Customer Reviews

A Town Like Alice [VHS]

5 star:		(135)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I simply cannot believe this outstanding Australian tv series is still not out on DVD. PLEASE, WHOEVER OWNS THE RIGHTS TO THIS FILM, PLEASE PUT IT ON DVD BEFORE I DIE? I AM SO TIRED OF MY OLD VHS! I am sure I am in good company.

Joe Harmon (played by Bryan Brown) rocks! And so does this whole movie, based on Nevil Shute's superb novel of the same name. It starts well, picks up speed, and gets better and better. During WWII, Jean (who is her family's only survivor) is force marched back and forth across Malaysia by the Japanese, who don't know what to do with a bunch of English women and children. As their group dwindles from starvation, fatigue, malaria and dystntery, Jean becomes the leader of the little group, and she negotiates a deal with the headman of a small village whose men have been taken off to fight in the war: if the village will shelter them, the surviving English will work in the rice fields.
But it was during the months of wandering that Jean met Joe Harmon, an Austrailian prisoner of war who steals food for her, is crucified and left for dead by the Japanese.
After the war, when Jean is back in England, she comes into her family's money, and she has a dream: to return to Malaya to build a well for the village women. To her amazement, she learns that Harmon actually survived: when the Japanese could not grant him his last wish, they were honor bound to save his life. Jean goes back to find him at the same time he, having just discovered that she wasn't married when he met her (a deception she fostered for her own protection), flies to England to look for her. The two planes cross.
But, as with most good love stories, they meet - and things are awkward and stilted. When he knew her, her hair was loose and tangled, she was barefoot and wearing a sarong, and she had an orphan child balanced on her hip. Now when he sees her, she's an English lady - and he's still just a bloke from the outback.
Oh, I'm telling too much. Suffice to say that Jean's attempt to resume their former easy and relaxed relationship while in Australia's Great Barrier Reef is spectacularly successful, and she's faced with spending the rest of her life in the desolate and lonely outback. Alice Springs, the nearest thing to `civilization,' is too far to go, so Jean determines to spend her small fortune turning her little nowhere town into a place from which the young people will no longer flee in frustration. In short, she creates the world in which she wants to live and raise Joe's and her children.
It's so, so, so, so good, one of those videos you'll have to buy. Trust me on that.

The first time I saw "A Town Like Alice" with Helen Morse and Bryon Brown, I was sucked in from beginning to end. All five hours of it. I was able to purchase a full length version on (one) VHS tape many years ago and put on white gloves about once a year to bring it out of storage and watch it. I am never disappointed, it gets better every time and I have shown this masterpiece to family and friends who now love it as much as I do. A very well done, gripping, human interest story of love and war made so real by the wonderful cast without a lot of gratuitous flash and whiz-bang. My VHS copy is still watchable, but my heart's desire is a remastered, full length DVD, with any extras (interviews etc.) that might be available.

This is a movie to be viewed time and again. It encompasses several different cultures and spans several continents.

It is a love story that survives not only the nastiness of war but the trials of separation and the very unforgiving climate of Australia's outback.

When Jean and Joe, played admirably by Helen Morse and Bryan Brown, first meet, it is in the very trying conditions of war. After a separation of several years, they are reunited only to have their love tested again by the conditions of the land around them.

This movie was a TV mini-series based on Neville Shute's book and is quite long. However, it is worth it and I have watched it many, many times and never tire of it.

Beautiful scenery and great acting by everyone, especially Brown and Morse make this a thoroughly enjoyable must see movie.

Originally presented in the US on PBS, A Town Like Alice is engrossing enough to sustain interest in a 5-hour miniseries. Set in the Malaysian peninsula and the Australian outback, it follows the love story of two people thrown together in the maelstrom that is war.

I think this is one of the best miniseries around if you are at all attracted to love stories, the absurdities of war, and the gain and loss of love. This miniseries also gives you an excellent picture of life in the very small, very rural towns in the outback of Australia.

