The Film:
Over the years there have been many film and television adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Kidnapped", and Network have now seen fit to release Academy Award winner Delbert Mann's adaptation to DVD. Starring a series of fantastic British actors including Lawrence Douglas (The Last Place on Earth), Michael Caine (The Italian Job, Austin Powers in Goldmember), Trevor Howard (Gandhi, Twinky), Jack Hawkins (Lawrence of Arabia, Ben Hur), Donald Pleasence (The Great Escape, Deathline), Gordon Jackson (The Ipcress File, Upstairs Downstairs) and Vivien Heilbron (Target, The New Statesman), this 1971 retelling is nothing short of being an intelligent above average drama.
For those not familiar with the story, it follows David Balfour (Douglas), a young man who has gone to Edinburgh in order to claim his family inheritence, but is instead sold as a slave by his Uncle (Pleasence). Whilst on a boat, to be taken to be a slave, Balfour becomes the cabin boy. The boat crashes into another and they take on board a fellow named Breck (Caine), a man who is on the run from Prince Charlie's defeat at Culloden. Whilst on the boat, the crew attempt to take Breck's life, but he and the young man join forces and eventually find themselves washed up on the coast of Scotland. Breck is on his way to Edinburgh, and when he finds out that Balfour also wants to go their in order to avenge his Uncle, they decide to go together, encountering murder, savagary and more along the way.
The script is nothing short of excellent, with Jack Pulman bringing together a screenplay that is worthy of the original novel. The acting is also excellent, though during occasions I found it quite difficult to forgive Michael Caine's attempt at a Scottish accent, though he did trundle through it OK. Despite all the alleged troubles during the shooting of the film, with many of the cast and crew apparently going unpaid, I'm surprised by the quality of the finished product, and although not an excellent film, it is very good and worthy of a recommendation to everyone, especially those who would like to see a more dramatic approach to the story rather than the usual child-friendly one.
The DVD:
Video:
Network have done well with the picture, releasing the film with an anamorphic transfer at a ratio of 2.35:1. Colours were clear for the most part and there weren't many noticeable moments of artefacting or grain. I did however notice one problem that did happen twice, which was a large blur on the right hand side of the picture going up the screen for two seconds at a time. This happened at 79:01 and 80:21.
Audio:
Network have provided us with the original English Dolby Digital Mono track here and again, it's good for the most part. Sound levels are consistent and dialogue clear at all times with background hiss being at a low level, yet evident. There is also a dropout of sound for a brief second or so at 57:29 but thankfully, no-one is speaking at the time. I would've liked a more advanced track to go with this one as some of the music has the chance to make the film a bit more atmospheric, and there are a couple of action scenes that would also benefit. No subtitles have been included as is usual for Network releases.
Extras:
Network have provided several extras for this release.
We start with the Production Featurette which lasts for 6:09 and is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. It's pretty basic behind the scenes footage with voiceovers talking about the film from cast member Lawrence Douglas and director Delbert Mann.
Next up we have several Interviews with Michael Caine:
- with Russell Harty from 15th July 1973
- with Russell Harty from 1st April 1977
- on the Sunday Sunday show from 12th February 1984
The first interview lasts for 23:11 and is presented in fullscreen. In it, Michael Caine talks about his movie "Sleuth", and whether or not big stars can be difficult to work with. The second lasts for 19:54 and is presented in fullscreen. This time Michael Caine and Russell Harty talk about the film "The Evil Has Landed" and how Michael Caine feels about being a 'trendsetter'. The final interview lasts for 25:31 and again, is presented in fullscreen. This time Caine talks about winning a Golden Globe and his career in general. All the interviews are interesting enough to listen to, but there is a slight niggle that ruins them all. Whenever the interviewer is about to go to a clip from whatever film they are chatting about, we get a blank screen that tells us we are unable to watch the clip due to contractual reasons.
Rounding off the extras we have an image gallery (1:31) and a trailer (3:06) presented in 2.35:1.
