A&E Home Video | 1968 | 884 mins. | Not rated
Patrick McGoohan was an actor who always forged his own path. He declined the role of Simon Templar on the British version of The Saint, and an offer to play James Bond, because neither character fit his idea of what a British spy should be. McGoohan was against rapid progress, believing mans ability to control his own destiny was being taken away from them. Before turning to a gun and/ or fancy gadgets, he believed that man should use his head first to get out of trouble. To that end, he agreed to play secret agent John Drake in Danger Man. Before McGoohan agreed to the part, he had a few stipulations: all the fistfights should be different; the character would always use his brain before using a gun, and no kissing. This was at virtually the same time James Bond was all the rage, so this was a different kind of British agent.
The series was so successful that when McGoohan went to producer Lew Grade to let him know he didn’t want to continue with Danger Man, Grade pleaded with him to either stay on or come up with a new series. McGoohan returned with an idea for a show called The Prisoner. In summary, the series revolves around a former ‘agent’ known only as number six (McGoohan). He resigns, only to wake up in a strange seaside village completely isolated from the mainland. All of the inhabitants are referred to, not by names, but numbers. Number Six refuses to conform and as such runs afoul of Number Two, the ever changing man in charge of the Village who wants to know why he resigned. Number Six wants nothing more than to escape so that he can go back to London, reclaim the identity that was taken from him, and live his life on his own terms but the Village has drastic measures in place to prevent that from happening.
Very Orwellian in concept, The Prisoner was co-created by George Markstein (who served as a script editor of Danger Man) remembered that during World War II, some people were kept in resort like prisons A documented case, called Operation Epsilon had happened right in England—German atomic scientists were detained post-war in relatively comfortable isolation in a mansion in England, while their conversations were recorded in an effort to find out how close they had come to building an atomic bomb. It was from that story that the basic premise for The Prisoner was born.
While ITC and CBS attempted to market the show as a spy thriller, it’s really much more than that, with a large dose of social critique thrown in. Number 6 attempts over and over to discover what’s really going on in The Village, only to be thwarted at every turn by duplicitous “helpers” or his own rage. At a time when shows like The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Mission Impossible dominated the airwaves, American television wasn’t quite ready for an anti-hero of this type; one that was fighting the good fight with all he had, but could get himself out of trouble with a gun, fistfight, or some newfangled gadget in the course of one episode. Watching The Prisoner over the last week, I was struck at how unique and original the series still seemed. I can only imagine that some in the audience forty years ago must have thought it was from another dimension entirely.
As much as I loved The Prisoner, I found myself with a couple of unanswered questions. What was number six’ reason for resigning? What was with the odd ending? Was it one big hallucinogenic dream? Whatever the case, and despite those questions, The Prisoner remains one of the most interesting and enigmatic series ever produced.
The Prisoner comes to Blu-ray in its original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with an AVC encode. This is an excellent looking presentation, especially for a British filmed television production over 40 years old. Colors are bold and beautifully saturated, and detail is brilliant. Some of the stock footage, principally used in establishing shots of The Village (actually the resort village of Portmeirion in North Wales)has some specks and other debris, but it’s not too distracting. There are some episodes where flesh tones seem somewhat blanched when compared to the bulk of the series, something no doubt inherent in the source elements. All in all, this is an excellent presentation.
The Dolby 5.1 mix is excellent, especially when compared with the original mono tracks also offered here. Fidelity throughout is very good. The mono tracks suffer from pretty noticeable compression and an overall boxy sound; you’ll hear the difference between the two offerings right off the bat if you toggle back and forth between them while the theme music is playing. Dialogue is crisp and at times excellently directional (though there is a tendency to place dialogue front and center). There’s no damage, overarching hiss or dropouts to be found.
The Prisoner is LOADED with special features:
Spanning the entire series, there are seven commentary tracks on various episodes (“Arrival,” “The Chimes of Big Ben,” “The Schizoid Man,” “The General,” “Dance of the Dead,” “Change of Mind” and “Fall Out”). The first, with production manager Bernie Williams and film librarian Tony Sloman is arguably the best. Partly because it is the first and the information is brand new and because the two men have someone to play off of, they offer plenty of behind the scenes stories. Specifically, the two chat at some length about the upstanding McGoohan and the constant redressing of Number Two’s control room.
On each disc is an image gallery with sections devoted to each episode and the original trailers. Disc four adds two generic promo’s for the series, the original cut of “Arrival” and a music-only version of that original episode. What’s the difference? Mostly music (the show did have three versions of the theme.), though there are some alternate shots and slightly different pacing. A side-by-side comparison of the original titles from “Arrival” shows the native elements and the restoration.
Then, on disc 5, is the meat of things. The crown jewel is the nearly 95-minute documentary, Don’t Knock Yourself Out. It’s an engrossing, exhaustive look at the series from beginning to end with any number of participants: actors, directors, producers, music editors and editors. They reminisce about their time on the show. Ironically, the one person who would have the most to say about the series, McGoohan is nowhere to be seen. The announcer does mention he lives in seclusion in the United States. (He died in January, 2009)
The disc also has a five minute featurette, You Make Sure It Fits that takes a look at the music for the series; The Pink Prisoner is a sketch (9:24) combining an interview and comedy by Peter Wyngarde (he played Number Two in “Checkmate”). He riffs on the series and his involvement with it. Over 200 exposure strips are also included. The series was filmed for color, but the daily footage was in black and white. The exposure strips were used to color correct in the edit bay. A duo of bumpers (0:15) leading into and out of commercial breaks are next on the list.
Moving on, each of the three versions of the theme are included, each with their own feel. Robert Farnon’s version seems “happy” while Wilfred Josephs contributed a big band-style theme. Ron Grainer’s theme turns out to be full sounding. For international audiences, the file room scene was recut with Italian, Spanish, French or appropriate wording. These variations are included (2:29). Stock footage of Rover (0:25) and a montage of photos used in “Arrival” of McGoohan (0:50) are next up. The original version of “The Chimes of Big Ben” is available, featuring a different soundtrack and a few expository changes. A series of promotional images (2:17), shots of the 1967 press conference (2:32), production design artwork (0:50) and the promo for the AMC miniseries (0:32) round out the disc.
Stick disc five into a DVD-Rom drive and an array of scripts, crew memo’s, promotional material and series-related documents are available as PDF files.
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