best BBC productions that I have had the privilege of seeing. With the gorgeous sets and costumes, it creates a feeling of the era that is being portrayed. If you are into historical presentations and love superb acting buy this DVD.
Ending
The first hour set-up is a bit boring, but it gets much better after that. The bonus features are outstanding and are sufficient alone to purchase this set. Regarding the movie itself, however, I was very disappointing with the ending. Basically, the film ends when Burgess and MacLean defect to Mosocw. Thus, it does not include the remaining 12 years of Philby's spying, nor the eventually unmasking of Blunt. Additionally, Philby's relationship with CIA Chief of Counterintelligence James Jesus Angleton is vastly underrepresented -- particularly as it is germain to at least a portion of Philby's access while he was posted to the British Embassy in the U.S. Lastly, there are several very glaring factual inconsistencies, though the disclaimer at the beginning of the movie acknowledges that the makers took poetic license for "dramatic effect". Frankly, the true story is dramatic enough, and I feel (like a previous reviewer) that this movie was a bit of a lost opportunity to tell the whole story accurately. That said, it still is a decent-enough movie, and worth purchase for the bonus features which contain actual footage of the spies.
Missed Opportunity
The true story of the Cambridge spies is a fascinating chapter in the history of espionage but it is also a study in the English class system. Four upper class idealists who were rather ignorant about the system they were spying for whilst betraying the system that allowed them wealth and opportunity out of reach of the common man.
This dramatization is too detailed on romance and does not focus on the real events enough. The amazing aspect is that they got away with it for so long but there should have been more explananation of the changing world events to illustrate this. The motivation of the four is never clear and the damage they caused is never explained.
If you like English dramas, you will probably like this. But for me far too much time is dedicated to the love affairs of the group and even though you would expect a true story about espionage during world war II and the cold war would be thrilling and exhilarating this is rather dull and boring. Good acting, good direction but a bit too much soft focus.
John Le Carre for the Internet generation, the BBC's MI-5 is a smart combination of TV cop show and George Smiley-esque espionage shenanigans that pulls no punches in its depiction of an MI-5 (the British CIA) team fighting a covert war on the streets of London. This is adult, post-watershed drama clearly inspired by the hard-hitting style of shows as 24 and The Sopranos. The strong ensemble cast is led by charismatic Matthew MacFadyen as Tom Quinn, star spy of "Section B," the counterterrorism branch headed by Harry Pearce (Peter Firth). Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, and tough-cookie Jenny Agutter make up the team. And as with its British predecessors, Cracker and Prime Suspect, MI-5 (titled Spooks originally) also delves fearlessly into... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Matthew MacFadyen DVD Release Date: Released the 13 January 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $49.98 Your Price: $39.98YOU SAVE $10!
Buy it
The second of the three Merchant/Ivory films adapting E.M. Forster novels (between A Room with a View and Howard's End), Maurice deals with a theme few period pieces dare mention--a young man's struggle with his homosexuality. It's not just a gay coming-of-age story, however. The hero wrestles with British class society as much as his personal and sexual identity.
The film opens on a stormy, windswept beach, as an older man awkwardly instructs young, fatherless Maurice Hall (James Wilby) in the "sacred mysteries" of sex. The same turbulent, wordless struggle with passion lasts throughout this slowly evolving, beautifully filmed story. Novelist E.M. Forster's brainy, British melodrama hinges on choice and compulsion, as the pensive hero falls for two completely... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Rupert Graves Director(s): James Ivory DVD Release Date: Released the 24 February 2004 Special Order
List Price: $29.95 Your Price: $26.96YOU SAVE $2.99!
Buy it
Connoisseurs of political chicanery will relish House of Cards, the mordantly funny story of Francis Urquhart (Ian Richardson), a British politician with his eye on the top job. Urquhart is the chief whip of the Conservative Party and his job is to maintain party discipline, or, as he likes to say, "put a bit of stick about." This means that he has intimate knowledge of his colleagues' foibles, knowledge that he uses to further his own political ambitions. Aided by his equally ruthless wife and drawing on a network of accomplices, Urquhart forces the prime minister to resign then sets out to discredit each of his rivals for the party leadership. Although it is strongly cast throughout, House of Cards belongs to Ian Richardson. Without his perfectly balanced performance,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Ian Richardson DVD Release Date: Released the 26 August 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $59.98 Your Price: $37.97YOU SAVE $22.01!
Buy it
Yet another astonishing example of the daring and intelligence of British television, A Very British Coup imagines what might have happened if, during the latter days of the cold war, a left-wing prime minister had launched reforms that seriously threatened the interests of the establishment--including the United States. While the initial barrage of political details may confuse American viewers, the complexity soon clears and this miniseries becomes a gripping, dazzling feast of government machinations, media deviousness, and internal power struggles--leading up to murder, blackmail, and extortion. A Very British Coup cunningly displays the tooth and claw of real politics, how personality and policy meld into action and subterfuge. Ray McAnally is fascinating as... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Mick Jackson DVD Release Date: Released the 12 August 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
List Price: $29.95 Your Price: $26.96YOU SAVE $2.99!
Buy it
Intelligent plotting and smart, well-drawn characters make Wire in the Blood well worth watching. This gritty British TV series plays like a cunning hybrid of Cracker, Prime Suspect, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, starring Robson Green as clinical psychologist Tony Hill, whose intimate understanding of the criminal mind gives him an uncanny knack for profiling killers based on scant physical evidence. In the two-part episode "Shadows Rising," Hill and Detective Inspector Carol Jordan (Hermione Norris) unravel the twisting (and twisted) plot of a celebrity stalker who's terrorizing a talk-show hostess and leaving a trail of young, female corpses in his wake. The motivation for these killings provides the episode's unpredictable revelation, spinning this... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Terry McDonough - Andrew Grieve - Roger Gartland - Nicholas Laughland DVD Release Date: Released the 13 January 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
List Price: $24.98 Your Price: $22.48YOU SAVE $2.5!
Buy it
