|
|
Rating:  - Nothing Compares
It's now 10:30 in the morning. I started watching The Jewel In The Crown via Amazon's Video On Demand around 8pm last night and I just finished up. I literally could not stop watching this fascinating story of India's independence and how the actions and reactions (and non-reactions) of a huge cast of characters are interwoven with beauty and dignity. The casting was superb, the filming was beautiful, and the stories were mesmerizing. To top it all off, I saved about $15 off the DVD price. You can read other people's reviews to find out more about the story and the cast...just, whatever you do, watch this series!
Rating:  - I just was waiting for it
Back in 1982 I bought in Abu Dhabi the Jewel in the Crown in 12 VHS and I am happy I have seen it in only 4 DVDS at Amazon. The quality of the reproduction, so far, (who can see 4 x 3hrs each DVD in such a short time) is excellent and it is a pleasure hearing a good english speaking after so many american slang movies we see everyday at TV. Thanks.
Mauro
Rating:  - Great story, defective set
I wonder if anyone else's copy was defective. Disk 4 was a duplicate of Disk 3. Couldn't even watch the end of the series.
Rating: - A Jewel of a Series!
If there was ever evidence of perfection on the small screen it's here in "The Jewel In The Crown". It's been 24 years since I last saw the show and I'm here to report that time has polished this jewel to a magnificent shine. Don't deprive yourself of experiencing drama at its finest. The DVD transfer may not be up to today's standards but the acting is beyond reproach and Tim Pigott-Smith gives a performance of a lifetime. Quite simply, it doesn't get better than this.
Rating:  - Old VHS quality, unfocused story w/too many characters
Yes, I agree that this transfer is terrible at best. I was shocked with the old VHS quality of this, there wasn't much effort to clean it up.
The second point I have is that only the first 3 hours based on the first book in the series seems focused and comprehensible to me. After that I found myself seeing too many characters that come and go and it not really continuing the story after that, what happened to the baby or the main heroines Indian lover? I think devoting 14 hours to just the first book would have been a better route.
I admit I have only watched the first disk so far but I almost completely have lost interest due to all the many forgettable and numerous characters with no real central story, who are these people and will any of this carry into the next episodes? It seems to be some mishmash about Indian independence in general after the first 3 hours.
Again I have not watched the whole series so it could be better and based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews it probably will come back to a coherent narrative, but I think they could have cut a lot of the characters and subplots and made this even better or more clearly delineated which novel each saga is based on.
|
|