Kane and Abel: The Complete Mini Series [DVD]

After years of waiting, this beautiful miniseries is finally out on DVD. For a time I was tempted to purchase it on ioffer, one of those homemade DVDs, but I thought better of it and waited. As the saying goes the patient dog eats the fattest bone. What a delightful surprise for us all to finally have this on DVD.
What can one say about KANE and ABEL, a bestseller by Jeffery Archer turned into a great miniseries about two men born in opposite sides of the earth on the same day, one very gentle and noble and the other quite rough though of aristocratic decent. How their paths crossed and were intertwined by fate. How one of them swore vengeance on the other based on his ignorance and uncontrolled hot temper and how the other one allowed himself to be pulled into reacting to the vengeance scheme to the detriment of his health and happiness.

This is a great movie/miniseries on a lot of levels. There were so many life lessons depicted here - namely the futility of vengeance as succinctly put by the Chinese proverb above - "He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself"

The other important lesson is the power of good volition when faced with an adversary, the need to be yourself, to respond and not react in the face of provocation or when wronged by another. Otherwise as depicted in the movie, the good man will get drawn into a cycle of karma/vengeance that was not of his making, basically stooping to the level of the adversary. Two wrongs don't make a right. I appreciate this is very difficult; many of us believe in instant justice, if someone wrongs you, get your own back. "An Eye for an eye until both men are blind" - this was the comment from the best friend and lawyer of Mr. Kane when he was trying to talk him out of pursuing the retaliation/vendetta started by Mr. Abel.

There is of course the issue of vanity and pride when both men disowned their offspring - Mr. Abel his daughter and Mr. Kane his son, because they married each other. When Mr. Kane came to his senses and wanted to welcome his son and daughter in law with open arms as well as see his grandson, it was too late as he died by the time they got there. Begging the question of why allow your vanity and pride to rob you of happiness with your loved ones, he did love his son despite their differences, countless times it showed on his face how much he missed him. The heart is a very vulnerable organ subject to heart attacks when negative emotions overwhelm it. It follows that it is nourished best by love and warmth. Had Mr. Kane kept all his family close despite the plotting of Mr. Abel, he would have been fine. These are just my thoughts, such were the life lessons depicted that one was forced contemplate these questions of life raised here.

Peter Strauss, Sam Neil and a great caste ensemble did a great job in bringing to life this beautifully crafted story by Jeffery Archer. The DVD comes as 2 discs in a single DVD pack, the running time is 310minutes. The bonus is a featurette -Jeffery Archer a writers view. The language is English and there are no subtitles. You can't go wrong with this one.

I have periodically been checking the internet over the years, to see whether Kane & Abel was available on dvd. Every search gave me the same results and I even considered getting a video to dvd bootleg copy from ebay. For some reason, out of boredom,I checked today and to my surprise I found that its going to be released on dvd in october. For me, this was one of the best mini series shown in the 80s. I remember being transfixed with every episode. I havent seen this for years, they unfortantely dont show it on terrestrial tv anymore. The storyline was fantastic, and the acting and was first class. I dont know why it took so long for it to be released, but I am so glad that they did.

This is an interesting and absorbing tale of two men from different worlds whose lives were destined to be intertwined.

As far as the DVD itself goes, the video/audio quality is good but lacking - the colors, especially during the first part, are rather washed out. Never having seen this on television, I'm also not sure if the scenes in Polish/Russian really aren't meant to have subtitles. You can follow the action, but it's a bit confusing until Abel suddenly speaks in English again.

If you're a collector of 80s miniseries, then this is a very welcome addition to your DVD libraries. I'd recommend it.