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The Boy in the Plastic Bubble & This is My Father (bonus Movie) [1973]
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Editorial
Special Features
Full Screen
DVD 5
English
Region 0
Dolby Digital English
Dolby Digital
Fully Interactive Menus
Exclusive Interview With Edward Woodward
Editorial
Synopsis
Between 1967 through 1972, CALLAN established itself as one of the most successful series in the history of British television. Edward Woodward starred as David Callan, a top SIS agent who was forced into retirement after years of killing had taken a toll on his nerves. This feature film remakes the first episode of the television series where Callan is contacted by his former boss and told that his retirement will be revoked if he liquidates a German businessman named Schneider. Callan, finding that he has grown a conscience, refuses to make the hit until he discovers why Schneider is being killed, and questions whether he really wants to return to his old profession.
Editorial
From the Back Cover
TV viewers first met Callan in a one-off Armchair theatre play 'A Magnum for Schneider, in which the disgraced former top secret service agent is seconded to a government section devoted to the elimination of undesirables - by whatever means necessary. Callan's was a violent, bleak world where if you didn't kill first they killed you. He was a cold-blooded killer, an outsider - isolated, often in direct conflict with his superior Hunter, a code name given to all heads of Section. Made in 1973, this Feature Film is an expanded rewrite of the first TV episode in which the disgraced former secret service agent David Callan is given the opportunity to redeem himself with one more liquidation. His assignment is to kill a businessman responsible for a number of bombings and gun running, but not everything goes according to plan.
Excellent, gripping film
Review date: 2007-10-04 Rating: 10 out of 10
I also remember with fondness the TV series and agree that the movie is not a replacement for the series. But, in its own right the movies is well worth watching. Modern viewers will probably be disappointed by the lack of graphic violence, but what is there is shocking in its suddenness and brutality. It also shows what can be done with a few blows. The acting throughout is first class. All who have seen the TV series will miss the classic opening sequence of lightbulb which set the tone for the whole saga.
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Reviews
Nice to have
Review date: 2004-07-06 Rating: 8 out of 10
Not as satisfying as the tv series,but given how much of the Callan tv series has been lost its great having this movie which is based upon the first ever tv play of Callan and gives it the more expensive production values than tv could at the time. This dvd is particularly worth having for the excellent interview with Edward Woodward in which he manages to cover just about all anybody could ask about the Callan programmes. Woodward comes across as being a very honest intelligient, articulate and thoroughly nice unpretentious man.
I was only ten when the series originaly aired on London television,but I do remember it being a favourite with my parents and watching the series via the wonders of dvd all these years on I can see why because they are just thoroughly absorbing dramas. You cant help but wonder what makes the lead character ie Callan tick, he's far too caring a man to be involved in the dirty tricks department of the British secret service.
In the movie Eric Porter (best remembered for playing Sherlock Holmes's arch enemy Moriarty in the definitive Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series) plays Callans commanding officer, Hunter,and in the tv boxset Hunter is played by the even more interesing William Squire. I reckon there is a fair bit to compare in the evil genius Moriarty and the scheming ministry of murder commander Hunter.Both are Napoleans of misdeed presiding over their minnions like evil puppeteers pulling the strings. Hunter in the tv series does occasionaly have an almost fatherly touch particularly in the way that he has such enormous belief in Callans ability to do the job despite Callan's uncalled for character trait of having compassion for the victims. Watching him in the movie one can definitely see why Eric Porter was chosen for the part of Moriarty in the Granada tv Holmes,his portrayal of Hunter is totaly the epitomy of Sherlock Holmes's reptilian opponent which he was called upon to play over a decade later . Interestingly William Squire went on to play superbly another Holmesian character the litigious busy body (nosey neighbour on the moors)Stapleton in the BBC's 1982 "Hound of the Baskervilles" Sherlock Holmes tv dramatisation played by Tom Baker so yet another Sherlockian connection.
Regards.
Jim Clark..London..England
Brilliant British Drama
Review date: 2000-10-27 Rating: 10 out of 10
I'm too young to have watched the Callan series, but my parents introduced me to it when we watched this DVD and I'm hooked. Brilliant characters, brilliant acting, brilliant scripting... I cannot praise this film highly enough.
Product Details/Specifications
Recording label: Prism Leisure
Manufacturer: Prism Leisure
EAN: 5014293200257
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2001-09-01
Number of discs: 1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 180 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1973
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Unknown)