Rating: 
Summary: The new DVD release is nearly perfect
Review: "Brideshead Revisited" was never released on laserdisc, so all we have to compare the new DVD release to are our memories of the 1982 PBS broadcast and the 6-tape VHS release. I have both, and here are my notes.This DVD release was mastered from the original print and then digitally cleaned up - and it shows. Doing an A/B comparison (switching back and forth between the videotape and the DVD running at the same time), we see that the DVD image is much brighter and more detailed. In fact, so much so that at first it doesn't look "right." We're used to a faded, fuzzier image. But after about 10 minutes, you're completely absorbed and loving it. In the first episode alone, gone are the white specks on the otherwise black background of the opening credits, Charles' sofa now has a pattern that jumps out at you, and Hardcastle's car is a gleaming white. I am positive that THIS is the way things were meant to be seen, not the other way around. There will not be Brideshead "purists" who insist that the fuzziness and faded colors were the director's intent. Indeed, the notes accompanying the DVD say that it now looks better than when it was first broadcast 20 years ago. It does. So... is it reference-quality video? No. Is it better than an over-the air broadcast? Yes! Is it better than the videotapes? Yes!! There are still a few digital artifacts here and there (usually where shadows merge), but if you love the series, grab the DVDs. No one will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Five stars plus!
Review: As Churchill said, "My tastes are very simple, I like the best of everything." The venerated PM would have loved Brideshead. It doesn't get any better than this with Lord Olivier, Sir John G., Claire Bloom, & Jeremy Irons in a defining role et al. Suggest a full-blown buy of whole series. You're the better for not seeing it piecemeal years ago. Only other series on in last 20 years to compare is Perfect Spy. (Upstairs, Downstairs in same league but different genre.)
Rating:
Summary: Worth revisiting!
Review: At long last on DVD! And nicely done, too! Finally I can discard my taped-from-PBS-with-tons-of-fundraising-blather VHS tapes. DVD extras include biographies and filmographies of the series' many stars (including one for Sebastian's teddy bear Alyosius), a production history (text, not a making-of featurette), a nicely prepared companion booklet, a photo gallery of the Castle Howard where much of the filming took place, and a tongue-in-cheek interview with the director about how success went to Alyosius's head. [One minor gripe is that the on-screen text is very difficult to read, which is too bad because there is quite a bit of good information presented in this manner.] But, make no mistake, the real reason to buy this DVD is that it is probably the best television program ever. The book, the filming, the acting, the ability of the story to make us question the way we choose to live and treat our fellow human beings is truly exceptional. It holds up perfectly. Brideshead is great art and does Waugh proud.
Rating:
Summary: Best Ever
Review: Best production ever made in any media. Most spiritual. I have seen it time after time and never tire.
Rating:
Summary: Incomparably Sumptuous
Review: Brideshead Revisited has been the standard bearer for magnificence in TV mini series since it was first shown in the early 1980s. I loved it then and when the VHS version became available in the late 1980s I bought a set which has been viewed innumerable times. Realizing that VHS tape doesn't last forever, and not wishing to be without access to Sebastian, Charles, Julia, and the other characters, I bought the DVD version as soon as it became available. It is like watching the series for the first time. The DVD version has been restored and enhanced so that Brideshead is indeed, in Charles' words, "very near to heaven". Not only is the series visually more beautiful than ever, the audio is also superb. You won't miss a single word. Brideshead Revisited is a story of lost youth, fading illusions, and crumbling glory, but it is also an evocation of growing religious faith and the workings of divine grace. No matter how many times it is watched it is always an uplifting experience. And now the DVD version has made that experience incomparably more rewarding.
Rating:
Summary: The finest film made for television that I have ever seen.
