Lars Von Trier’s The Kingdom – Series One
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C Episodes: C
Lars Von Trier remains one of the most pretentious names
in video production. Film is something
he loathes and this comes across in every project he ever did. What film ever did to him to tick him off is
unknown, but besides becoming part of the Dogme ’95 movement, that thought it
was anti-Hollywood, he filmed Breaking The Waves only to degrade it by
transferring all the footage to video!
He is respected by some, with the likes of Dogville and Dancer
In The Dark still discussed, but it is his old TV series The Kingdom
from 1994 that is getting new attention since Stephen King adapted it.
This Series One double DVD set from Koch Lorber is
as good a set as can be had, though as I watched, I wondered if King’s desire
was to bring out the Horror the original piece does not know how to bring out
or just glosses over. There have been
dramas about medical corruption, series about hospitals on the brink for realistic
reasons (St. Elsewhere) and even a famous slasher film sequel (Halloween
II) where all the action takes place.
For some reason, haunted hospital stories are scare, though one of my
favorites is from a show King is not a fan of.
The rarely seen (but now on DVD) Energy Eater episode of Kolchak:
The Night Stalker (the set reviewed elsewhere on this site) has an ancient
Native American creature on the loose at a new hospital built on sacred ground,
but this mini-series is more about the abstract supernatural.
Unfortunately, just about everyone here is an oddball or
an idiot. It is amazing the patients do
nor kill themselves or go into deep depressions. Of course, it cannot escape being haunted itself by King’s The
Shining, book, mini-series and especially of Stanley Kubrick feature film
classic of the book. I even thought
Martin Scorsese’s Bringing Out The Dead was more effective in dealing
with such a place in chaos, if not necessarily supernatural. When they said in the supplements this
updated the Forsythe Saga, I further felt the cloud of pretension. The result is something only the producers
know the true meaning of and is just flat out lame. See and read King’s version first if you must enter this world at
all.
The 1.33 X 1 image is (surprise!!!) degraded and lacking
color, looking monochromatic with picture noise on purpose throughout. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound is a bit
better, but not with any surrounds. The
combination is annoying, haunted by bad taste in presentation. Extras include commentary tracks on some of
the shows on both DVDs, a trailer and some commercial Trier directed (mostly on
video) on DVD 2 and a behind the scenes featurette on DVD 1. Yawn.
- Nicholas Sheffo
