The Prisoner - Complete Series Megaset (40th Anniversary Edition)
|
List Price: Our Price: $49.99 You Save: $49.96 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $34.35 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Prisoner - Complete Series Megaset (40th Anniversary Edition)
Movie Review: We want....... INFORMATION...... INFORMATION!!!!!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
The most important show ever on television in great mastered DVD format.
Buy and enjoy.
Be Seeing you!
Movie Review: Be ready for something different...
Summary: 5 Stars
Since "The Prisoner" has been coming up in my life for many years: my father talking about it, "Simpsons" references, and in music (Iron Maiden), I decided to buy the megaset. It was better than I thought it would be.
This show has so many different levels and such symbolism, you have to watch almost all the episodes three or four times to appreciate everything.
This show was clearly ahead of it's time (late 60s). All the standard "hour-long drama" stereotypes are either left out or creatively re-presented. (I'd go into detail, but you'd have to see the episodes to really get what I'm saying, but I will say that in one episode, no one talks for about the first 23 minutes).
The epsiodes have a claustrophobic, suspenseful air to them rather than a predictable linear plot that wraps up neatly at the end ("ooo, a Bad Guy! We're Good Guys! Let's get the Bad Guys! Yay! We got the Bad Guys!") As a matter of fact, there is an episode that makes fun of such plots (The Girl Who Was Death).
I was so enthralled with the show that I soon after purchased the two volumes of original shooting scripts for the show.
Buy this set if you like mysteries, symbolism, allegory, and suspense (as well as great acting from Patrick McGoohan and the various Number 2s)!
Movie Review: A "Genius", Two "Prisoners", And A "Dope" 60's TV Series!
Summary: 5 Stars
To say that The Prisoner is a "Science Fiction" series, or some kind of psychadelic "Surreal Fantasy", or that it was a dated "Sixties Commentary" would all be dead wrong! The underlying issues that were so ingeniously covered in several of the storylines of Mr.McGoohan's "Masterpiece" are absolutely factual, occurring in reality, and unfortunately are happening in our "Courts of Law" and in our "Government" to this very day, (Trust me - I know whereof I speak!) And upon revisting "No.6", and "The New No.2", and "The Village" many years later, after similarly nightmarish experiences I've had recently, both the cleverly hidden messages and the overt morality plays smacked me right in the face, and I finally "got it"! And I'm not talking about getting the ridiculously obvious clues as to who "No.6" is, ("D-6?"), or what it really means when "Drake" asks his captors "Who is number one?", (the "Ratings Game", the "TV Industry", and an illogically placed "Camera Crane" in the middle of the "Green Dome" all scream that the whole thing is going on inside a man's mind... Patrick McGoohan's mind, in fact... The "TV Actor & Star" in particular!) What I'm talking about was lost on the young man I used to be when I saw "The Prisoner" as a Sci-Fi/Spy series like others made by ITC, the same people responsible for the fab, fun, flighty adventures of "The Saint" and "The Avengers". This time around I "got it" with regards to the meaning of things like first learning to "distinguish between the blacks and the whites" in a "life-size chessboard", and the true costs of being a "free man", who is "free to speak", and who now feels more strongly than ever that "My life is my own!" This strange old "Cult TV Series" alone has provided me with more hope, and confidence, and inspiration to be strong and to keep on fighting for my "inalienable" rights and ethical goals, and when necessary, being totally "unmutual" in the process of revolting in my own "rage against the machine" than had a thousand written quotations from many of the finest "minds" the world, (we know of), has ever known. And as such, I would not only have to, but would WANT to include Patrick McGoohan among the likes of Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Jr., and all the other Poets, Prophets, and Proletariats who once stood up for the "rights of the little man", (The Butler?), and the "freedoms" every man needs yet takes for granted on a daily basis, ("Everyman Films, Ltd."?), and tried drawing some attention to all the moral values of a "civilized society" that have been systematically tossed by the wayside in an un-concious, technology obsessed, fast-food culture which has grown so cold-hearted, self-interested, profit-based, and vainglorious it has all of us turning a "mutual" blind eye to injustices occurring around us every day! And in such a "Village" as the one we've created for ourselves it's very nice and truly fortunate to have once had a quirky little series on the tellie with a heart, a soul, and a "mind" - God bless you, Paddy Fitz! Thanks in no small part to your inspirational courage and intellectual vision, I am "a free man" who will not be "numbered" either! "Be seeing you." - The New #6
"Du Musst Amboss Oder Hammer Sien." - Goethe
"And you see me as The Anvil?" - No.6
Movie Review: Great show with bizarre ending, shown in wrong order.
Summary: 4 Stars
I will confine my comments to the order of the episodes; if you want to read about what the show is about, see the editorial review.
The show is presented in what is known as the "Six of One" order, which is the order recommended by the fan club of that name. This differs from the original broadcast order in the UK, which also differs from the original broadcast order in the US. But all of those orders are wrong. There are various clues to the correct order that can be found within the series, such as Number 2 (who is the same person in "The General" and "A. B. and C.") saying, in "The General", "I am the new Number 2", and in "A. B. and C.", "I am number 2". Obviously, this means "The General" precedes "A.B. and C.", because he cannot be "new" in the second episode in which he appears. The only ordering that I have seen that gets this right (as well as all of the other clues that I have noticed) is called the "KTEH order", named after the PBS station that broadcast them in that order. The KTEH order, by the way, is also reportedly approved by McGoohan himself. (I would provide links for you, but Amazon doesn't like links in reviews, so you must search for yourselves to verify this information.) The KTEH order is as follows:
Arrival
Dance of the Dead
Checkmate
The Chimes of Big Ben
Free For All
Many Happy Returns
Schizoid Man
The General
A. B. and C.
Living in Harmony
It's Your Funeral
Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling
A Change of Mind
Hammer into Anvil
The Girl Who Was Death
Once Upon a Time
Fall Out
There are other clues, such as a reference to "The General" in "Schizoid Man" that is such that "Schizoid Man" must precede "The General" (I will not explain the reference here, as the explanation would involve a "spoiler" of the ending of "The General"; watch the episodes carefully for yourselves to observe this clue). This is yet another proof that the "Six of One" order (the order A&E chose to put them on the DVDs) is wrong.
Anyway, I think the show is best if viewed in an order that makes some sense, particularly as people find the show confusing enough on its own. Too bad A & E did not bother to get the order right.
Movie Review: the best of the best
Summary: 5 Stars
everything you ever wanted to see about the PRISONER is included in this perfect collection ... highly recommended!