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Released by: Warner Brothers
Release on: 03/23/2010
Director: Nick Hurran
Cast: Jim Caviezel, Ian McKellen, Hayley Atwell, Ruth Wilson, Lennie James
Year: 2009
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The Movie:
In the 1960s, Patrick McGoohan spearheaded what is widely considered to be one of the most influential and creative television series of all time with The Prisoner. In the mad rush to remake everything of any worth these days, AMC and Warner Brothers rehashed that iconic series as a six hour television event in 2009 with Jim Caviezel in the lead as an agent known as '6' who finds himself transported to a mysterious village. His memories of the past are fuzzy and while he knows he wants to escape this picturesque place, he's not all together sure what else is going on.
Making things difficult for him is '2' (Sir Ian McKellen), but who is this guy and how did '6' manage to wind up in this strange village in the first place? Any attempts at escape are met with violent repercussions, and it doesn't look like '6' will ever make his way home again.
There's some good and some bad with this new take on a classic directed by Nick Hurran and written by Bill Gallagher. The good? The performances, for one. Caviezel, best known for his work in The Passion Of The Christ, is decent in the lead. He doesn't have McGoohan's charm but he does enough to make the role his own and he's fine in the part. His interactions with McKellen, who is as good as you'd expect him to be here, are generally the highlight of the series and the battle of wills in which the pair engages makes for periodically tense viewing. There's also some very creative set design at work here and while this new village, located in the middle of a desert, will feel strange and not quite right to those expecting the lush gardens and ornate architecture of the original, it does have its own interesting look to it.
The biggest problem, and this won't apply to everyone, is that those familiar with the original series are going to have to compare the two takes and this remake, while it does update things and try some new ideas that the original did not, isn't on par. It's not that it's bad, it's that what came before it was so perfect that there was no need whatsoever to remake it. This new version is rather entertaining and well put together but it doesn't improve on what was already done with more style and class roughly fifty years ago. If you're not familiar with the original series, you'll likely be able to get more out of it as you won't have those comparisons roaming through your brain and as such it'll be easier to judge it on its own.
Regardless, and back to the series at hand, the mini-series does manage to move at a good pace, almost too quickly in spots, and it's not ever dull or uninteresting. This rehashing feels like it's trying to cash in on the success of popular episodic and suspenseful shows like Lost and so there's this inherent sense that it has to keep the twists coming at a certain pace to work and it gets to its conclusion much faster than the considerably longer original. This doesn't do the series any favors nor does it allow for as much character development as there could and should have been.
In the end, a big part of the problem here is just that this isn't The Prisoner so many of us know and love. It's probably unfair to take that stance but at the same time, for some of us, it'll be impossible not to, even if we can recognize that the performances are good, the script does have some interesting ideas and twists, and the photography is generally excellent. On a technical level, things are very strong across the board.
Video/Audio/Extars:
The Prisoner debuts on DVD in a 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen that is as dark and grainy and under lit as you'd expect it to be. The black levels remain fairly consistent though detail wavers in the darker scenes. The color scheme is heavy on light, sandy colors and much of the film takes place in desert areas so the movie has a sort of arid color scheme to it, but generally the image here is very good.
WB serves up a fairly immersive Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix. Things sound pretty good here. There's a fair bit of surround activity to geek out over and most of the time the levels are well balanced. There are some pretty effective sound effects worked cleverly into the mix that work well and add to the effect. English SDH/closed captioning is also included.
Producer Trevor Hopkins and Editor Yan Miles provide commentary tracks for the first and last episodes of the series that are moderately interesting if hardly deep. They give a good history of the series, explain casting choices, talking about the editing process and skillfully avoid really going into much detail about the original series, or how it came to be that it should be remade and they don't really get too deep about the themes and ideas that the series plays with but at least they give us a surface level view of what it was like work be involved with the project.
More interesting and in-depth are the featurettes, all of which are included on the third disc in the set. Beautiful Prison: The World Of The Prisoner is a sixteen minute look at the set design work that was done for the film and it's marginally interesting though a bit too shot. A Six Hour Film Shot In Ninety-Two Days is a fifteen minute production diary that delivers behind the scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew. The Prisoner Comic Con Panel is a discussion and question and answer session recorded during the San Diego Comic Convention in 2009 with stars Jim Caviezel, Lennie James, James Campbell-Bowen, writer Bill Gallagher and AMC Producer Vlad Wolynetz.
Rounding out the extras are some inconsequential deleted scenes, a good interview with Ian McKellen conducted by Jamie Campbell Bower about playing '2,' menus and episode selection. Inside the keepcase is a booklet containing episodes synopses and credits.
The Final Word:
Warner Brothers has done a great job on the DVD presentation and the extra features and overall this is a very nice presentation, but the series itself seems irrelevant. It's not that it's terrible, but you can't help but compare it to the original series and when that happens, all of a sudden it doesn't seem all that interesting or creative. Judged on its own merits, the series is alright, but when you're going up against such an iconic contender, it's impossible not to wane for the original.