Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
12 used & new from £0.89
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Farewell To The King [1989] [DVD]
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images

Farewell To The King [1989] [DVD]

DVD ~ Nigel Havers
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
RRP: £5.99
Price: £5.89 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £0.10 (2%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Temporarily out of stock.
Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your account will only be charged when we ship the item.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

7 new from £1.90 5 used from £0.89
Learn about Lovefilm
Amazon's choice for DVD rental.
With a 14 day FREE trial. Learn more

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this item with Welcome to Dongmakgol [DVD] DVD ~ Ha-Kyun Shin

Farewell To The King [1989] [DVD] + Welcome to Dongmakgol [DVD]
Price For Both: £22.48

One of these items ships sooner than the other. Show details

  • This item: Farewell To The King [1989] [DVD] DVD ~ Nigel Havers

    Temporarily out of stock.
    Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your account will only be charged when we ship the item.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Welcome to Dongmakgol [DVD] DVD ~ Ha-Kyun Shin

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Farewell To The King [1989] [DVD]
67% buy the item featured on this page:
Farewell To The King [1989] [DVD] 4.0 out of 5 stars (2)
£5.89
Exodus [DVD] [1960]
10% buy
Exodus [DVD] [1960] 4.2 out of 5 stars (5)
£2.98
Female Agents [2008] [DVD]
9% buy
Female Agents [2008] [DVD] 3.8 out of 5 stars (18)
£4.08
Mongol - The Rise To Power Of Genghis Khan [DVD] [2008]
7% buy
Mongol - The Rise To Power Of Genghis Khan [DVD] [2008] 3.8 out of 5 stars (46)
£4.87
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Actors: Nigel Havers, Frank McRae, Gerry Lopez, Nick Nolte, Marilyn Tokuda
  • Directors: John Milius
  • Format: PAL
  • Language English
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: PG
  • Studio: Prism Leisure
  • DVD Release Date: 28 Jul 2003
  • Run Time: 113 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B0000A1M6W
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 27,696 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

    Popular in this category:

    #60 in  DVD > Action & Adventure > Historical

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Reviews

Special Features
4:3
DVD 5
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital English
Dolby Digital
Chapter Selection


Synopsis
An officer of the British Army, sent to Borneo to train the tribesmen to wage war with the Japanese, is surprised to discover the king is an American. The two train the tribe and fight in a series of battles. The officer is intrigued by the American's loyalty to the tribe, but both are sadly aware that their destruction is imminent.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Intimate Enemies (2 Disc Collector's Edition) [DVD] [2007]

Intimate Enemies (2 Disc Collector's Edition) [DVD] [2007]

DVD ~ Albert Dupontel
4.0 out of 5 stars (9)  £2.98
Kokoda - 39th Battalion [DVD]

Kokoda - 39th Battalion [DVD]

3.8 out of 5 stars (12)  £3.98
Two Men Went to War [2002] [DVD]

Two Men Went to War [2002] [DVD]

DVD ~ Kenneth Cranham
4.9 out of 5 stars (10)  £3.98
Beyond Borders [DVD] [2003]

Beyond Borders [DVD] [2003]

DVD ~ Clive Owen
3.9 out of 5 stars (12)  £3.98
Welcome to Dongmakgol [DVD]

Welcome to Dongmakgol [DVD]

DVD ~ Ha-Kyun Shin
4.0 out of 5 stars (7)  £16.59
› Explore similar items

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
Check a corresponding box or enter your own tags in the field below
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
5 star:    (0)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A sporadically glorious mess - in a slightly different cut to the US version, 15 Sep 2006
By Trevor Willsmer (London, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)      
Farewell to the King should have been John Milius' masterpiece. Harking back to Joseph Conrad and the days of high adventure so beloved of the writer-director, this WW2 tale of a deserter who becomes a king in Borneo only to lose everything fighting the Japanese and betrayed by the Allies, it seemed made to measure for his brand of bravado and myth making. Even had Milius not ill-advisedly taken Spielberg's advice to trim half an hour from his original cut and the film not been released in two slightly different cuts on either side of the Atlantic, Farewell would almost certainly still have been an awkward and under-achieving film so problematic are many aspects: yet for all its many faults, there's enough there that IS unique to keep on drawing me back time and again. Part old-fashioned adventure, part folie de grandeur, all box-office disaster, it's a mess, but it's an intriguing one that's hard to dislike despite its many flaws, and Basil Poledouris' remarkable score is a thing of wonder.