Review: 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 royal trying to break free from the influence of his disfuntional family. Claire Bloom is his mother, Lady Marchmain, separated from his father, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Lord Marchmain. Bloom is cool and calculating and she drives young Sebastian to drink. He becomes an embarassing drunk which she seems pleased to attempt to reclaim from social and spiritual destruction. Unlike his friend, Charles Ryder, Sebastian does have a soul which his mother seems detemined to destroy. It is only late in the film that Ryder realizes the machiavellian nature of Lady Marchmain, unlike Sebastian, who has understood his mother's nature all along. Ryder subverts her wishes by giving Sebastian money for alcohol and then Ryder makes a break with the family when his gift of money to Sebastian is discovered by her and she confronts Ryder with her muted, yet terrible anger. Sir John Gielgud is brilliant as Ryder's disinterested father and we come to understand why Ryder lacks Sebastian's heart. Ryder grew up unloved and uncared for and he spends the rest of his life attempting to overcome his disabilty. His marriage to his first wife ends in divorce and he then falls in love with Lady Julia, Sebastian's sister. In the end Ryder's coldness, aloofness, and disdain for religion, something Julia and Sebastian hold dear, cause their breakup. Last, but not least, the filmmakers have lavished great expense on all aspects of this production. The sets are superbly created to give us a true feel for the time and place in England at the time between the great wars. The music also deserves special mention. It beautifully supports the story and is worth listening to on its own merits. It stays in the listener's mind long after the drama is finished. Can film ever stand comparison with great literaure? The Brideshead Revisited video series answers this question with a resounding "yes"!
Rating:
Summary: Quomodo sedet sola civitas
Review: Brideshead Revisited was an epic film designed for television, yet has become the yardstick by which subsequent British period dramas are measured by. The sheer scale of this film, in terms of locations, cast and production costs have been flawless and rather unique; indeed, no expense seems to have been spared in its making. The principal filming location was at Castle Howard in Yorkshire, an enormous country house which became 'Brideshead', the seat of the Marchmain family. The film is eloquently narrated by Charles Ryder, about whose life the story is about. Beginning as an Oxford undergraduate, Ryder (Jeremy Irons) meets the eccentric Lord Sebastian Flyte (Anthony Andrews) whose family epitomizes the personality and values of the Edwardian English aristocracy. While sharing a near-intimate bond with Charles Ryder, Sebastian warns him away from the mysterious Marchmain family, and in so doing increasingly draws him into their austere world. As the lives of Charles and Sebastian collide more, so does the decline of Sebastian's health become. Having fallen short of the harsh expectations of his strict Catholic mother, Lady Marchmain (Claire Bloom), Sebastian falls from grace into a perilous state of drunkenness. While seeking refuge in Charles, Sebastian stubbornly clings to his Catholic beliefs. Although harking back to his early years at Oxford, Charles can no longer help Sebastian and instead finds love in Sebastian's captivating older sister, Lady Julia (Diana Quick). Following their adulterous lives, Julia and Charles finally enjoy the peace and harmony they had longed for as a couple, until the death of Julia's father, Lord Marchmain (Sir Lawrence Olivier). The important theme of the film revolves around the strict Catholic rules that impinge upon the loves and relationships of the Marchmain family. As the members of the family become ever more estranged, their faith on Catholicism appears to strengthen. The language used in the dialogue and narration attests to the quality of Brideshead Revisited as a singularly important period drama. Indeed, the script is faithfully contemporaneous of the time. Like a window on the past, Brideshead Revisited gives us a close-up view of both a period and class structure that was influenced by the dignity, religious and social values of that bygone age.
Rating:
Summary: Et In Arcadia Ego
Review: Brideshead revisited, Evelyn Waugh's portrait of a world trying to come to terms with the obliteration of what for its inhabitants were absolute certainties, by war and its aftermath represents a mountain of almost Himalayan proportions for any would-be adaptor, so much so that it's surprising that anyone was ever mad enough to try. Luckily for us though John Mortimer (more widely celebrated for "Rumpole of the Bailey") was indeed mad enough to give it a go. What he came up with has over the intervening years come to be seen as one of the finest adapted screen plays ever set before the viewing public. Remaining remarkably faithful to the spirit of the book, Brideshead Revisited is told from the prospective of the painter Charles Ryder (Jeremy Irons). From a decidedly upper middle class background, when we first meet our narrator, Charles is an officer in the British army at the outbreak of World War 2 whose general disillusionment is exceeded only by his distaste for army life. From this present we are taken back twenty years by Charles' reminisces to his first term at Oxford University at the beginning of the 1920's and to his developing relationship with the aristocratic and charmingly dissolute Sebastian Flyte (Anthony Andrews). Supported by a truly superb cast of characters including, Jane Asher, Diana Quick, Clair Bloom, Nikolas Grace, Sir John Gielgud and in what was to be