Region: 0
Country of Release: America
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Distributor: Eclectic DVD / Music Video Distributors
Pros:
- Head twistingly bizarre storyline.
- If you like British TV from the sixties such as The Avengers, then you'll love the cast and crew involved.
- Comes with a soundtrack CD.
- Despite being 'lost' for many years, the film's picture quality is far better than you could've hoped for.
- Decent in-depth interviews.
- Soundtrack has a lot of early Pink Floyd.
Cons:
- At a running time of under an hour, it's far too short.
- Sometimes the plot is too bizarre and you have no idea what's happening and find it hard to pick up what's actually going on again.
The Film:
The Committee is an interesting black and white film from the late 1960's lasting just under an hour and is also Peter Sykes' feature length film directorial debut (after previously directing an episode of The Avengers). The film starts off with a gentleman (Tom Kempinski - TV's The Avengers, TV's Z-Cars) picking up a hitchhiker, the main character, credited only as central figure (Paul Jones - former host of TV's Beat The Teacher quiz show). Throughout the review I shall now refer to the 'central figure' as Paul Jones. As Paul Jones is in the passenger seat of the car, he becomes increasingly annoyed at the direction in which the chat is going. He doesn't want to talk but all Kempinski's character can do is talk about the opening to The Hustler. The car breaks down, and as Kempinski is trying to fix his car he carries on irritating Paul Jones with his chit chat. Then something happens that I wasn't expecting: Jones slams the bonnet down on Kempinski's head, severing it until eventually it falls off. He does a few weird things like hold the head up when he walks onto the hill, but after a few minutes, he sews the head back to the body. Kempinski hasn't got a clue what has happened and Jones just says thanks for the lift and walks away, leaving Kempinski dizzy and subdued. Well, cut the next series of scenes and Paul Jones goes into his bosses (Jimmy Gardner - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Finding Neverland) office to show him an invitation he has received to a 'committee meeting'. Jones asks what committee meetings are held for and his boss explains to him and can be for all manner of things and that he had been on one that consisted of six oranges and choosing which one was the roundest. Well, Jones goes to the committee meeting which is being held in a large mansion with a swimming pool and tennis courts. It is then, in the reception lobby, he notices the man he had previously killed and sewn the head back onto. It is this part of the film where paranoia starts to kick in and Jones believes that the whole committee meeting is being held to target him. The film is well acted and certainly worth a watch. All in all, I'd say the film was about a surreal murder, which is used to explore bureaucracy and paranoia on one side, and individual freedom on the other. The film also contains an excellent cameo during a party scene by music group 'The Crazy World of Arthur Brown' who perform the song 'Fire'.
The DVD:
Video:
Eclectic DVD has provided the film in its OAR of 4:3. The picture is pretty damn good and after reading about the film on the internet and the fact that this film was thought lost, you will be even more surprised. It does suffer from slight grain throughout the film (mainly the outdoor scenes), but all in all, the picture is perfectly adequate. No subtitles are included.
Audio:
We have been given the original dolby digital 2.0 English mono track for The Committee, and there are no noticeable problems with it other than the occassional need to change volume levels (mainly for the party scene). As the film has a lot of early rare music performed by Pink Floyd as the soundtrack, I would've certainly like to seen a remixed 5.1 track, be it dolby digital or DTS, just so I can blast the music up nice and high.
Extras:
Interviews - The only extra feature on the film disc is a series of questions fired at director Peter Sykes and producer Max Steuer from Oscar winning director Jon Blair. The interviews explain a lot about the film and what most of the scenes are supposed to portray. Lasting for nearly as long as the film itself, the interviews are unmissable, as the information given is invaluable and when they talk about particular scenes, they show part of the film on screen.
CD - We are also given a second disc which isn't a DVD, just a regular CD. It features three songs performed by the central character Paul Jones, arranged by Tim Whitehead with the Homemade Orchestra. The three songs are 'The Committee', 'Bird' and 'Here Comes The Flood'. Well worth a listen.
OVERALL:
An above average (though short) film, with surprising picture quality, adequate sound and limited (but great) extras.