The performances are variable: Nigel Havers is fine as the narrator who knows that one day he'll have to betray the King, but in a part that really calls for a Steve McQueen or a Russell Crowe, Nick Nolte has a few too many eccentric moments and isn't always able to make Milius' dialog sound as good as it reads (a common problem in many of his scripts). Frank McRae, Marius Weyers and Milius' old surfing buddy Gerry Lopez offer good support, but there's a truly terrible but mercifully brief performance from the future Mrs Milius, Elan Oberon. The film feels somewhat cramped at times due to Milius' decision not to shoot in Scope (he dislikes 2.35:1 despite doing his most visually impressive work in the ratio), although cinematographer Dean Semler pulls off an impressive sequence where a night time ambush goes horribly wrong due to a sudden shift in the weather.

It would have been interesting to see what author Pierre Schoendoerffer would have made of it had he been able to direct it himself. Like Milius an unashamed admirer of Joseph Conrad (the story is basically a WW2 reworking of Lord Jim), the French writer-director's own films, particularly the haunting Le Crabe Tambour, hint at a more melancholy, less gung-ho attack on the material. But Milius' film has enough going for it to make it worth a look.

The US cut recently released on Region 1 DVD by MGM/UA is different in quite a few ways to the European version, released in the UK by Prism. For a start, it's shorter, although it has some additional footage: the battle montage as the Japanese retreat is much longer (the entire battle at the river is cut from the European versions), while there's a scene of James Fox reminiscing about a girl he knew in India that is missing from the European cut, as well as a few additional lines of dialogue in some scenes. However, there is a huge and fairly important scene cut from near the end of the picture, where Fairbourne (Havers) visits the Japanese general as he has his last meal before his execution: it's not an entirely successful scene, but the film works better with it than without. There's also a big structural difference, with the US cut showing Learoyd deserting and watching his companions being executed as a pretitle sequence - this footage is in the European cut, but much more comfortably included much later when Learoyd is telling the story of how he became king. Also, the opening quote has been dropped and replaced with title cards specifying the date and location, while the closing narration is longer. On the whole, aside from the missing battle montage footage, the European version plays better.

It was too much to hope for deleted scenes or even Milius' original two-and-a-half hour cut of the film on either the PAL or the NTSC disc, but they could have at least included the trailer - but unfortunately both PAL and NTSC versions are completely extras free. The NTSC version contains a slightly dark 1.85:1 transfer of the US version, while the R2 PAL disc is an acceptable fullframe transfer of the European cut of the film that is sporadically grainy and does have a very noticeable sound drop-out at one point, as well as missing the translation subtitles for a three or four lines of dialogue that are on the US disc.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars World War II fantasy for a rainy afternoon., 4 Jan 2008
By Prof TBun (Birmingham UK) - See all my reviews
This film is presented in the style of a drama-documentary.

It is difficult to say why this is a good film. I think it is perhaps the refreshingly casual way the story is told. Whilst there is a fair bit a conflict, the message of the film is anti-war. The only heroic actions being of a diplomatic nature.

If a ripping yarn about a T.E.Lawrence wannabe sounds interesting, then this film is for you.


Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
action
Predator 3 		28 8 minutes ago
action
greatest death in a movie 		67 2 hours ago
drama
what's been the scariest film you have seen? 		27 3 hours ago
drama
worst film you've ever seen ? 		405 4 hours ago
drama
Greatest U.S. tv series? 		141 4 hours ago
classics
desert war film 		2 13 hours ago
classics
Green Haired boy 		5 1 day ago
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Feedback

The Body Shop

The Body Shop - Vitamin C Skin Boost
Protect and boost your glow with The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Boost.

›Shop The Body Shop

  

Make A Wish

Get what you want with an Amazon.co.uk Wish List Make sure you always get what you want with an Amazon.co.uk Wish List.

›More info on Wish Lists

  

Boys Smell

Lynx Africa Body Spray and After Shave Gift set
But we make sure they smell good...

›Discover male grooming at Amazon.co.uk

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates