- Format: PAL
- Language English, French
- Subtitles: French
- Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3 - 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: 18
- Studio: Warner
- DVD Release Date: 5 Mar 2001
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B000056QAL
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 40,480 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Reviews
Amazon.co.uk Review
Michael Powell lays bare the cinema's dark voyeuristic underside in this disturbing 1960 psychodrama thriller. Handsome young Carl Boehm is Mark Lewis, a shy, socially clumsy young man shaped by the psychic scars of an emotionally abusive parent, in this case a psychologist father (the director in a perverse cameo) who subjected his son to nightmarish experiments in fear and recorded every interaction with a movie camera. Now Mark continues his father's work, sadistically killing young women with a phallic-like blade attached to his movie camera and filming their final, terrified moments for his definitive documentary on fear. Set in contemporary London, which Powell evokes in a lush, colourful seediness, this film presents Mark as much victim as villain and implicates the audience in his scopophilic activities as we become the spectators to his snuff film screenings. Comparisons to Hitchcock's Psycho, released the same year, are inevitable. Powell's film was reviled upon release, and it practically destroyed his career, ironic in light of the acclaim and success that greeted Psycho, but Powell's picture hit a little too close to home with its urban setting, full colour photography, documentary techniques and especially its uneasy connections between sex, violence and the cinema. We can thank Martin Scorsese for sponsoring its 1979 re-release, which presented the complete, uncut version to appreciative audiences for the first time. This powerfully perverse film was years ahead of its time and remains one of the most disturbing and psychologically complex horror films ever made. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
Special Features
1.75 Wide Screen
DVD 5
English
Region 2
Mono English
Mono
Photo Albums
Filmographies
Chapter Search
French
DVD 5
English
Region 2
Mono English
Mono
Photo Albums
Filmographies
Chapter Search
French
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
HORROR MASTERPIECE,
By Anton (Swindon) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Peeping Tom - Special Edition [DVD] [1960] (DVD)
At last a decent DVD release for this disturbing classic from nearly fifty years ago. Vilified and treated like a video nasty on its initial release this trip inside the mind of a pyschopath is still so fresh and refreshing. Recommended for all students of serious horror, the tale of a disturbed young mind with a blade on his camera tripod filming his victims expressions as he kills them is utterly gripping. Acting all round is top notch in a production way ahead of it's time. Recommended.
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The film that was scarier that Psycho!,
By oblong2001@hotmail.com (Swansea) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Peeping Tom [DVD] (DVD)
Also released in 1960, Peeping Tom disgusted the censors and outraged the British Press to such a degree that Director Michael Powell found he had to move to Australia if he wished to continue his filmmaking career! The theme of scopophilia (pleasure from watching) is at the centre of this daringly ground-breaking movie as an affected cameraman (Mark) films the fear of the girls he murders to watch again and again! As he becomes emotionally entangled with his live-in tennant, his love for her becomes confused with his sociopathic desire to film her when she becomes frightened. A dark and interesting film, Peeping Tom addresses the very nature of cinema and the viewers' apparent complicity in the subject matter.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still groundbreaking, a work of art,
By Doc Benway (Interzone) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Peeping Tom [DVD] (DVD)
Rarely has a film been loved and hated as much as Peeping Tom. The censor's reaction has of course gone down in history, and rumours persist of longer, more complete cuts being out there somewhere.
Peeping Tom still has the power to divide audiences, with viewers typically split between finding it fascinating or boring. Given the manner in which cinema has upped the ante on depictions of sadism and brutality since Powell made this film, it's not surprising that many are disappointed with the lack of graphic violence or gore on display, or the films disdain for a conventional "thriller" type atmosphere. However, on a cerebral level, Peeping Tom retains its capacity to disturb. Rarely has a film depicted the process of a killer being created so chillingly, nor the manner in which such individuals are capable of conflicted, dualistic personalities. Consider how many serial killers have been described to be charming and kind by others who knew them (Dennis Nilsen or Ted Bundy for example). The scenes showing this transition from shy man-child to confident killer are masterful, with Carl Boehm overcoming other more obvious limitations in his casting (the accent mainly) to portray this aspect unerringly. Yes, Peeping Tom is a flawed film in some respects, but I believe it to be a masterpiece nonetheless. Its detractors point to the staged and somewhat theatrical feel of it and the melodramatic ending, but the extent to which it immerses you in the murky and deeply melancholy inner world of such a damaged man, as well as a grimy and realistic view of British society in the late 50's, more than compensate. It is an intriguing and complex film, raising questions about our own desire to watch what we are seeing on the screen, and begs discussion about its numerous themes and subtexts. It is quite rightly in my opinion described as a work of art, with all of the demands that art places upon the appreciator to lose themselves a little in the pursuit of some semi-hidden and undefinable truth.
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