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  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.78:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • German: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • French: Dolby Digital Stereo
  • Spanish: Dolby Digital Stereo
  • Italian: Dolby Digital Stereo
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    French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, English - Hearing Impaired
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    Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (2003)
    Universal/Universal . R4 . COLOR . 97 mins . MA15+ . PAL

      Feature
    Contract

    Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has been filmed more than a score of times, with the earliest version dating from around 1912. The 1920 Paramount version featuring John Barrymore is still accounted by many critics as the best of them all.

    This 2002 made-for-television production, shot in Lithuania, doesn't threaten to overtake Barrymore's. Although it's quite entertaining, it departs too wildly from the novel, a sure sign that it doesn't trust in the novelist's material. It's laced with extra murders and rapes that neither Stevenson nor most earlier filmmakers found necessary -- and nor might you.

    What is interesting is how the attempt by Dr Henry Jekyll, through use of strange drugs, to isolate the evil side of his nature, is portrayed. Instead of undergoing an actual physical transformation (in the novel the evil persona, Mr Hyde, beoomes younger, smaller and weirdly malformed -- a distillation of pure evil), this Mr Hyde stays basically identical to Jekyll -- the horrible change is within.

    It's more Freudian than Stevenson -- with references to what we would now call the unconscious mind, and to schizophrenic behaviour.

    It's done quite well, and John Hannah is reasonably convincing in the dual role. Some nice distinction is lent to the production by the presence of David Warner as Sir Henry Danvers. The rest of the cast seem mainly just going through the motions....

      Video
      Audio
      Extras
    Contract

    The film was only very recently made for television, and this anamorphic widescreen transfer gives us full resolution, with good tonal values, and good contrasts even in the many night-scenes. The 5.1 Surround Sound gives good atmospheric effects, especially in creating strange unearthly growlings and subterranean-sounding groanings, to reinforce the Gothic feeling.

    There are no extra features of any kind.

    For a better telling of this tale, seek out the novel. The best of the earlier sound-era versions is probably the 1932 production with Fredric March, which can be found in Region Four on a two-films-on-one-disc DVD which pairs it with the later version made featuring Spencer Tracy.


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  •   And I quote...
    "Robert Louis Stevenson meets Sigmund Freud in this 'modern' psychological retelling of the horror classic."
    - Anthony Clarke
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DVD 655A
    • TV:
          Loewe Profil Plus 3272 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Denon AVR-3801
    • Speakers:
          Neat Acoustics PETITE
    • Centre Speaker:
          Neat Acoustics PETITE
    • Surrounds:
          Celestian (50W)
    • Subwoofer:
          B&W ASW-500
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