Highly recommended; if you haven't seen this one, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Helen Morse is excellent in this feature, and Bryan Brown really does a turn with a taciturn cattle rancher.

I was cleaning out my VHS library when I came to my copy of A Town Like Alice. I wanted to sit down right then and watch it. But, I have become jaded by upconverted DVD playback to my HDTV. I have found that most older VHS tape do not visually play well on my current equipment. Hence, I needed to upgrade to a DVD version of A Town Like Alice.

It is not available yet. From the reviews on this page, it apparently that is has never been available as a DVD. However, Amazon is accepting prerelease notifications. This is promising since Amazon would only do this if there was a serious chance that A Town Like Alice will be issued in DVD format.

I speculate that Amazon also uses the prerelease notification check-off for market research. If the interest is strong, the powers to be (the owners of the rights to the program) would be encouraged to release the title. Weak interest could doom the release. The fact that five people have already written here within a very short time frame would indicate to me a serious interest for this great but old title.

Remember that for everybody that takes the time to write a comment, there are multiples of people that are also interested but remain silent. Marketing people know this and make decisions accordingly.

Anybody interested in purchasing this fabulous film on home video VHS should take a close look at which listing for it they are buying. The film was released 4 Different ways on VHS. By two different companies. STARMAKER which put out 3 Types and NEW WORLD which put out 1 version which is the most desirable. They are all the same film in various quality types. A Town Like Alice is NOT yet available on DVD. Here is the info on whats out there on VHS.

This version the first listed on AMAZON A Town Like Alice is for the One Tape EPmode STARMAKER release 301mins. EPMODE is the cheapest and also the lowest quality release! Since it is EP mode it will be hard to track on newer VCR's.
STARMAKER also put out a much higher quality 3 Tape 301min Release SPMode 3 VHS Tapes - A Town Like Alice

The Third is yet another STARMAKER Release A Town Like Alice 2tapes LP Mode. Still NOT great quality. This is OK but not near as good as the second 3 tape SPMODE option.

The BEST and most desirable release is this 4th release of A Town Like Alice is a NEW WORLD Home Video Release 301mins Uncut on 2 high quality SPmode Tapes. These are two T-160 videos which means they have longer reels then standard T-120 tapes. Thats why they can handle a combine 301mins. on 2 tapes. So, not as complicated or cumbersome as having to get the 3tape vers. The bad news is that this version is NOT listed on amazon. BUT you can still find it if you look at the marketplace seller descriptions. If it is listed and described correctly you might be able to find the New World SPmode 2 tape uncut release.

Which ever one you want make sure you know what you're getting from the seller. It should clearly state which version it is. The seller might not of listed it correctly to the corresponding version.

If the price is cheap you'll probably getting the cheap one tape starmaker release. If you want this BRAND NEW this is most likely your only choice. However, keep in mind that the 2 Tape Spmode NEW WORLD Release USED will be better then any STARKMAKER release even if its NEW!

Hope this was helpful

Maybe it's the distance from Hollywood that allowed the movie-making industry in Australia to grow up on its own feet, making movie after movie that smolders satisfyingly in our minds long after they are over. This one is as good as a movie needs to be.

It was a lucky stroke that it was a Mobil Masterpiece Theater TV mini-series, for a film five hours long, however good, would not work in a theater. But it worked for me, and I hated to see it come to an end. The second viewing was even better.

Nevil Shute, author of many fine stories, including "On the Beach," would have been proud of this production so faithful to his epic story, and populated with Shute's own characters right down to the smallest detail. Every aspect of movie making shines here: a perfect and incredibly talented cast, fine direction, beautiful photography, splendid music. The dialog is exactly on the mark, and many a time an expression, a look, said everything without a word spoken.

