The Cadfael Collection
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Movie Reviews of The Cadfael Collection
Movie Review: THE CADFAEL COLLECTION
Summary: 5 Stars
The brits really know how to do mysterys no dull moments. It sucks you in like a great book. Excillent workMovie Review: happy customer
Summary: 5 Stars
good service and the product was as discribed. we are happy customers and would buy from this seller againMovie Review: Every Episode Worth Watching
Summary: 4 Stars
One evening I turned on my TV and found myself staring, enraptured, at the sight of a monk blundering his way through a snowstorm, accompanied by hauntingly beautiful choral music. Thus was I introduced to "The Virgin in the Ice" on the PBS show "Mystery!". Over the next few weeks I saw as many other Cadfael episodes as I could find, and periodically caught them again as they came and went. One nifty feature "Mystery!" included was Diana Riggs providing some historical background to 12th century England, which is when the Cadfael series is set.
I soon learned that the series is based on a set of twenty novels, plus one book of short stories, written by Ellis Peters. These span the years 1137 through 1145; they chronicle a Welshman named Cadfael, who fought in the Crusades and then retired to the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in Shrewsbury, to become a monk. His vast trove of lore, built up during his travels in the Holy Land, serves him quite well as he is called upon to solve various murders throughout the years. His extensive knowledge of herbs puts him in good stead, as it allows him to leave the confines of the monastery frequently on errands as a healer. He comes to know the town folk quite well; this gives him plenty of willing helpers. He has the knack of prying information out of people who would never dream of divulging it to the sheriff, and more than once he courageously harbors fugitives wrongly hunted by the Law. His many years in the world give him great insight into the darkness which lurks in the souls of men, and, sometimes, even women.
Thus, as the episodes began to appear on DVD one by one, I eagerly bought them up. Finally I gained the ability to watch the entire 13-episode series back-to-back, at will. Now, there are two ways one could do this: either in the order of the books, or in the order the series originally aired. The two are not the same: while, for the most part, earlier novels tend to appear as earlier episodes, and later novels as later episodes, things are a bit out of order. In general this matters only to purists, as the threads tying the books together, such as Cadfael's growing relationship with Olivier de Bretagne, are downplayed on the videos or omitted altogether.
I decided on series order; it was quite illuminating to watch the series evolve, as the regular actors grew into their roles.
The acting is excellent. Abbots Heribert and Radulfus, the inept Brother Oswin and the ever-suspicious Sergeant Will Warden are all very much the way the books describe them. Prior Robert and his toady Jerome are both wonderfully obnoxious. Three different actors play Hugh Beringar throughout the series, but all do reasonably well. And then there is Sir Derek Jacobi as Cadfael. He does not much resemble the book Cadfael at all, but it hardly matters -- he's perfect for the part. When I read the novels, it is Jacobi's face I see and his voice I hear in my mind.
Seeing the videos in series order is illuminating for another reason as well. When the earlier episodes aired, Ellis Peters was still alive and, it appears, able to have some input into how they were developed. As a result, they are quite faithful to the novels, apart from the necessity of trimming unnecessary details to cram 200+ pages into a 75-minute production. My particular favorites are "The Virgin in the Ice", "Monk's Hood" and "The Devil's Novice".
It is noteworthy, however, that the final three or four episodes, produced after the death of Ellis Peters, are the ones which diverge the most from the books. One, "The Pilgrim of Hate", is almost completely different, other than the basic premise. The introduction of the "mos teutonicus" is downright macabre. Another, "The Raven in the Foregate", is much more melodramatic than the book, almost to the point of being overblown. It introduces characters which were not in the book, for no obvious reason that I could see; the novel's plot should have been good enough. And "The Holy Thief" turns a sympathetic character, one I happen to like, into a bad guy, which really bothers me.
Indeed, seen in the context of the entire series, my enthusiasm for these three episodes has cooled off considerably from when I first saw them, but I still consider them to be passably good.
