Reviews

I am a Hemmingway fan. I like Sandra Bullock, was very impressed with the cinematography. Production values are very high. Attenborough is a load of Emperor's clothes. I was interested to watch this film but it was --so--very--slow. Like many films and television programmes it seems to be made on the economic film principle, where, having got the cast and crew to a location/set the l-o-n-g-e-r the screen time that can be dragged out there, the cheaper the 'per minute' cost of the whole film. Whereas a single shot used to average about 3 seconds we now get 3 seconds establishing the characters in a place, a slow two shot sequence of slow moody conversation with pregnant pauses (nine months!?) and eventually one character leaves while the other pulls faces to the music, sometimes for as long as another 11 seconds.Having established the hospital we do not need to keep seeing it or people walking about it without advancing the plot.

The ironic thing with this film is that Hemmingway wrote like John Ford directed. Ford started the camera and the actor on the mark and put his fist over the lens as he shouted 'cut'. One take and no way for the studio to drag out the editing. Casablanca takes place 90% in a café'e, slow? No. Curtiz did not need 600 horses to get pace.

When this film was released, although still young, I was a film buff (not just in terms of cinematography but history, political biases etc.) of at least 25 years. I have to admit that I was severely biased against this version of 'Kidnapped' with Caine's casting and I am still puzzled as to the how/why of it's production. I have now watched it on a number of occasions and enjoy it more each time with age (both of myself and the film). What does come across, presumably from the script, particularly the comments of Trevor Howards character, and Michael Caine's 'less is more portrayal' of Alan Breck, is the sense of loss of the 'Celtic' past. I have travelled in Scotland but, despite the name, I have never been to Ireland before this year. Having grown up firmly 'English' I begin to feel that there seems to be an element of 'ethnic cleansing' went on.

As an aside study, by comparison, I recommend John Buchan's 'John Burnet of Barns', 'Thirty Nine Steps' and 'Mr Standfast' which suggest that flight across the Scotish landscape has some deeper place in the psyche of the Scots.