Prisoner of Honor (Telefilm)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C Telefilm: B-
For many years before becoming one of the most distinctive
filmmakers in the world, Ken Russell had directed a long series of quality
television productions for the BBC.
Despite his distinctive work, even at his peak, he still knew the value
of television. Prisoner Of Honor
(1991) was made for HBO and is not a trivial work like most telefilms tend to
be these days. Richard Dreyfuss stars
as the investigator into what turned out to be the infamous “Dreyfus Affair”, a
scandal that tore France apart and helped to bring about World War One.
Investigator Colonel Georges Picquart (Dreyfuss) is
certain French Army Captain Alfred Dreyfus (Kenneth Colley) is guilty, in part
simply because he is Jewish! Soon
however, it is turning out he is not the only one with this prejudice and
others who do have much more money and power, enough to be behind a huge
cover-up. The more those people keep
quiet, the worse it gets.
As we watch, we see how many times these people nearly
succeeded in keeping this a secret to this day, but a combination of arrogance,
overestimation of power and Picquart being turned on all helped to slowly
develop cracks that would eventually break the truth wide open into a worldwide
scandal. Russell takes his time with
Ron Hutchinson’s teleplay to lay things out in detail and the high caliber of
actor she managed to get for this project speaks highly of both the material
and the reputation of Russell.
Oliver Reed, Peter Firth, Jeremy Kemp, Brian Blessed,
Peter Vaughn, the great director Lindsay Anderson, and Vernon Dobtcheff head a
very strong cast that brings this far above the usual “quality TV” levels that
are so restricting form what we would get on the likes of Masterpiece
Theater. Like Stanley Kubrick, when
Russell enters the Victorian Era and associated times, it is a trip bound to be
as subversive as it is authentic.
Though it can run-on a bit, Russell goes the long way to re-expose the
ugly nightmare that the Dreyfus Affair was and that is why Prisoner Of Honor
is the kind of project that helped put HBO on the map as respectable, something
they have miraculously kept being since.
Despite some problems, this is one of the best cable films to date even now.
The full screen image is on the soft side, but the film
was shot that way by cinematographer Mike Southon and has the usual lush look
and detail all Russell period pieces tend to have. Too bad the material was not retransferred, but HBO should eventually
do this in digital High Definition, especially with all the HD channels they
will have. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
is not credited on the back of the box as having any surrounds, but decodes
nicely in Pro Logic. Extras include a
text biography of Richard Dreyfuss and a 20-minutes-long Making Of look
at the film with interviews by the cast that was an early attempt by HBO in how
to sell their event telefilms. Well, it
worked and the film did well for HBO and continued Russell’s reputation. Though only historians can attest to its
accuracy, Prisoner Of Honor never hits a false note and holds up
remarkably well all these years later.
Because of it HBO actually has a legacy.
- Nicholas Sheffo
