Customer Reviews

Beyond the Golden Compass: The Magic of Philip Pullman

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recently read information about this production and from what I can tell, this looks like it ought to be fantastic for Pullman fans. It's not planned as a 'behind the scenes / making of the movie', but instead is planned as a background historicial exploration of the characters, demons, and general storyline development, delving deeply into the work of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials". It should provide a solid understanding for anyone planning on either reading the book or seeing the upcoming film release in Decemeber of Gold Compass.

Updated: 12/16/07

All the hoopla, the New Line suit mentioned in the other review, and this DVD HAS come to the market. It's exactly what I thought/heard it would be, a deeper exploration into Pullman's literature that provides further understanding of the characters, plots and sub-plots. All great literature deserves third party analysis, and this DVD is the first to provide such in good fashion, opening up thought, debate, etc. I do hope New Line makes more of this trilogy, as it's great reading, and well worthy of the kind of discussion that this KOCH Vision outsider's view is then peremitted to provide.

Cheers from across the pond!

Good DVD to view before watching the big screen movie.
Will give you a better idea on how and why it was made.

This DVD may be held up this week from shipping, based on the hearing before a judge in the copyright infringement claim.
New Line Cinema Corp. has sought a court injunction in its $10 million copyright infringement suit to block this documentary from being released.
This is not a review but I thought it may be helpful to customers to follow the news on this interesting story.

I loved the dark materials series. Loved em. After I finished all the books, I wanted to learn more about Philip Pullman and the process he went through to write the books.
This DVD has plenty of boring voice over narration and interviews with people who don't provide any additional useful information on anything whatsoever.

I rented this dvd because I was afraid to waste 10 bucks buying it if it was horrible. Well, it was worth the rental but (for me) not worth owning. First, there is no footage from the movie. There are actors portraying the material, but I don't know them from anywhere else. That must be the way they avoided the copyright infringement. While there is nothing really wrong with these actors, for those of us in love with the movie, it doesn't feel right to see other people playing the roles defined by Dakota Blue Richards, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliot, etc. The production is pretty cheesy. What I give the stars for at all is Philip Pullman, who is interviewed extensively and who offers relevant and cogent commentary on the books, the story, the characters and the meanings implicit or implied. He is worth listening to, and it makes the time spent worthwhile. The other compelling element is the video footage used while explaining things. It is interesting for the most part, and lends a kind of visual history to the whole experience. It's sort of like reading the illustrated or annotated version of something - you are shown back story, history and deeper levels of meaning.

Something important to note is that this presentation presents the whole Pullman against the Church aspect, and doesn't quail in portraying the Church as a controlling and mostly bad organization. If you are a fundamentalist Christian who thinks Pullman is corrupting youth with his satanic agenda, you probably won't like seeing him telling kids about how the Church has persecuted free thinkers for centuries and so on. But for those with ears to hear ... listen!

So, overall not great, but interesting enough to watch. If you are really into the story and the meaning behind everything, this is worthwhile. If you just like the movie, Nicole Kidman and polar bears, probably skip it. And if you are a real scholar who has studied Milton and history and religious texts, you will most likely find this dvd pedestrian and lacking.

The documentary actually gives away the whole plot of the story in a non-linear sound bite format. This makes a good supplement to the book and adds a little insight to the story as we get interviews with Philip Pullman himself along with people that interpret his knows and actors enact the British version called "Northern Lights."

One important point made by Philip Pullman just as with the "Lord of the Rings", this is not really a trilogy (meaning three stories) but one story in three books. You will be better off buying all three or at least the next book before finishing the first.

The so-called extras are mostly re-hashed or rearranged versions of the main presentation.

Lyra's Oxford

Wanted to be able to make sense of it all and see how much was based on mythology.

A good example of a movie that failed to live up to it's potential. Too much fluff was added - making it drag in places - so that they could make a multiple release out of the material.