I Escaped From Devils Island / The Final Option

Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: July 15th, 2014.
Director: William Witney/Ian Sharp
Cast: Jim Brown, Christopher George/Lewis Collins, Judy Davis, Edward Woodward
Year: 1973/1982
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The Movies:

An action packed double feature from Shout! Factory? Yes please. Here's what we get…

I Escaped From Devils Island:

The first film on this disc was directed in 1973 by William Witney and was made fast and cheap by producer Roger Corman. The film is set in 1916 and it begins on the titular island, a prison located off the coast of French Guiana. It mirrors the Steve McQueen movie Papillion in a lot of ways (though it hit theaters first!) as the basic plot revolves around a bunch of prisoners and, obviously, their escape.

The main character here is Le Bras (Jim Brown), who, along with fellow prisoners Davert (Christopher George), Jo-Jo (Richard Ely) and Dazzas (James Luisi) seem to suffer fairly constantly at the hands of the prisoner personal lead by Major Marteau (Paul Richards). After a while they decide that they've grown tired of being beaten and tortured and so they set into motion an escape plan in which they try to navigate their way across the Atlantic Ocean to the mainland of South America. They make it, but Marteau remains hot on their tales and the chase is on, but don't think for a minute that these guys aren't going to stop and get busy with the willing and able local ladies that they encounter along the way!

The film is cheap and derivative but credit where it's due, it's also quite atmospheric and the first part that takes place in an actual prison location has a very effective vibe of bleak, hopelessness to it. The movie goes for its R rating with some completely gratuitous but welcome nudity, some cannibalism, a shark attack and plenty of good old fashioned violence so we get a fair bit of seediness here in addition to some effectively down and dirty cinematography and good pacing.

Brown doesn't have a whole lot of range here and his character seems intent to foolishly shack up with the first foxy native girl he runs into rather than keep running for what would be fairly certain freedom. He doesn't deliver his dialogue with much conviction but he looks the part and cuts an imposing frame. Christopher George fares a little better while the best actor in the lot is Paul Richards as the 'bad guy' out to bring them back to jail. If you go into this one with the right expectations it can be some good, gritty, sleazy entertainment. Don't hope for any sort of broader message or much in the way of deeper meaning but it's a solid time killer to be sure.

The Final Option:

Also known as Who Dares Wins, this Ian Sharp film from 1982 revolves around a British SAS special forces operative named Peter Skellen (Lewis Collins). He's the best of the best so when one on of his fellow operatives is assassinated by terrorists the top brass call him into service to deal with the situation. It is decided that he should go undercover and try to work his way into the group itself and to do this, he winds up befriending and then romancing their leader, Frankie Leith (Judy Davis). This works like a charm and before you know it he's not only moved in with her but become a core member of their organization, called The People's Lobby.

Soon Peter learns of their latest plan, to kidnap a score of high ranking politicians to use as a bargaining chip in their ploy to force the British government to nuke a remote area of Scotland. Why? To demonstrate the nuclear war is bad! Peter does his job and starts feeding info to those back at special forces headquarters but is soon exposed as a mole by Frankie's ex-boyfriend. Rather than take him out of the picture like most terrorists would, she decides to keep him onboard and use him to negotiate with the government. All the while this has been going on, Peter has been a married man. He winds up going back to his wife but the terrorists are hell-bent on taking their hostages… will Peter and his fellow special forces men be able to stop them in time?

Inspired by actual events in which the Iranian Embassy in London was taken over, The Final Option is a pretty entertaining action thriller so long as you're not looking for realism. It incorporates elements from popular spy films like the James Bond series and is a little sloppy in how it depicts the tactics used by the SAS soldiers and as such it's a little tough to take seriously. Having said that, the film moves at a good pace and it features some pretty solid action set pieces. While it's very much a product of the Thatcher/Reagan era in which it was made and therefore very right wing in its political leanings.

Collins is solid in the lead here. He plays the tough guy well and has enough charisma here to carry the picture. He looks the part and while his dialogue is sometimes a little cliché, he does well when it's time to 'man up' and get the job done in the latter half of the movie. Judy Davis also does as well as the material will allow for. While it's obvious to anyone with half a brain that Collins' character is a mole, her character doesn't see it - this is a stretch, but no fault of her performance, she handles it all well and looks great. Supporting roles from Edward Woodward and Richard Widmark as some higher up types are also noteworthy.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Both movies are included on the same disc in AVC encoded 1080p high definition properly framed in 1.85.1 widescreen. Devil's Island is heavy on the grain more often than not and it shows some minor print damage here and there but detail isn't bad at all and colors are reproduced nicely. The Final Option is definitely cleaner looking, not much in the way of serious print damage. Grain appears natural here. Compression artifacts pop into the frame sometimes but they're minor. No issues with obvious noise reduction or edge enhancement. These aren't reference quality, pristinely restored HD offerings but they look decent.

Each movie gets an English language DTS-HD Mono track, there are no alternate language or subtitle options provided. There are a few spots on Devil's Island where you might notice some minor hiss but otherwise both tracks sound good. No distortion problems to note and the levels are properly balanced on both features.

Aside from some basic menus, there are no extras on this release at all. There is a British release of Who Dares Wins with a bunch of extras but none of that material made it over to this US release.

The Final Word:

While this release is as barebones as they come, both movies are tense, exciting and well made. The audio and video presentation is pretty strong here and fans of either picture should be quite pleased with the HD upgrade offered by this double feature release of I Escaped From Devils Island and The Final Option.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!

I Escaped From Devil's Island





















The Final Option