Customer Reviews:
Covers do not maketh the DVD.......2007-01-23
This is a fairly basic repackaging of the 1982 film - no extras on the DVD, and the book has the same cover as the box design. The quality of the film itself does look to be an improvement on the earlier release, with a slightly cleaner picture (though still with unavoidable scratches and 'pops'), but otherwise it is exactly the same as the 2004 Image Entertainment copy. I would recommend this to anybody who doesn't already have the DVD, as the book will hopefully prompt fans of the film to read the original novel by the Baroness Orczy, but it's not worth buying to try and 'improve' on the previous release. For any other devoted fanatics of the story like myself, it is always useful to have a back-up copy - and well done to London Films for honouring the twenty-fifth anniversary of the film! - but this is nothing new.
Customer Reviews:
Great Entertainment.......2005-11-17
I really loved this version of the Scarlet Pimpernel. As a period drama it has everything. The portrayal of Percy by Richard E Grant was highly entertaining. His devilish wit, charm - not to mention timing, is superb. Elizabeth McGovern as Lady Marguerite Blakeney is beautiful, impulsive & vivacious. Roman Vibert gave Robespierre a truly reptilian & precious persona, suitably filling me with horror & revulsion.
However, Martin Shaw as Chauvalin really steals the show. Monstrous – yet charming, cruel – yet gentle, cynical – yet vulnerable. His love for Marguerite bringing him almost to a point of balance as well as depth. Mr Shaw’s clear enjoyment of the role really comes through. Add to that those seductive good looks, which lend themselves so convincingly to both the character & the period & you have in this, an altogether thoroughly entertaining drama
Depends on if you love the book..........2005-08-01
If you haven't read the books, I imagine you'd find this exciting and good fun. However, it veers away from the books so wildly that if you know them you will spend the entire time feeling frustrated! Other reviewers have said that the story and characters are more historically accurate than Baroness Orczy's original... fair enough if that's your opinion, but I think if you're going to make a film from a book you should get someone who loves the books to write the screenplay. I got the impression that this film was made by people who thought the original was too silly and needed revising. So as a result it's not a version for the Orczy fans.
Pick your Pimpernels!.......2004-08-01
Comparing this to the 1982 Anthony Andrews/Jane Seymour version, the huge difference in production values is striking. 1980s television, even on a fairly large budget, was shot in flat, pedestrian stretches, with no attempt at more than standard studio-set direction. This 1998 version is as beautiful as a Milos Forman movie (like "Amadeus", it's largely shot in Prague) with lovely lighting, fast, fluid camera moves, elliptic scene-setting dialogue; and a real attempt at historic accuracy (the brothel, the theatre, the Dangerous Liaisons-style make-up...) In fact, some scenes, especially those dealing with sex, are a lot truer to the 18th century than Baroness Orczy's Edwardian adventure novels.
This is not to say that there aren't a number of historical clunkers in this new version of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" - but never mind; they belong firmly in the swashbuckling fiction tradition. Robespierre, while bearing very little relation to the historic character, is a find: cold, foppish and understated, more of an Eastern European Communist than a French revolutionary. Prague susbtituting for Paris is rather disconcerting, if very pretty; I doubt the Comité de Salut Public met in Baroque palaces (if only because Paris cruelly lacks them.)
Finally, the actors here are absolutely superlative. I can't imagine why people liked Anthony Andrews's one-note upper-class-twit-of-the-year caricature of Percy, or Jane Seymour's stock Dr Quinn/Marguerite. Even the young Ian McKellen, looking uncannily like Mr Spock as Chauvelin, was surprisingly flat and predictable. Here Richard E. Grant is a fantastically overwrought Percy, flamboyant and sneering; Elizabeth McGovern shows warmth and vulnerability; and Martin Shaw's Chauvelin, while unfaithful to the book, is a marvellously complex villain with enough ambiguous traits to avoid the cardboard-cutout of previous incarnations.
Richard E Grant is the Scarlet Pimpernel.......2003-10-01
He has the charm, the wit, and the blue eyes to carry it off. It is shame he is wasted in Argos ads. Series one is true to the novels written by Baroness Orczy and Martin Shaw is brilliant as Chavuelin. Brilliantly funny, appeals to both male and female. Males for the action and heroics and the females- well Richard E Grant need I say more? The BBC do their dramas well, especially as they have no breaks and you do need your wits about you- and allow yourself to be captured by the thrill of the Scarlet Pimpernel.
