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List Price: $24.99Amazon.com's Price: $19.99 You Save: $5.00 (20%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0054961924196
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Label: ACORN MEDIA
Manufacturer: ACORN MEDIA
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: ACORN MEDIA
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 24, 2007
Running Time: 104 minutes
Sales Rank: 58420
Studio: ACORN MEDIA
Theatrical Release Date: January 09, 1983
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
From the opening voiceover line--'This is the saddest story I have ever heard'--The Good Soldier reveals how deep and wide heartbreak can run, even within the confines of Edwardian manners. Based on the understated masterpiece by Ford Madox Ford, the 1981 film unwinds in what feels like real time as it explores the friendship--and treachery and pathos--of two couples, one English, the other American, over several summers in Europe before World War II. The narrator, American John Dowell (Robin Ellis), looks back at the ruins of friendship, trust, and marriage, in a daring time-travel fluid narrative that completely tracks in how someone would try to make sense, later, of such deep tragedy. The title hero is Capt. Ashburnham, played by TV's favorite Sherlock Holmes, Jeremy Brett, and his performance is breathtaking. Ashburnham is an English Gatsby--blessed, envied, and ultimately cursed--yet even when those closest to him see his foibles, they can't help but bend to his will. Meanwhile, as Dowell sifts through the collateral damage left by his onetime friend, he admires him still. 'It never lets you down,' he muses, 'the English habit of taking absolutely everything and everyone for granted.' Also giving splendid performances are Susan Fleetwood as Ashburnham's buffeted wife, and Vickery Turner, Dowell's compulsively chatty, and untrustworthy, wife. Keep an eye out for a pre-Cheers John Ratzenberger, who plays a shallow boy toy (!) lurking in someone's hidden past. Extras include an excellent biography of Ford Madox Ford. --A.T. Hurley
Description:
Behind the façade of perfect lives lies a prison of elicit passion and deception
Two wealthy, handsome couples—one English, one American—meet at a German spa and forge an immediate bond. Through nine seasons at the spa, the splendid foursome share the same tastes, the same desires, and the same elegantly perfect lives. But in a series of startling time and perspective shifts, we learn, little by little, just how far short of perfection their lives really were.
Faithfully adapted from Ford Madox Ford's impressionistic masterpiece, this powerful drama explores a tangle of religion, sex, and Edwardian-era social mores in a highly original style. Starring Jeremy Brett, Robin Ellis, Susan Fleetwood, Vickery Turner, Elizabeth Garvie, Pauline Moran, and John Ratzenberger. As seen on Masterpiece Theatre.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Good Update for The Good Soldier
The Good Soldier is an old favorite and one I thought I would always be condemned to view from an old VHS tape. The DVD is a great update of an old friend.
Rating:  - Not great, but good.
I bought this film because I am a huge fan of Jeremy Brett and wanted to see him in a role other than Sherlock Holmes. I would have liked this film better if Brett's character would have been a little more involved, but at least I did get to see him in a different role on screen. I also was pleased to see "Miss Lemmon" from "Poirot" in the film briefly. I don't know if I would recommend this. I bought it for a personal reason, not because I thought it would be great. For me, it filled that purpose, ... Read More
Rating: - Gorgeous production of a sad story
I am a very visual person so I can sit through lots of meaningless despair as long as it photographed in beautiful settings with lots of lush costumes and fantastic architecture. This film has all of that. It helps that the cast is strong and rather attractive, too. It makes for a "good show."
As for the content, well...I found the story interesting, told as it is, from the view point of the man who was deceived. First we see the splendid surface--the two wealthy couples, one American, ... Read More
Rating: - A stellar cast
With a stellar cast that includes Jeremy Brett, Robin Ellis, Susan Fleetwood, Vickery Turner, Elizabeth Garvie, Pauline Moran, and John Ratzenberger, "The Good Soldier" is the story of two Edwardian couples who become friends when meeting for nine consecutive years at an annual retreat in a German spa. Superbly adapted from the novel by Ford Madox Ford, "The Good Soldier" features beautiful costuming, meticulous set designs, and superb photography in a 104 minute production that is technically flawless ... Read More
Rating: - rivetting!
The Good Soldier is a rather haunting period story and film, with many delicate layers of meaning and subtle character revelations, made more complex because they are seen from different perspectives, but also (paradoxically) because often they are seen, rather than spoken of. The contrast between the measured elegance of the couples, and the anguish (it is revealed) that seethes below the surface of their leisurely, even lazy, lifestyle, is absolutely rivetting.
Although it is essentially a sad story ... Read More
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