1974 Video - just got it


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Posted by Art Mulder on June 14, 1999 at 17:40:38 from willow.irus.rri.on.ca:

I took advantage of a recent business trip to the States to
order a copy of the 1974 movie "Swallows and Amazons". I
got it from www.samgoody.com, and had it shipped to my hotel.
I was extremely pleased with how easy it was to order the video -
having unsuccessfully tried twice before to get it ordered from
local (Canadian) video stores.

Just on a technical note, for a 25 year old movie, the image
quality was, IMHO, very good. This is most definitely NOT
a cheap 'EP'-speed quality video. It is a bit silly to see
the packaging proudly state "Starring Virginia McKenna and
Ronald Fraser" -- the actors playing Mother and Uncle Jim.
The real stars were the children. Mother was almost non-existent,
and Capt. Flint was also fairly minor (in the movie. He has a
bigger role in the book of course).

As for the movie itself, I was very favourably impressed. Naturally
it was not "as good" as the book. But then I rarely encounter a
movie that is as good as an original work. There just isn't enough
time to get into the detail. But I do think it was a very good
adaptation, and a fine movie on it's own. My wife now wants to
reread the book, to see the differences, and also just because she
enjoyed the movie so much.

I thought that all the children were portrayed quite well, once I
got over the fact that they (of course) did not look as I'd imagined.
In fact, I'd say that the character of John was the one that I most
found to be a bit out of synch with the character of the book. But
then, so much rests on him that it's tough to live up to our
expectations.

I was interested to note that the Internet movie database (www.imdb.com)
showed that the actress playing Susan was the only one of the
childred who went on to do _any_ other acting. Too bad really,
as I thought "Nancy" in particular was well done.

Having now watched it, I'm delighted to have seen it. And yet
dissappointed that they didn't go on and make a few more...



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