Product: SLEUTH - (Russian Import - PAL DVD) (1972)
Rating: 5.0
They don't make movies like that anymore
One of the many beautiful things about this movie is that much of the obscurity in the original play has been removed on the screen. Indeed, if you prefer seeing plays, forget reading this one: just see this 1972 adaptation, masterfully directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, with lavish sets and costumes that convey the Old-English-manor atmosphere to perfection.Anthony Shaffer - much like his twin brother Peter with "Amadeus" - has actually improved his play in the process of adaptation: some lackluster lines are exchanged for brilliant ones, some superfluous stuff is cut. In short, this is the Streetcar-Leigh-Brando syndrome, only much aggravated: the movie has made the paper version perfectly obsolete.There are many subtle changes in the movie, pretty much all of them improvements. For example, Milo's occupation is changed to hairdresser, which is more suitable both for his social humiliation and for his make-up tour de force. Many lines are changed to more effective ones. For instance, the final "Game, set and match!" has become the chilling wordplay "It was just a bloody game". Andrew's cheerful statement "There's nothing like a little bit of mayhem to cheer one up" or his quip on Milo's origins - "From Genoa to Georgian [architecture] in a single generation" - are entirely new and occur only in the script.It should be said, however, that many memorable lines are retained on the screen either verbatim or with very minor changes. Couple of examples:"Milo: It comes to the same thingAndrew: Things mostly do, you know.""Andrew: It's a good thing, I am pretty much of an Olympic sexual athlete.Milo: Yes, I suppose these days you are concentrating more on the sprints than on the long distance stuff.Andrew: Not so dear boy! I am in the peak of condition. I could copulate for England at any distance.Milo: Well, as they say in the Olympics, it's not the winning, it's the taking part that counts.""Andrew: Suppose somebody saw you coming.Milo: Here? In the middle of nowhere? I could hardly find this place with a bloody map!Andrew: You never know. A dallying couple, a passing sheep-rapist.""Andrew: Wit in the face of adversity! Good! You've learned something from the English.""Andrew: It's sex! Sex is the game! Marriage is the penalty."Even the characters seem to have gained life on the screen. Or is this merely a "side effect" of the great acting? No, I don't think so. There is too much entirely new dialogue in the movie, all of it apposite. The contrast between Andrew and Milo is emphasized, and to a great effect. Consider for example Milo's description of his life, far more forceful than in the play:"We are from different worlds, you and me, Andrew. In mine, there was no time for bright fancies and happy inventions, no stopping for tea. The only game we played was to survive, or go to the wall. If you didn't win, you just didn't finish. Loser, lose all. You probably don't understand that."This is indeed an incredible movie. They don't make them like that anymore. Trite but true. Which is this modern movie, released, say, in the last twenty years, where two actors can hold your attention, nay keep you on the edge, for nearly 140 minutes during which the whole action takes place in a single house? And which is this recent movie in which you can enjoy such elaborate and meaningful, yet natural and hilarious, dialogue? None comes to mind.Great acting doesn't get much better than that. The 65-years-old Laurence Olivier gives a fabulous performance as Andrew Wyke, full of subtle histrionics and robust mischief. Michael Caine as Milo all but overshadows his legendary colleague - quite an achievement indeed. Most scenes - notably the charade with the costumes and the denouement - are deliciously over-the-top and far more exciting than on paper.On the whole the movie is remarkably dynamic, yet the dialogue has not in the least been oversimplified or in any other way weakened as so often happens when sophisticated plays are adapted for the screen. The essence of the original - on the surface a crime mystery, but actually a disturbing study of human humiliation, prejudice and greed - is completely preserved. It's an amusing yet chilling spectacle, vastly superior to the run-of-the-mill whodunit.By way of conclusion, a word about the 2007 remake. It's not really a remake as both movies have nothing in common but the basic plot; very few of the original lines have been retained. It is worth seeing mostly because Michael Caine now plays Andrew and because the dashing Jude Law is rather fine as Milo. Visually it is drab and futuristic, though not without certain charm.The screenplay is the real problem. It was written by Harold Pinter and he has ruined completely the character of the original. The lighthearted yet pointed banter is exchanged for a heavy-handed dialogue full of nasty and bitter humour. Mr Pinter commits at least two other grave mistakes: he counts too much on foul language (a sure sign of artistic impotence) and he introduces unnecessary homosexual references (nowadays badly dated as well).The movie is directed by no other but Kenneth Branagh himself. Well, to be blunt, his direction is by turns misguidedly imaginative and tediously static.PS on the DVD edition. Well, I saw an ordinary Spanish release, with no extras whatsoever. Who cares about extras anyway? It is seldom that they contain something really worth seeing. The important thing is that the picture (1,66:1) and the sound (ordinary stereo) are excellent.