his final performance Sir Laurence Olivier. The acting is just what you would expect from such an accomplished bunch, as close to perfection as can ever be obtained. As absorbing as the story is, it is almost overshadowed by other aspects of this production. Shot on location at Castle Howard, Yorkshire (the home of the then chairman of the BBC George Howard, even though this production was made by the BBC's rival Granada Television), Oxford, Venice and aboard the cruise ship the Queen Elizabeth II. The location filming has a beauty that at times can be truly breathtaking, with a lushness and sensuality that is a perfect foil for the decadence of the Sebastian and his circle. Just as in Waugh's original text, the whole atmosphere of the piece is redolent with nostalgia. This takes two forms, the most prominent from the beginning is Charles' nostalgia for his youth and idealism, his feeling that his life could be what he wanted it to be, the friends he knew, his time with the Flyte family and his love for Lady Julia. Secondly and perhaps most importantly is nostalgia for the world of the Victorian and Edwardian upper classes with its certainties and its view of Britain as the centre of the greatest Empire that the world had ever known. Post World War 1, it was rare to find an aristocratic British family who had not suffered the loss of a Father, Son or Brother in the trenches and this longing for a world which was as "irrecoverable as Lyonnesse" was all too real for many people of all classes and backgrounds. In this story of the rise and to a certain extent destruction of a single man, Waugh has given us a metaphor not only for the British aristocracy, but for the wealthy and socially mobile wherever and whenever they may be. I remember once discussing the novel with my Father and he expressed the opinion that while Waugh may not have loved the aristocracy as such, he certainly loved the life of an aristocrat. In many way's Brideshead Revisited reminds me of Edward Elgars' Cello Concerto, possessing the same kind of painful beauty combined with the most agonising sense of grief and heartache, but in the final analysis it is this love that colours both the book and this adaptation, rendering it as sublime as the memory of a summers afternoon and just as unattainable.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Work Of Art; Easily The Best Miniseries Ever Made
Review: Brilliantly adapted by John Mortimer from Evelyn Waugh's celebrated novel of England between the first and second World Wars, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED is easily the best miniseries ever made. Smoothly and subtly directed by Charles Sturridge and Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the twelve hour program is beautiful to look at, the cast is remarkable, and the story has amazing impact. The miniseries follows the novel closely, beginning near the end of World War II as Charles Ryder (Jeremy Irons) grows disdainful of military life, which he finds a study in futility--and then flashes back twenty years as Ryder recalls his relationship with the aristocratic Marchmain family, a relationship that begins when he becomes friendly with Marchmain son Sebastian Flyte (Anthony Andrews) while the two are students at Oxford. The miniseries captures perfectly a golden moment of youth--and then the gradual disillusionment brought by the passage of time. Like all great works, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED--both book and film--touches on a great many themes, most specifically an innocent type of homoeroticism, loss of innocence, alcoholism, adultry, and changing society; ultimately, however, the story is about spiritual values and how they survive in even the most unlikely of circumstances--and how God works through individuals in the most unexpected ways. The performances here are truly fine beyond description. Jeremy Irons has seldom surpassed his work here, and neither Anthony Andrews nor Dianna Quick (as Julia, Sebastian's sister) have ever bested their performances in this film. In addition to the three leads, the miniseries offers an incredible array of superior performances by John Gielgud, Claire Bloom, and Laurence Olivier; the cinematography and art design is flawless; and the score by Geoffrey Burgon is exquiste. Mortimer's script is remarkable in that it not only manages to recreate the novel, it also manages to capture the intangible, spiritual elements upon which the book plays but seldom directly references. A must-own work for any one who appreciates the best of the best; strongly, strongly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the most opulent, heartfelt PBS series ever
Review: Evelyn Waugh's book is a magnificent testament to the power of memory and language, and I doubt any more faithful an adadptation is possible. Jeremy Irons as the seemingly detached, but always emotionally involved friend (Charles Ryder) of Anthony Adrews (Sebastian), plays one of his finest roles. The cinematography is unparalleled, and after watching this numerous times, I was compelled to visit Castle Howard, which is the "Brideshead" home. This is a video (or series of videos) to curl up with on a long afternoon and evening (its about 13 hours long), but if at the end you haven't fallen in love with Julia as Charles had, if you haven't cried for Sebastian as he tends to the down trodden Kurt, then you are missing some of the basic emotional fabric of what makes us human. Sebastian says "it's a rather pleaseant change when all your life you've had people looking after you, to have someone to look after yourself". This is a book, a story and a video that deserves to be looked at many times and looked after as well.
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