Look Back In Anger (Thames/1979)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Feature: B
Look Back In Anger is one of the great plays that
does not get seen or discussed enough.
John Osborne’s 1956 stage classic is about to turn 50 years old, yet the
groundbreaking drama holds up because the kind of honest emotional and personal
conflicts hold a basic honesty that has not changed one bit. This 1979 British TV version from Thames
Television was directed by no less than Dame Judi Dench before she crossed-over
from being the very highly respected actress she still is today, to the name
star she now is.
Kenneth Branagh is Jimmy Porter, an educated man and
college graduate stuck in a small place, lower socio-economic class and is not
exactly as together as he thinks.
Between his business partner and friend (Gerard Horan), lover (Siobhan
Redmond) and wife (Emma Thompson), he is respectably dysfunctional at least,
yet is that angry young man we would later see in so many British feature films
in the 1960s. David Jones handled the
TV side of the directing and this does not seem as old a taping as it is from
the performance point of the actors.
This was earlier in the years of the famous and now
concluded Branagh/Thompson relationship that was so prolific while they were
together. They are still doing great
work since their split, but they did have a chemistry that showed on film and
tape in whatever they did. This is a
key title of theirs to have out on DVD, but everyone here is great and that is
why you should catch this version of Look Back In Anger. That’s especially if you have never seen the
play before.
The 1.33 X 1 image is from the original analog PAL video
source, though the illustrations for the opening and closing credits are
clearer and sharper than the actual show.
Color is a bit off throughout, but this is as good a transfer as we are
likely to get. The Dolby Digital 2.0
has been boosted to simple stereo and sounds as good as possible, so the
combination is as good as it can get thanks to A&E. Extras include text biographies, text on
Dench and a 24:54 reflection by Branagh about the production.
- Nicholas Sheffo
