Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
dvd quality far below average, 15 Jan 2006
I know this DVD comes cheap, but if you're really interested in this movie, spend the extra money and get the restored version (released on Warner Home Video). The picture quality of the present edition (Elstree Hill) is like that of a much played VHS tape, and the sound is faint and woolly. It seems to me, too, that the aspect ratio must have been changed to fit the TV screen, so you're actually missing a large part of any given scene.
There's no bonus material.
I suppose the low standard price should have warned me, still this came as a dissappointment. "The Trial", with top acting from Anthony Perkins, great direction from Welles, and a visually interesting production, deserves better.
|
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Visually astonishing--but the nightmare's still real enough, 6 April 2007
This DVD can be picked up extremely cheaply, and that shows in the quality of the restoration, in particular the chopping of the ratio at the edges. At the same time....
All Welles movies around this time suffered from running-out-of-budget, makeshift location work and zero budget dubbing (with a variety of voices performed by Welles himself--see if you can spot them!), so some of this may be intrinsic to the film itself.
That quality does not ruin the film in the way that it almost did his masterpiece Chimes At Midnight (the worst sound quality of any major movie ever?), partly because of the themes of the movie itself--a small man lost in a shifting reality of inconsistencies, shady identities, where no appearances can be trusted.
It's a fascinating, if claustrophobic world. The movie was criticised for its excessive style--severe lighting, mammoth sets, extreme cutting, an array of tracking shots, long-shots, disconcerting angles, etc--but this all works to draw us fully in to the terrifying undefeatable beaurocratic surreal world that the main character tries to stand up against.
The ending seems poor--as if Welles was unsure how to finish it. But the meaning is in the experiencing of the film. The sets and settings are astonishing. This nightmarish beaurocracy is more relevant than ever. And Welles 'mistakes and failures' remain more thought-provoking, visually stimulating and enjoyable than a thousand other 'decent well-crafted' films.
So well-worth buying--until we see that perfect Orson Welles box set that us movie-lovers continue to dream about!
|
|
|
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An unsettling masterpiece, 22 Jan 2003
Truly a great film, but of course it should be. The Trial combines the literary genius of Kafka with the directorial genius of Welles. Perhaps the biggest delight is Anthony Perkins, sometimes a hit and miss actor but in this role he is outstanding. The sense of confusion, fear and outrage felt by the central character is portrayed brilliantly as the seemingly unjustified persecution of the individual by the system continues. The film as with the book leaves you feeling unsettled and disturbed, the message behind the Kafka novel as relevant now as it ever was. A masterpiece of a film that deserves to be seen.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
![The Trial [DVD] [1963] [US Import] [NTSC]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Dz7Wvi%2B0L._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Trial [DVD] [1963]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XhwkaZooL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Trial [DVD] [1963]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41KJCDZ8WQL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Lady From Shanghai [DVD] [1948]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51R6NVT4XEL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Citizen Kane [DVD] [1942]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YpoZUqWOL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![The Magnificent Ambersons [DVD] [1942]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517E1Z6GGGL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![Touch Of Evil [DVD] [1958]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SDar-mBwL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![The Third Man [DVD] [1949]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RKyDlf%2B8L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![The Lady From Shanghai [DVD] [1948]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51R6NVT4XEL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
With an Amazon.co.uk 