Swashbuckling Perfection.......2002-09-18
Even though I had already seen the series I was glued to my seat during all three episodes on this DVD. The acting is subtle but brilliant, the attention to detail with respect to costumes and location absolutely excellent. You really are back in the 18th century! Cannot wait for the second series to be releases on DVD.
Customer Reviews:
They Seek Him Here? Don't bother........2006-07-29
The first season of this production of 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' was fun, energetic and gave a distinct late-90s flavour to proceedings.
Then someone had a brilliant idea for the second season: drop all the things that are best about the Pimpernel! Gone is Marguerite and instead we have a dreary procession of 'feisty' females who can't be true love interests as Sir Percy is still grieving for his wife, so the romance aspect is left in a bizarre limbo. One of the best aspects of the novels and any films since has been the somewhat unconventional relationship between Percy and his wife. Gone, too, is Chauvelin - and so the mind-games and complex relationship between Chauvelin, Percy and Marguerite is gone.The League has shrunk to one useless and idiot and for some reason, one of Percy's friends and long-time associates in Paris decides to turn traitor.
The only redeeming thing about any of this is Richard E. Grant's performance, but without Elizabeth McGovern or Martin Shaw to riposte, he's left floundering.
Enjoy the first series and then give this one a miss
Well recommended.......2005-01-26
This is series 2 of the BBC's version of the Scarlet pimpernel and includes the three episodes, Ennui, Friends and Enemies, and A Good name on two DVD disks.
This is, in my opinion, one of the best Pimpernel adaptations there is. Richard E Grant shines as the scarlet pimpernel and his wonderful portrayal of the pimpernel is so endering.
This is heaven not hell- watch the Scarlet Pimpernel!.......2003-10-01
Series 2 is kinda sad as Elizabeth McGovern and Martin Shaw are not in this series. However, Robspierre is still with us as is the delightful Richard E Grant. As a Literature student I appreciate historical drama- which to my mind is a classic. I seek it here, I seek it there, but I can't stop watching this BBC Drama, much more fun than Pamorama. This series develops the exisiting League members and reveals Sir Percy can be a bit of a ladies' man and not just because he is the Scarlet Pimpernel. Look out girls and beweare of Richard E Grant's ice blue eyes. I have fallen under their spell.
Customer Reviews:
Surprisingly entertaining!.......2007-08-16
Excellent production! I bought this for the Scarlet Pimpernel, and know next to nothing about ballet, but the performances were entrancing - Polly Tring and Henry Perkins in the lead roles portraying the romance and torment of Sir Percy and Marguerite's troubled relationship far beyond their years. And the young dancer playing Chauvelin was the perfect villain, with a matchless sneer! For those not fans of ballet, the opening scene goes on a little too long, but the rest of the story is told with creative application - I loved the devices of a red handkerchief as the Pimpernel's calling card and a locket given to Pascale (Marguerite's 'sister') in the scene where Chauvelin blackmails Marguerite with his 'either-or'. The disguises - always a must, with the Pimpernel! - were employed well and very funny: Henry Perkins seemingly enjoying his turn in skirts and a curly red wig! I enjoyed Perkins' dual roles as Sir Percy and the Pimpernel very much, and thought he injected just the right amount of flippancy into one and fight into the other. A strange choice for me, but it paid off - I would recommend this to ballet and Pimpernel fans alike!
Amazing DVD for boys and girls.......2007-05-28
What a fantastic way to introduce this famous and exciting story to children of all ages (including adults who never read the book!) This is the answer to what parents can watch with their kids, and all be equally delighted.
The Scarlet Pimpernel has lots of action, intrigue, love, conflict, treachery--all of the elements of a great story. Amazingly, all the dancers are children, but so talented! Both of my children loved this, as did I and my many friends who watched it. Unique and excellent! (It also makes a great gift!)
UK DVD:
- Scarlett [1994] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- Scrooge
- Simon Birch [1999]
- Slacker [1991]
- Sling Blade [1996]
- Solas - Alone [2001]
- Soldier Soldier - The Complete Series 5
- Swing Kids
- Sylvia [2004]
- Sympathy For Mr Vengeance (Collector's Edition) [2002]
UK DVD List
UK DVD
![Scarlet Pimpernel - Series 2 [2007]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21G3xlLOELL.jpg)
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The Scarlet Pimpernel
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