Stars:
Jane Badler, Michael Durrell, Faye Grant, Peter Nelson, David Packer, Neva
Patterson, Tommy Peterson, Marc Singer, Blair Tefkin, Michael Wright, Bonnie
Bartlett, Leonardo Cimino, Richard Herd, Evan Kim, Richard Lawson, George
Morfogen, Andrew Prine, Hansford Rowe, Jenny Sullivan, and Penelope Windust
Writer:
Kenneth Johnson
Director:
Kenneth Johnson
Feature
length: 196 minutes
Extras:
Feature Length Commentary By Writer And Director Kenneth Johnson,
Behind-The-Scenes Documentary
Languages:
English Dolby Surround 2.0 and French Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Snap Case
Chapter
Stops: 34/29
Sound:
Dolby Surround Sound and Monaural Sound
Year
of Television Broadcast: 1983/DVD Release: 2001
Home
Video Distributor: Warner Home Video
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
I
remember when I was in grammar school and would accompany my parents on a subway
trip to a relative’s house somewhere in New York City and in various subway
stations there were various strange advertisements with a guy in a red military
like outfit wearing big goggles like sunglasses with a boy and a girl on either
side saying something like “Friendship Is Universal.” Then every so often
there were red “V” posters with nothing else on it made to look like someone
spray painted it on the wall. Some had a look of fake advertisement with the
“V” spray painted over it or as was often the case back then, the posters
were made to look like a collage of torn up advertisements that were purposely
made to look that way with the “V” appearing as if it were spray painted
upon it. This early awareness advertisement was ingenious in my opinion because
it made people wonder what was going on weeks before the miniseries aired on
NBC.
“V”
is a hybrid borrowing the initial concept of fifty starships arriving over large
cities all over the world from Arthur C. Clarke’s “Childhood’s End” and
the short story that inspired the “Twilight Zone” episode of the same name
entitled “To Serve Man” combined with a metaphor for fascism and propaganda
used by the Nazis and there you have “V: The Original Miniseries.” The
miniseries was followed of a sequel miniseries entitled “V: The Final
Battle,” which will debut on DVD on Tuesday, August 6, 2002, and a TV series
that aired for one season a year after that on NBC.
As
Executive Producer, Writer, Director, and “V” Creator Kenneth Johnson states
in his feature length audio commentary that is included on the DVD, this matted
widescreen presentation of “V: The Original Miniseries” is the way he had
hoped to have the series exhibited for American audiences for a long time so
here as is the case with the upcoming “V: The Final Battle: Two-Disc Set”
“V: The Original Miniseries” is presented in a matted widescreen aspect
ratio enhanced for 16 by 9 televisions. The matted framing appears to fit the
compositions better on this DVD than on “The Final Battle.” That is not to
say that the widescreen presentation does not look good on “The Final
Battle,” but I do think the presentation on “V: The Original Miniseries”
looks more natural in widescreen. The image quality is quite good with very
little visible grain from the source material. A brand new English Dolby
Surround Soundtrack is also very good and in fact this is the first time “V”
has ever been presented with a Dolby Surround mixing. Previous airings and home
video releases were only in monaural or hi-fi stereo sound. Side one runs for
about 105-minutes and side two has a running time of approximately 91-minutes. A
French Language Monaural Soundtrack and English Captions and Closed Captions for
the hearing impaired and French, and Spanish Language Subtitles are encoded on
to the DVD as options.
As
I mentioned above, Writer and Director Kenneth Johnson provides an excellent
screen specific audio commentary track for the entire 196-minute miniseries and
he covers just about as much as anyone might want to know about the making of
“V: The Original Miniseries, which includes the advertising campaign I have
mentioned above. I found it interesting when he mentions that Robert Englund had
told him that when fans site him they tend to ask him about his role in “V”
before ever bringing up “Freddy Kruger.” A 24-minute filmed
behind-the-scenes making of featurette with various interviews filmed back in
1982 intercut with clips from the DVD presentation of “V: The Original
Miniseries” is included in side two. Unfortunately
this featurette is very grainy from age, but it is nice that they included it
anyway. A list of cast and crew credits are also included and since I reviewed
“V: The Final Battle: Two Disc Set” first I hope you all will understand
that the interactive menus are in keeping with the style of those found in the
upcoming “V: The Final Battle: Two-DVD Set” with standard interactive still
frame menus that are easy to navigate and feature the score from the miniseries
in the background.
Overall
I think Warner Brothers did a fine job with bringing “V: The Original
Miniseries” to DVD last summer and makes buying the upcoming “V: The Final
Battle: Two-Disc Set” all the more satisfying to have the complete miniseries
on DVD. I hope the TV series will follow next summer.
“V:
The Original Miniseries” is available on DVD now and “V: The Final Battle:
Two-Disc Set” will debut on DVD on Tuesday, August 5, 2002 from Warner Home
Video and I highly recommend both for fans of the series.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
Click Here To Read
The DVD Review Of "V: The Final Battle: Two-Disc Set."