Mackenzie, John

Country Matters

Based on short stories by A.E. Coppard and H.E. Bates, this Country Matters collection includes eight of the 50-minute episodes that helped form Masterpiece Theater's hybrid theater/television identity as go-to programming for understanding Great Britain. Country Matters portrays mostly tragic romance, set in rural England just after the first World War. Each episode provides accurate and fascinating costume and set design to illustrate the class differences, living habits, and manners of Brits in various regions, giving viewers a deeper knowledge of the culture clash that has occurred within this tradition-bound society. "Craven Arms" stars Ian McKellen as David, a figure-drawing teacher in love with three of his beauteous students, Kate, Nancy, and Julia. Suffering from what he calls his lack of "constancy," David's inability to commit takes him nowhere except on a lonely journey. Alice in "The Mill," a 17-year-old ditched by her parents to earn her keep on a nearby farm, also suffers through lonely sexual exploration. The first disc, also including "The Sullen Sisters" about two sisters, Lindy and Rachel, feuding over Tommy, an extremely young boy, offers little in the way of cheerful love.

"The Little Farm" on disc two provides the first glimpse of short-term romantic success, as Edna Johnson (Barbara Ewing) moves onto Tom Richards' (Brian Marshall) farm, transforming his veritable pigsty with her woman's touch. "The Higgler" also hints at fleeting emotional uplift as higgler, Harvey (Keith Krinkel) is invited to befriend an educated lady, Mary (Sheila Rusgrove). Each story unravels slowly, quietly, and in dark rooms oft lit by lantern to show what life's pace used to be. While some episodes are more riveting than others, slight action is well compensated for by meticulous script and acting. Like the best in British drama, these short story adaptations rely on dialogue to enliven characters rather than showy special effects or bawdy sex. Country Matters certainly opens a window into the past, which feels like respite from today's cinematic overload. --Trinie Dalton

One of the most widely acclaimed drama series television has ever produced, these adaptations of short stories by A.E. Coppard and H.E. Bates present provocative and heartwarming tales set against the vast English countryside during the post-World War I period. Featuring stunning locations and star-studded casts that include Ian McKellen, Peter Firth, Pauline Collins, Rosalind Ayres and Prunella Scales, these eight lavish dramas reveal the timeless and constant qualities of the British landscape and its people.

2 DVD set includes:
Craven Arms - The Mill - The Sullens Sisters - The Watercress Girl
The Little Farm - The Black Dog - The Higgler - The Ring of Truth

The Long Good Friday

Intricately plotted and smartly paced, this gangster saga clicks as whodunit, social satire, and explosive thriller. The piece is crowned by Bob Hoskins's career-making turn as a London mobster courting respectability and Helen Mirren's subtly detailed performance as his upper-crust mistress. Cockney wiseguy Harold Shand is a would-be burgher whose domination of the city's underworld stems from his shrewdness as a mediator and his skill at harnessing political and economic clout. As Easter approaches, he's poised to launch an aggressive real estate development scheme along the depressed Thames waterfront when all hell breaks loose: a trusted lieutenant is brutally murdered, Shand's mother is nearly killed in a car bombing, one of his pubs is blown apart, and the visiting American don crucial to the pending deal is quickly growing wary.

Barrie Keeffe's original screenplay keeps the viewer a step ahead of Shand, providing us with a telling but teasingly incomplete glimpse of the misstep by his underlings that has set chaos loose. At the same time, Keeffe underlines the bourgeois pretensions of the rough-hewn, barrel-chested Shand, how the elegant Victoria (Mirren) helps serve those ambitions, and the myriad parallels between Shand's minions and the local politicians and police only too willing to join in his scheme. Tart, funny dialogue and alternately playful and pungent Eastertide imagery complete Keeffe's shrewd design--two key scenes, in a meat locker and a warehouse, invoke the Crucifixion itself.

