finally distributed at its correct length!
Not only has Death Watch never previously been available on DVD, but this fascinating, moving, and disturbingly prescient SF film has never been distributed in North America at its proper length - something that I'm assured by Shout! Factory will be remedied with this release. Distributors of the film apparently felt, when it was first released in 1980, that a twist that Tavernier introduces into the narrative wouldn't be accepted by the audience, and/or (according to the director) would be seen as too dark a commentary on the cynicism of television producers and their overriding lust for ratings. I won't spoil that twist by letting people know what it is, but for North American admirers of the film as it previously was released here (on VHS, Laserdisc, and on film, clocking in at 117 minutes, as opposed to the correct 128), be advised: you have never seen the film as the director intended it, unless you've bought the hard-to-find French Region 2 DVD (or caught up with it in another...
Unusually thoughtful and sensitively-acted SF
When this movie was first distributed in 1981 it bombed. Presumably it was uncomfortably ahead of its time, for now - 30-plus years later - it's a topical and amazingly relevant. examination of current media intrusions and the prurient popular curiosity that drives them. The settings - Glasgow and its surrounding countryside - are unusual, and magnificently photographed, and the central performances are outstanding. What a talent the film medium lost when the beautiful Romy Schneider died only a short time after making it. Young Keitel is good and truthful too, and of course Dean Stanton and von Seidow do their usual high quality work. There's also an intriguing very early appearance for Robbie Coltrane. The situation is dramatic, the outcome moving and satisfactory. Altogether, this is people-oriented SF and a very fine adaptation of D G Compton's distinguished 1976 novel - which incidentally has recently been reissued by Gollancz in their SF Masterworks series and is well worth a...
Odd Film
I wouldn't say this is for everyone. Great performances by all. Very interesting sci-fi premise that leads to a grim finale,
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