Customer Reviews

Black Adder Goes Forth Part 2 [VHS]

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Goes Forth" follows the trials and tribulations of Edmund Blackadder and his pals in the trenches during the war. The first tape is great, but the second it better. All the episodes are brilliant, but the last one, "Goodbyeee", is truly unforgettable, and contains the most powerful anti-war statement ever made in British comedy.

"Goodbyeee" is different right from the start. All the characters are still there; Baldrick is still filthy; George is still stupid; but somehow, almost imperceptibly, everything has changed. For the first time, we learn about the characters' backgrounds and lives; about their hopes and dreams, which seem strangely sad against the grim backdrop of the trenches. For the first time, Blackadder cracks jokes which cut too close to the quick to be truly funny - they're almost sad. And for the first time, we get a sense of the characters really being mortal and vulnerable in a way we've never seen them before; yes, they've died before, but their deaths have been comic, things to laugh at. Here, we don't want them to die.

And the character of Blackadder has changed too. He has been toned down just a little; his still easy wit is less cutting, less biting. He has a world-weary air, and often seems as though he is a man who has been fighting for so long that he has almost forgotten what he is fighting for; he just wants to go home. The war that is raging all around him all too visibly has changed him, saddened him; forced him to grow up at last and face his responsibilites.

Throughtout the history of the Blackadders, they have all run from life; tried to escape. Here, Blackadder essentially does the same thing; he doesn't want to go over the top, doesn't want to be a part of the war - doesn't want to die. But here, for the first time, we feel that his fears are justified; we actually sympathise with him. And here, also for the first time, he finds himself unable to escape, and war finds him at last.

Blackadder has died many times before in history, but never as powerfully as here, during the final push over the top.

He has tried everything he can to escape, but now here he is at last, faced with certain death and no way out. Everything is eerily quiet as the men assemble. Silence. Last hopes are crushed; last goodbyes are said, quietly, with typical English reserve. Then the command is given, the whistle's blow - and they are over the top and running. Here the action slows down, and they run in slow-motion across no man's land, straight into gunfire. They do not get far. The picture freezes, and is replaced by a field of poppies in the sunlight - the single most poingant, memorable image ever captured on British television. The closing theme plays, slowly, in a chilling minor key. It is over.

The impact "Goodbyee" has had on British watchers is immeasurable. Broadcast just days before Poppy Appeal, there is no way of measuring the affect it must have had on people, young and old. Rowan Atkinson (Blackadder himself) claims that while shooting the episode, he experienced an unreasonable sense of foreboding, as though he was really going to die at the end.

Thank God Ben Elton and Richard Curtis had the sense to end a Blackadder series based on soemthing as serious as the war on a poignant, sobre note. A stupid, comedic death would have trivialised war, which this certainly did not. Also, if Elton and Curtis had chosen to create a hero out of Blackadder, it wouldn't have worked, because if he had done something truly heroic, he would have been out-of-character and far less believeable. However, by keeping him as an essentially normal human being, with faults, and not a hero, they succeeded in capturing the spirit of the war very accurately: the majority of people who died were not heroes; they were not flawless, unselfish people - they were just men.

"Blackadder Goes Forth" is completely unforgettable.

10/10

My favorite BA Series, with such quotes as:

Lieutenant George: You know, I won't half miss you chaps after the war.

Private Baldrick: Don't worry, Lieutenant; I'll come visit you.

Lieutenant George: Will you really? Oh bravo! Yes, jump into the old jalopy and come down and stay in the country, and we can relive the old times.

Edmund Blackadder: What, dig a hole in the garden, fill it with water, and get your gamekeeper to shoot at us all day?

The Last episode Goodbyeee, were Lieuteant george, Blackadder, Baldrick, and Cap. Darling make the final push is very sad, and it made me cry

the ending series of a two video set is a must to complete the story. from the loss of captain darlings cushy job to baldricks 'i have a cunning plan' at the last minute. we will be entertained by these characters for a long time to come.

I loved the Private Plane episode with Lord Flasheart, the airman to end all airmen. "Treat your kite the way you treat your woman!" The tape is worth buying for just the confrontation between Lord Flasheart and the Red Baron . . . as short as it is!

The Last episode of BAGF (Goodbyee) is beautiful. I couldn't stop crying for several days. When you see Rowan Atkinson being so serious and knowing he's going to die, it just turns on your tear ducts. Buy it! Buy the 8-tape set! BLACKADDER RULES!

Blackadder Goes Forth should not be contemplated for purchasing. It should BE LAW for you to purchase it. The first two episodes on the tape are fine, funny things with expert comic timing, killer scripts and the usual cannon of genius comedians. Then we have Goodbyyeee!

Have you ever cried when watching a comedy? Cried hard and long? Not likely unless you have watched this. This even beats M*A*S*H and Dr. Strangelove for moving comedy.The most bitter and satirical of all Blackadder episodes Goodbyyeee! is punishing stuff. The blind stupidity of the Generals as they send thousands to certain death is painfully played out with the blackest of humour. The General's cunning attack plan consists of using the same useless failed plan used the previous eighteen times because it would be 'the last thing the Germans would be expecting'. Comprehension slowly dawns on Baldrick and Lt. George as they realise that they ARE going to die like the others and that the patriotic 'give 'em cold steel!' is all a cruel sham. Most tragic of all is the self serving Blackadder whose cunningness cannot save him this time, no matter how many outlandish plans he puts into motion. Finally they are assembled in their trench ready to go over. Goodbyes are exchanged and the whistle is blown. They go over the top into a hail of bulletts and shells. The piano plays the theme true, slowly and softly as they move in slow motion to certain death. . . I cried. You will cry. Never Again.

This is the last of the Blackadders to date. His name is Captain Edmund Blackadder. In "Private Plane" he tries to find a way out of the trenches (as always). But, this time he wants to join the Royal Flying Corps. but it is foiled. In "General Hospital" He is trying to find a German spy in the field hospital. Darling is one of the prime suspects. And in "Good Byeeee" is one of the most touching ending to a comedy show that I've ever seen. They finally go over the top. But Blackadder might get out with his neck MAYBE.

Private Plane is the my favorite of all the Blackadder shows.

This is the last of the Blackadders to date. His name is Captain Edmund Blackadder. In "Private Plane" he tries to find a way out of the trenches (as always). But, this time he wants to join the Royal Flying Corps. but it is foiled. In "General Hospital" He is trying to find a German spy in the field hospital. Darling is one of the prime suspects. And in "Good Byeeee" is one of the most touching ending to a comedy show that I've ever seen. They finally go over the top. But Blackadder might get out with his neck MAYBE.

Private Plane is the my favorite of all the Blackadder shows.

Three episodes in which Blackadder and company attempt to leave the god-forsaken trenches by joining the Royal Flying Corps, George ends up in a hospital which also contains a mysterious German spy, and the order comes through to advance on the enemy.

The last three episodes of this fine comedy are up to the usual excellent standard. Fast-paced humour and amusing characters abound. The real bonus is Goodbyeee, which manages to be one of the most tense and gripping pieces of TV I've ever seen without down-playing the humour aspect. It also contains a fittingly tear-jerking ending to one of the best comedy series in history.

Frankly, Season II is the best of the four, though that is hardly a knock on the other three. Season Four offers a great comedy and social commentary on war, worthy of M*A*S*H. It utilizes a funny motif in the horror of war, as No Man's Land is very much like the ongoing joke of the Russian Front in Hogan's Heroes. Goodbyeee is a funny episode, that leaves You at the end very still, and quiet. The series is a masterpiece. A comedy classic, and a television series second only to Babylon 5...