Even with lesser performances, the script and John Mackenzie's solid direction would make The Long Good Friday a keeper, but Hoskins's explosive portrait of Shand and his descent toward brutal revenge elevates the film into the very front rank, earning admiring comparisons to The Godfather, Scarface, GoodFellas, and other classics of that genre. On DVD, Criterion's new digital transfer restores more than just the widescreen aspect ratio--the film has never looked better, even if an occasionally muddy sound mix survives to make the thick Cockney accents a challenge to decipher. --Sam Sutherland

Academy Award® nominee Bob Hoskins delivers a ferocious performance as mobster Harold Shand, the all-powerful boss of the London underworld. But on the day he is about to close the ultimate deal with an American crime family, Shand's empire suddenly — and literally — begins to explode around him. Who would dare attack Britain's most ruthless gangster? How far will he go to find the truth? And what is the deadly secret behind the havoc of THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY? Oscar® nominee Helen Mirren (GOSFORD PARK, CALIGULA), tough guy icon Eddie Constantine (ALPHAVILLE), and Pierce Brosnan (in one of his first film roles) co-star in this now-classic crime drama that critics compare to THE GODFATHER and SCARFACE as one of the greatest gangster films of all time.

The Long Good Friday - Criterion Collection

Intricately plotted and smartly paced, this gangster saga clicks as whodunit, social satire, and explosive thriller. The piece is crowned by Bob Hoskins's career-making turn as a London mobster courting respectability and Helen Mirren's subtly detailed performance as his upper-crust mistress. Cockney wiseguy Harold Shand is a would-be burgher whose domination of the city's underworld stems from his shrewdness as a mediator and his skill at harnessing political and economic clout. As Easter approaches, he's poised to launch an aggressive real estate development scheme along the depressed Thames waterfront when all hell breaks loose: a trusted lieutenant is brutally murdered, Shand's mother is nearly killed in a car bombing, one of his pubs is blown apart, and the visiting American don crucial to the pending deal is quickly growing wary.

Barrie Keeffe's original screenplay keeps the viewer a step ahead of Shand, providing us with a telling but teasingly incomplete glimpse of the misstep by his underlings that has set chaos loose. At the same time, Keeffe underlines the bourgeois pretensions of the rough-hewn, barrel-chested Shand, how the elegant Victoria (Mirren) helps serve those ambitions, and the myriad parallels between Shand's minions and the local politicians and police only too willing to join in his scheme. Tart, funny dialogue and alternately playful and pungent Eastertide imagery complete Keeffe's shrewd design--two key scenes, in a meat locker and a warehouse, invoke the Crucifixion itself.

Even with lesser performances, the script and John Mackenzie's solid direction would make The Long Good Friday a keeper, but Hoskins's explosive portrait of Shand and his descent toward brutal revenge elevates the film into the very front rank, earning admiring comparisons to The Godfather, Scarface, GoodFellas, and other classics of that genre. On DVD, Criterion's new digital transfer restores more than just the widescreen aspect ratio--the film has never looked better, even if an occasionally muddy sound mix survives to make the thick Cockney accents a challenge to decipher. --Sam Sutherland

Bob Hoskins, in his breakthrough film role, stars as a London racketeer fast losing control of his gangland empire; Helen Mirren shines as his classy moll. John Mackenzie's stylish thriller is a marriage of gangster flicks from both sides of the Atlantic. Criterion presents The Long Good Friday in an exclusive widescreen transfer.

The Fourth Protocol

Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. Languages: o English (subtitles) o Portugese (subtitles) o Spanish (subtitles) o English (Dolby Digital 2.0) o Portugese (Dolby Digital 2.0) o Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0) Synopsis: Scripted by Frederick Forsyth from his own novel, The Fourth Protocol is a fact-based spy thriller. The titular protocol is a secret agreement between America, Britain and Russia to cease smuggling nuclear weapons into their respective countries. This figures into the schemes of several rogue spies, who hope to destroy NATO by embarking on just such a smuggling endeavor. Russian agent Valeri Petrofsky (Pierce Brosnan) is ordered to stage a nuclear accident in England, then arrange the evidence to point to the Americans. British intelligence agent John Preston (Michael Caine) begins wondering why such nuclear-weapon components like lithium are showing up in the unlikeliest places. Ignored by his superiors, who figure that Preston is merely an old-line anti-Commie paranoic, Preston gathers the clues that will enable him to find out who's behind the potential breaking of The Fourth Protocol. Special Features: o Interactive Menu o Making Of o Photo Gallery o Scene Access o Trailer(s)

