Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Where is the DVD release of the BBC series?, 29 Mar 2006
This movie is all very well, but as other reviewers stated, it is way too short to go into the detail of the relationships, some of which is significant and very necessary, whereas the hour-long BBC programmes do. Keith Michell is great in this as he was in the series and although the wives are not the same, the actors portraying them are good here, but glorious in the series. For example, Dorothy Tutin as Anne Boleyn and Anne Stallybrass as Jane Seymour do their roles more credit as the two actors in the movie, because they have more time to blossom in these parts and can fully show the nature of the person they portray and their interaction with the King - not to mention the plots and dealings around them!
It is high time that the BBC released these programmes on DVD, as the series is for me, together with I Claudius and Elizabeth R one of the three finest BBC dramas ever shown.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Tudor Taster, 19 Feb 2007
I first saw this in the cinema on its original release and purchased the DVD version. There is much that is good in this; Keith Michell is excellent as are some of the supporting players. The concentration of the story on Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn is understandable but does poor justice to Katherine Parr and Anne of Cleves. The music, costumes and settings are very good and some of the key scenes - such as the confrontation at Blackfriars between Henry and Catherine of Aragon are very well done. The TV series inspired an interest in the Tudors which is still with me after more than 30 years. Overall the film version is well worth seeing, but the TV series, now out on DVD, is superb.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Watchable, but too much to cover in two hours, 4 Feb 2007
Keith Michell was excellent in the title role and aged very well! The costumes and sets are lavish and the film is well made, and the acting is generally good. However, as another reviewer has said, it's nothing like as good as the original BBC series, which also starred Keith Michell, and I also don't understand why this hasn't been brought out on DVD. This film couldn't be as good, because instead of having an hour to devote to each wife, all six have to be covered in two hours, so it goes at a frantic pace, and there is little attention given to the last three wives in particular. Anne of Cleves is largely ignored, and what little is shown portrays her as an ugly, naive and rather stupid stereotypical German 'Frau'. Her character in the original BBC series is explored in much more depth, and while the actress who plays the part (Elvi Hale) is probably more pleasing to the eye than Anne allegedly was, she comes over as an intelligent and highly educated woman who in fact becomes great friends with Henry after their marriage is annulled.
All in all, this film is very watchable but for anyone wanting a more in-depth characterisation of Henry's wives, who were all very different, it doesn't go far enough.
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