Customer Reviews

Kidnapped [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ]

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

 

 

This version of 'Kidnapped' is my favorite. Unfortunately, it is very hard to find. For a while only used copies of VHS tapes could be found on the internet and I was pleased to finally find it in the PAL format.
Since many other movies, or TV programs, like 'Alistair Cook's America' for example, are not available in the US, I found it convenient to purchase a DVD player which can play European PAL DVDs and has an output compatible with the American NTSC standard. Such DVD players are available on the internet for less than $100 and are a great investment, or, as a friend found out, his older, inexpensive DVD player made in Korea, was compatible with both systems.
Having such a player opens a window to the offerings on Amazon UK and other European companies.
With the American television sinking to the unbelievable low level of 'Dog the Bounty Hunter' and other reality TV programs, I find it refreshing to be able enjoy a variety of programs unavailable otherwise.

I have occasionally seen this on television, but it has never been made available for the US/Canada. Come on, folks, it can't be al that difficult to put this out as a Region 1 DVD.

As for the film itself, it has all the charm and conflict I would expect from "Kidnapped" even if it does deviate from the history a bit. As an historian I have learned to accept this, but advise folks never to write a term paper based on a film :)

I spent two weeks this summer in Scotland, and went to all the places that figure prominently in this film: Culloden Moor, Edinburgh Castle, Ediburgh Old Town, saw the picturesque wild landscapes, and learnt about the story of the Jacobite rising of 1745 and of its defeat that is the setting for the film. Everything in the reconstruction is right, including the accents of the actors, the clothes, uniforms, weapons, as well as the atmosphere of the times, and these were sad and brutal times for Scotland.
The story, set in this background, is one of a young man, David Balfour, who comes to claim his inheritance from his uncle after his father's death. The uncle first tries to kill him and then sells him to the captain of a ship bound for America, the Carolinas more precisely, to be sold there as an indentured servant. Through a chance meeting with Alan Berk Stewart, a Jacobite gentleman fleeing from the defeat at Culloden, he manages to escape and land ashore. He then follows Berk as he tries to join other Jacobites who might help him to leave for France.
Our young hero, a very idealistic Scottish lowlander who fate decides should be friend of Jacobite rebels, finally manages to reclaim his inheritance and also to find love. All the while being caught in the middle of this Civil War. It is fought between the English red-coated army supported by Scottish lowlanders (most famous and ferocious amongst them being the Campbells) and the Highland clansmen. They support two different branches of the royal family claiming the combined thrones of England and Scotland, i.e. on the one hand the "legitimate" but absolutist Stewart heirs, of Scottish origin, or Jacobites ( after James II, expelled from the throne in 1688), against the Hanoverian or German princes chosen and backed by the English parliament.

I had an odd chance to see this film, and thought it was OK. The Amazon 3rd party price is pretty hefty, as I write. In his recent memoirs, "The Elephant to Hollywood" Michael Caine brushes Kidnapped aside as a distressing memory: "... a dud from the very start, and the only film I've never been paid for."