Frederick Forsyth wrote the novel and screenplay for this story about a plot to stage an enormous nuclear accident in England, a catastrophe so large that its source can never be identified but will lead to assumptions that America is behind it. Michael Caine plays an aging intelligence agent who picks up clues that the ingredients for such an apocalypse are being smuggled piece-by-piece into the U.K.--but he cannot seem to get his superiors to care. Caine is outstanding in a role that seems tailor-made for him, and Pierce Brosnan is very good as the Russian agent working undercover in England to effect the planned tragedy. The film perfectly captures a spreading suspicion and resentment toward superpower adventurism, even though such sentiments are, in fact, being exploited by the bad guys. Caine, as always, suggests a man walking a narrow line through a gauntlet of moral compromises. --Tom Keogh

Quicksand

Ruby

The Mafia needed a patsy. The CIA needed a pawn. And the conspiracy needed a killer. They found it all in Jack Ruby, the Dallas strip club owner who murdered President Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, on live television. Stars Danny Aiello.

When the Sky Falls

This gray portrait of the Dublin underworld, produced in the United Kingdom, is a refreshing--though brutal--change from the usual aren't-they-quaint Hollywood portrayals of the Irish. Joan Allen stars as Sinead, a feisty reporter who is waging a crusade against the Dublin heroin trade. The story and character are based on real-life Irish reporter Veronica Guerin, but the movie is far from an idealized portrait. Allen lets Sinead's occasional cocky manner and foolhardiness show through as clearly as her convictions. While it is at times hampered by the constraints of budget (the soundtrack is particularly noticeable in that regard), When the Sky Falls offers a realistic portrayal of both the viciousness of a crime scene and the frustration of the police. Allen is more than ably backed by a terrific supporting cast of Irish actors. And yes, she does the accent just fine. This movie is not a masterpiece, but it's well worth a look. --Ali Davis

Dick Francis - The Racing Game

An unusual yet unexpectedly entertaining television mystery series, The Racing Game DVD collection includes all six episodes from a 1980 British production inspired by Dick Francis's novel Odds Against. Francis himself wrote an adapted scenario based on the story of Sid Halley (Mike Gwilym), a champion jockey whose hand--and career--are destroyed during a racing accident. Lost in a deep funk, Halley is eventually drawn out by a string of suspicious accidents at the track. Soon he's investigating criminal connections to a sadistic, wealthy couple and inventing himself anew as a private gumshoe.

The remaining five episodes are original tales, sketched out by Francis and set in the surprisingly cutthroat world of racing. "Trackdown" finds Sid and his comic-relief sidekick, Chico Barnes (Mick Ford), looking into evidence of race fixing, blackmail, and murder. In "Gambling Lady," the crime-fighting partners seek a link between a champion horse's road accident and a beautiful woman's sizable bets on a mediocre mare.

The Racing Game has a slippery, hurried look and feel, and its nominal star (Gwilym) is rather lifeless on screen. Yet these shows quickly develop an unmistakable, infectious swagger and humor. Certain motifs, such as Halley's wrecked hand and vise-like prosthetic, have a slightly surreal touch. Supporting actor Ford adds crucial energy, and the many exterior shots of the racing milieu can be fun to watch. This series may not be an unqualified winner, but it certainly does place in the mystery stakes. --Tom Keogh

The Fourth Protocol [Region 2]

Frederick Forsyth wrote the novel and screenplay for this story about a plot to stage an enormous nuclear accident in England, a catastrophe so large that its source can never be identified but will lead to assumptions that America is behind it. Michael Caine plays an aging intelligence agent who picks up clues that the ingredients for such an apocalypse are being smuggled piece-by-piece into the U.K.--but he cannot seem to get his superiors to care. Caine is outstanding in a role that seems tailor-made for him, and Pierce Brosnan is very good as the Russian agent working undercover in England to effect the planned tragedy. The film perfectly captures a spreading suspicion and resentment toward superpower adventurism, even though such sentiments are, in fact, being exploited by the bad guys. Caine, as always, suggests a man walking a narrow line through a gauntlet of moral compromises. --Tom Keogh

A Sense of Freedom [Region 2]