Customer Reviews

I Spy - The War Lord

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Today the raves are for Aaron Sorkin and The West Wing, two decades ago it was Bochco and Hill Street Blues, but some of the writing done on I Spy (most by series star Robert Culp) was every bit as lively, crisp and topical as TV is today.
The episodes on this disk, specifically Magic Mirror and Home To Judgement, are some of the best television scripts ever produced.
This is part of a double-DVD set, with all episodes written by series star Robert Culp. I've read where Culp locked himself away in a secluded house with no phone to write these episodes, and the dedication shows.
Magic Mirror is more than just a cold war thriller, it's plot is a Shakesperean tragedy for the jet set set against the backdrop of a small country being tugged over like a rope caught in superpower's jaws.
Home To Judgement illustrates that television heroes aren't always shaved and well dressed, and that sometimes things do go wrong. The end sequence has Robinson and Scott shooting it out inside a cramped farm house with hoods whose faces you never quite see ... it is quite sureal.
Great series. A big screen movie with Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson is in the works, but I don't think it'll live up to the small screen rendition.

The Commentary on this second of the Culp Collection discs is amazing! Even better than the the first one. Robert Culp gets more into the personal relationships on the show, and the material on Sheldon Leonard, France Nuyen and others is nothing less than fascinating. The behind the scenes material is a real treasure, and the technical information on writing for series television is like a university course. If you're an I Spy fan do yourself a favor and get them both. As usual with this Image Entertainment DVD series the show looks breathtakingly beautiful. They did a superb job on these discs. And Mr.Culp, if you're reading this, thank you for all the great work, and there has to be a behind the scenes book in this milestone series! We're dying to read it!

Robert Culp is an amazing man with more talent than I can ever put into words in this review. There are two DVD's that are the "Robert Culp Collection" and I think they contain the best of all the I Spy shows. The War Lord and Home to Judgement have always been two of my favorite episodes and in seeing them again, I remember why I have always felt this way.

Written and performed beautifully, the candy cane inside the pickle on these two DVD's is commentary by Robert Culp.

If you buy no other I Spy DVD's, buy these two.

This DVD contains four episodes of I Spy. Their links are some very many and varied talents of Robert Culp, who at the time was simply a handsome leading man. In these episodes, his additional talents as a writer, director, and his versatility as an actor of depth come to the fore.

In 'The Warlord' he wrote and directed in addition to playing his leading man character, Kelly Robinson, and the Chinese warlord who not only walks between the two cultures of his English schooling and his culture and rank, but also his ancient Chinese noble heritage and its clash with the 20th Century and the Communist rule of China.

Home to Judgement is an episode written by Robert Culp. It is an edge of the seat mystery coupled with a reunion with and aunt and uncle not seen in years. We find out a lot about Kelly Robinson, the child, and Kelly Robinson, the family man not the jet set tennis star and spy.

Face in the Mirror shows the human side of Kelly and where choices take him from the possibility of being with the woman he loves, to letting the life he leads taking him away from that and driving her to someone else; a someone who could lead her to worse than death. This is a divers package

By far the best collection of I spy episodes. Not knowing the history of the episodes being only a 'twinkle in my daddy's eye' when they were first broadcast it took me to nearly half way through the Warlord to figure out that he was Robert Culp, a real testament to an exceptionally gifted actor. I am afraid my 21st century sensibilities are not moved to emotion easily but Magic Mirror was actually painful to watch especially the scene in the bedroom, I think we can all identify with relationships that are doomed. Home to Judgement was genuinely frightening, the menace was real and the fear of the protagonists was tangible. Boy oh Boy Robert Culp is a fantastic actor, soo much expressiveness. There are not many actors to day that can pull of, fear, sensitivity, menace, petulance and humour the way he can, sorry.... Bill Cosby is also amazing with the strength and grace of a man who knows who he is in a world (back then) that did not recognise a black man as a man and not just a 'black man'. The commentary's are also very imformative and give you a real insight into the mind of the man, you feel you've been invited into a very special place.