The Devils (Special Uncut Restored Edition 1971)
by Ken Russell
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DVD details
Actor: Dudley Sutton, Michael Gothard, Oliver Reed, Vanessa RedgraveDirector: Ken Russell
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, Import, NTSC
Running Time: 111 minutes
Studio: Film Media
Product features:
- Language: English. Subtitles: NON
DVD Reviews of The Devils (Special Uncut Restored Edition 1971)
DVD Review: Amateur treatment of a great movie
Summary: 1 Stars
This is an excellent movie. THE DEVILS does not deal with the occult or the darkness, but more with the devil within man, what man will do out of corruption and hunger for power, whether it is politic or religious.
Briefly: France, early 1600's- Father Grandier (Oliver Reed, the performance of his lifetime) has consolidated a position of leadership in Loudon, as the head of the church there and as the governor "de facto". He has been able to maintain peace, and coexistence among Christians and Protestants, in a time in which the latter have been outcasted and persecuted, even from up above in the government, Cardinal Richelieu, who, through the consolidation of Christianity, has been looking his own.
Grandier is an obstacle, but he's favored by the king, so how can he be destroyed? Enter sister Agnes, a nun that grows infatuated with Grandier, without his provocation or even direct intervention. She speaks too much, her obsession reaches the wrong ears, and soon her infatuation is twisted and presented as a devilish possession, only to try and destroy Grandier.
All this is based in a true story. The movie is ugly to look at, because of the very nature of its topic. We`re talking about religious persons and symbols being immersed in a chaotic and obscure atmosphere because of the lower human pretensions of power manipulating weak or unprotected individuals. But, regretfully, there's nothing impossible or supernatural about it, just something completely plausible in those days and even today. All this is made even worse by the excessive style that has been a trademark of Ken Russell, the director.
We're talking about a great movie, but not for everyone, and one that has been punished through history, because it messes with religion and the church. It's a surprise that this movie saw the light in VHS (in a full frame restricted version in the US and a widescreen UK version which was more explicit), but since it did, it's a surprise that it has not been officially released as a DVD.
THIS ONE is not, then, an official release, in spite of its claims. Yes, the dvd (as it was originally released by the company Angel Digital) was double layered, and silver (factory pressed, not a copy), but its content is pure second or third grade.
The only good thing is that it is ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN, so it will fit perfectly your 16 x 9 screen. But that's about it. And that's not necesarily good, because the aspect ratio (1:85:1) is not the original (which is something like like 2:35:1, as revealed during the opening and closing titles, and a scene that I will refer to later, all of which change size).
The transfer is no better than a VHS TRANSFER OF A MOVIE RECORDED FROM A CABLE SIGNAL, which is precisely what I think this one is originally. The look of the movie is blurry and with lack of details, the sound (encoded in dolby digital stereo) has a persistent noise characteristic of defective computer codification.
Included is the documentary HELL ON EARTH, which is very interesting, because it presents (through narration and interviews with the director, cast and other personalities) the context in which the movie was released and its problems with the censors, and explanations about scenes that had to be suppressed. There lies another problem. When this dvd version was released originally by ANGEL DIGITAL, they heavily promoted the inclusion of a scene deleted from the theatrical release and even from the VHS, that is infamously known as "The rape of the Christ" which, with no extra explanation needed, involves some nuns and a statue. In spite of what the documentary claims, I think there was a HIGHER reason, other than censorship, why this scene was removed. I always admired the sense of relative restraint that, within the circumstances, and being a Ken Russell product, the movie had. The aforementioned deleted scene is very low camp, completely tasteless, even stupidly comic. It's completely out of synch with the rest of the movie, So its inclusion in this DVD version, is not a plus, but a minus. Great fuzz is being made about the inclusion of a scene that should have been lost forever, for the sake of the movie (having said that, I still insist that the movie could be very offensive to the spectator, with or without that scene).
And this scene has an additional problem: it's clumsily inserted within the movie. Obviously, what they did was take the British VHS version, and include a scene that didn't belong with the original print. That particular scene doesn't have the same aspect ratio as the rest of the movie, and its condition is even poorer. So they basically ruined a "cohesive" transfer to dvd by forcibly include a deleted scene.
Of course, the problem is, this is the only DVD version available, so we are left with practically no alternative. I would not recommend you to buy it, even less with the inclusion of that infamous and very offensive scene, that takes the movie to a very very low. You would do better by getting the UK widescreen version, if you are lucky enough as to have a VHS PAL player. Even the USA VHS version, although full screen, would be less disappointing and less offensive, so maybe is a good place to start.
Description of The Devils (Special Uncut Restored Edition 1971)
Based on ¼. Bulgakov's play "Ivan Vasilievich". The time machine of inventor Timofeev links his flat to the remote XVI century, to the halls of Ivan Vasilievich the Terrible. Two our contemporaries who found themselves in the flat by a chance will, get to the remote past. The sovereign "moves" to their place in the present. All of a sudden there emerged a wall between the past and the present. While the engineer was trying to adjust the machine, a lot of unexpected events happened.Bestsellers in DVD
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