Although "A Morbid Taste for Bones" is the first book, it actually makes sense to start the series with "One Corpse Too Many" instead. This one serves to introduce all of the major characters -- except for Radulfus, who appears later on. It also sets up the civil war between King Stephen and his cousin the Empress Maud, which serves as an important backdrop for the entire series. There's nothing like a little political tension to have the knives coming out in the dark to dispose of one hapless partisan or another.
Alas, since the DVDs come directly from the BBC productions, there is no Diana Riggs. Thus, the best way to get the background for these stories is to read the books, as I have twice over. It's a shame that the remaining seven novels were never produced, but I've heard that Cadfael was frightfully expensive to do. Thus, I'm thankful for what I have.
Had the "Complete Cadfael Collection" come out four years ago, I certainly would have pounced on it at once. It's an excellent buy for anyone who likes all or most of the episodes, or the books. For those who are more particular, there are also annual boxed sets as well as the individual episodes.
Movie Review: A rare Benedictine
Summary: 4 Stars
Brother Cadfael is not the sort of person you would immediately peg as a brilliant detective -- a crusader-turned-monk who specializes in herbology and medicine.
But he is a brilliant detective. And "Cadfael: Complete Collection" brings together all of the BBC's adaptation of Ellis Peters' classic mysteries, which intertwine murder mysteries and medieval history. These stories are well-written, clever and full of unexpected twists -- and they're filmed with a gritty, grimy realistic flavor.
Cadfael (Derek Jacobi) is a monk at the abbey of Shrewsbury in the first half of the twelfth century. At this time, England was being ripped in half by a civil war (now called The Anarchy) between King Stephen and Empress Maud, which was dividing the populace and turning the English people against each other.
And as the war rages on, Cadfael is confronted by many different murders -- murdered nobles, framed acrobats, a corpse is hidden amongst executed "traitors," a raped nun frozen in the river, a saint's bones that inspire murder and greed, a body found in a potter's field, a vast Shrewsbury Fair leads to a string of cruel murders, a cruel priest is found dead after he drives a pregnant girl to suicide, and political conflicts lead to brutal deaths.
"Cadfael: The Complete Collection" is the sort of authentic historical series that the BBC has sadly stopped making -- it has all the blood, grime and sweat of the 12th century, and accurately depicts the strong presence of religion and politicial strife in medieval life.
For the most part, the writers accurately adapt Peters' novels -- every mystery has lots of suspects, moral dilemmas, religious strife, civil war, a murder that only Cadfael can solve, and a bit of cute romance as well. And since the series is set long before forensic science was created, it's fun to see Cadfael scout for tiny clues and patch them together into a case-- a cast of a boot print, a shred of cloth, a bit of a plant.
The one downside? Cadfael does a couple of things that would be questionable for a Catholic monk, and "The Pilgrim of Hate" is almost nothing like Peters' novel -- a lame end for the series.
But Derek Jacobi is absolutely pitch-perfect as Cadfael -- his solid performance is kindly, wise, paternal, and a little humorous at times, especially as a monk who's seen more of the real world than most of his brothers (he was even a ladies' man!). And even though he's a monk and healer, we occasionally get to see him kick butt as well.
There are also great performances by Terrence Hardiman as the kind but stern Abbot Radulfus, Julian Firth as the fussy Brother Jerome, and Michael Culver as the haughty snob Prior Robert. Mark Charnock is also rather sweet as the naive, gawky Brother Oswin ("... besides... I like gloves").
Despite a few flaws, "Cadfael: The Complete Collection" is an earthy, solid medieval mystery series with a brilliant Derek Jacobi in the lead.
Movie Review: A DVD for All Seasons
Summary: 4 Stars
The Brother Cadfael mystries were in my opinion one of the finer BBC book adeptations ever, so I did not hesitiate when the complete collection was available on DVD. I do have a post-production complaint however: Acorn saw fit to add Engish subtitles to an English script! It was not necessary, the accents are not that heavy. The subtitles only serve as a distration to a well produced series. There should have been a "hide" feature built in so those of us who didn't want the subtitles did not have to be stuck with them.