The story begins as the Japanese are overrunning Maylasia early in WWII. A British community is taken, the men sent to prison camps, the women sent to . . . They didn't have a place for women prisoners, so Jean Paget and the other fifteen or so women and several children are marched from one Japanese-held place to another. It seems that the officers at each one, not knowing what to do with women and children, passed the problem by sending them off to yet another place, afoot. After walking some 300 miles over perhaps a good part of a year, during which half the women and some children died, providence and Jean Paget's resourcefulness lead them to a "home," an isolated village where they spend the remainder of the long war.

The story continues after the war, leading to a truly heartwarming romance. Not to mention some providential intervention that makes the romance work wonderfully. Never does the drama get sticky. There is a nice balance of conflict, but never melodramatic overt conflict.

The Aussies are renowned for the fine horses in their movies, always ridden with evident skill, and they didn't disappoint here. The airplane scenes I particularly enjoyed, for their adherence to the period and the way they were handled. The Twin Beech's first landing was a grease-job, making me wonder how many times they had to shoot it. That was answered by the next landing – not nearly so slick but nevertheless okay in spite of the bounce. We get to see the planes taxi in, where Hollywood would have shown the landing then cut to the opening door.

Joe Harmon's beat-up old pickup – it may have been a Studebaker – made me smile. He always had to open the door with the outside handle, and it drooping at half mast.

Sadly, I have not encountered a soul who has seen "A Town Like Alice," before I introduced them to it. The accolades have created a waiting list and a one-week time limit on borrowers. Buy it, I know you will love it. And you'll bring enjoyment to those you lend it to. A word of caution: put a time limit on borrowers. Call them after a few days and nudge them into starting it. Otherwise, it may find a new home, as books and movies tend to do.

DANGER! This is a three-tape package starring Helen Morse as Jean Padget and Bryan Brown as Joe Harmon. Don't fall for the video of the same title with a different illustration on the jacket. It's a 60-minute production by someone else. May not even be the same story.

I wish ... would do a favor to the masses who enjoy truly good movies by putting this one on their feature page. It cries out for some exposure.

A TOWN LIKE ALICE first captivated me when I was only 14 and caught a re-run of it on T.V. in 1984. It has since remained on of my most favorite romances on film. It is a modest, understated and "un-Hollywood" (thank God!) work, yet it is epic in the way it depicts the two very likable main characters, Joe Harmon and Jean Paget (played by Bryan Brown and Helen Morse, respectively) meeting during a tumultuous backdrop of war and despair, falling in love in spite of it, and then becoming blissfully reunited. But don't worry--I haven't given away the "happy ending!" The last half of the film that follows is what gives this work its integrity. The lovers then have to overcome the adversity of the differences of their cultures and beliefs--her being English and he being Australian. Jean Paget is an admirable, headstrong character, who when placed in the backwards Australian outback of the 1940's, is put to the test with her lover Joe, making one realize that love relationships don't go perfectly, but if the love is strong, it will persevere.

This movie truly pulls the viewer into the romance between Jean and Joe and you feel every heartache and every joy that they share in your heart as well. But these are not shallowly constructed "romance novel characters." They are complex and imperfect and through their hardships, show the audience that any love such as theirs is truly worth fighting for.

So, as long as this movie is on tape (being a two- part mini-series), please be patient with it (like you would with an E.M. Forster novel-to-film adaptation) because I guarantee the reward will be ever so sweet. It will draw you in and be compelling from start to finish with a story you will really care about. A wonderful, wonderful picture!

This magnificent film will hold you spellbound to the very end, and it deserves a place in your video library. PLEASE GO TO AMAZON'S "TELL US WHAT YOU WANT" PAGE AND REQUEST IT'S RELEASE ON DVD!!!

The powers that be count the number of times it is requested to gauge the amount of interest in the title. So, if it is requested enough times, eventually the message will get to the right people and we'll all get what we want: the 1981 version of A Town Like Alice on DVD!!! Hooray!

(Try a web search for 'amazon tell us what you want' if you have trouble finding the page. Click on the DVD icon on the page to get to the request form.)

*****UPDATE*****
Amazon has possibly taken their "most requested" page offline, as a recent search turned up a whole lot of nothing. Hopefully it will be brought back.