Product Details

• Actors: Anthony Perkins, Jess Hahn, Orson Welles
• Directors: Orson Welles
• Format: NTSC
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Miracle Pictures
• DVD Release Date: February 2, 2002
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000E28P9C
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,108 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

"Josef K. wakes up in the morning and finds the police in his room. They tell him that he is on trial but nobody tells him what he is being accused of. In order to protect his innocence, he tries to look behind the facade of the judicial system. Unfortunately, this is a fruitless and unrealistic goal, leading to a tortuous series of events."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Delivers The Goods, October 18, 2009

By 

Daniel Du Prie "Zielwolf" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Orson Welles' The Trial (DVD)

It was only after I purchased this that I realized a copyright claim was never made on this film and it has always been in the public domain, meaning there are innumerable "bootlegs" floating around of inferior quality of which this is one, whereas in 2000 Milestone Film & Video released a restored version based on the original negative. While this DVD delivers the goods, the quality is pretty bad, there's not even a proper menu to the film, the sound and picture quality are very average and there are no extra features whatsoever. Considering this is just an inferior dub for which the DVD maker would have had to pay $0 in licensing fees, the list price of $15.99 is hefty indeed. I'd seek out the restored original and stay away from bootlegged copies like this

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another brilliant Wellesian vision. Harrowing, tedious and frightening, September 1, 2008

By 

Aco - See all my reviews

This review is from: Orson Welles' The Trial (DVD)

What The Trial lacks in comprehension (purposely at that) it makes up for in cinematography, set design, art direction and music. Essentially a nightmare tale, Joseph K. slowly comes to madness as his accusation for some unknown crime leads him into the abyss of a legal system, full of strange, abusive, mysterious, confusing people.
As a film I couldn't sit through it at once, I had to get up and return a couple times because the convoluted situation makes it hard to follow. This aspect is surely purposeful, Welles is a master of storytelling and images, and the production itself proves amazing.
I would highly recommend this for it's adaptation of Kafka's posthumous story, beautiful and horrible direction, cinematography, set and art direction and music.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Overwhelmingly Confusing, but Magnificently Composed, March 16, 2011

By 

drqshadow (Bradenton, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Orson Welles' The Trial (DVD)

I found a lot to adore in The Trial, but just as much to furrow my brow over. The cinematography is stunning; full of visual metaphor and gorgeous photography, it's an unyielding show of moviemaking expertise. Welles plays up the bleak, "no tomorrow" nature of the exterior scenes, the structured chaos of the workplace and the hedonistic excess exhibited by the various stages of the trial itself, each to great effect. The story, though, feels too flighty and nebulous for my taste. It should come as no surprise, being a translation of a Kafka novel, that the entire picture often feels surreal and confusing. It continuously floats and sputters just beyond the grasp of understanding, like a moth delicately avoiding a set of flailing hands. The premise may have been established nicely during the slightly more straightforward opening scenes, but as the duration grows it becomes too ambitiously ambiguous for its own good.