Reviews

I saw this film at the cinema. I was tempted to walk out after half an hour, but hoped it would get better. It didn't. I can't see why this film has received such good reviews. The film made in 1958 in black and white and starring John Mills is far better.

Like many others I stuck with this drama to the end, in the hope that all the loose ends would eventually come together in a meaningful finale. In the event they did not, I felt extremely disappointed, and that I had wasted seven hours of my life.

After each episode I have been tempted to stop watching, but have stuck with it, mainly because I am very interested in the period from a historical perspective.

I will not repeat here what others have said, but simply wish to register my utter despair and disappointment with this drama by awarding one star.

Like one of the previous reviewers, I have seen this film once, on British television, and it made a deep and lasting impression. I can't remember exactly when: perhaps someone has a note of when it was shown. I think it must have been in the early or mid 1990s, but time goes faster as you get older so perhaps it was much earlier. The words 'Charles, Vermont' have remained with me ever since. There are very few films I have seen only once, particularly on television, which I have remembered with any vividness, but this is one of them. I was recently thinking about this film, and thought I would like to see it again on DVD, but did not know its name, so decided to Google 'Charles, Vermont'. I found that the film must have made a vivid impression on others, as quite a few people had remembered the words 'Charles, Vermont' and were trying to find the name of the film.

I was amazed to find that this was not a well-known film, but a made-for-TV movie that had faded into obscurity, and is not available on DVD, although copies, presumably recorded from television, can be purchased from the United States.

As others have said, this is an excellent film, with a compelling storyline, which I am very surprised has been forgotten. Perhaps it is something to do Americans' desire to forget about the Vietnam war. If it had been about a WW2 veteran who had been in a Japanese POW camp I'm sure it would not have been forgotten.