Reviews

This was a film that I was interested to see having had the John Barry theme music in my record collection for over 50 years. My guess is that this was a totally improvised script and very stagey. Also three of the characters use their real names! I can't imagine it was seen by very many people on its initial release. The sort of film likely to appeal to the Art House crowd. And, contrary to a couple of the other reviewers, this was not John Barry's first film theme or Judi Dench's first film performance!

I have to agree with the majority of reviewers. This is a very poor drama with few redeeming features. As with many episodic dramas it starts well, but quickly descends into mediocrity. It began to remind me more of the old BBC series "Survivors", but without the character development or suspense. And by episode 8 I had almost lost interest. Also the soundtrack was very irritating and at times became so loud that it was hard to hear the actors dialogue. For me yet another disappointing TV series. I think I will stick to watching old movies which in the main do not need a book of notes to explain what is happening!

I had never read the book, so I was a little unsure of what to expect from the TV series. The series started well, but got more confusing episode by episode. I feel that each episode should have had an add-on explanation at the end! I have since read the book and I feel that the series would have been much better if they had stuck to Aldous Huxley's original vision of a future dystopian society. Overall, for me. a real disappointment.

I have just watched this film on TCM, and I was very disappointed to find that most of the dialogue had been dubbed! Does anybody know why? Did they lose the original soundtrack, or was it re-dubbed for North American audiences? I think that Richard Burtons dialogue is authentic, but most of the supporting characters are obviously dubbed. Nigel Davenport, Colin Welland, Tony Selby, TP McKenna, Josh Ackland, Donald Sinden etc had very distinctive accents which do not "ring true" on this soundtrack! Most disappointing for a Brit fan like myself!!

Having watched this film as a 10/11 year old child in Manchester,UK in 1969, I am intrigued by the very explicit topless dancer scene! I think that I would have remembered this scene, and wonder if it was censored in the UK!! Otherwise not a bad movie, though it was overlong. It would definitely have looked better in colour.Interesting to see so many top rate actors in one film, even though some only had brief roles. Stanley Baker and Gia Scala would appear together in another Greek located film two years later, namely "The Guns Of Navarone"! Personally, I think the look of the film was quite good. The locations, and set dressing,period vehicles looked quite authentic. If I remember correctly in the UK this film was shown on a double bill, with a Tarzan film as the second feature. The Tarzan film was in colour!!