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Young Sherlock Holmes [1986]
![Young Sherlock Holmes [1986]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51258ZZXM2L._SL160_.jpg)
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Editorial
Synopsis
Directed by Barry Levinson (DINER, RAIN MAN) and produced by Steven Spielberg, this imaginative tale presumes that Sherlock Holmes and John Watson met as young men at a boarding school in the late 1800s. Holmes (Nicholas Rowe) is already an aspiring detective when Watson (Alan Cox) arrives in his dormitory anticipating a studious life in preparation for medical school. With the help of Elizabeth (Sophie Ward), who is the niece of an eccentric professor as well as the love of Holmes' life, the famous detective team begins investigating the mysterious deaths of wealthy men who appear to be the victims of horrible hallucinations. The investigation leads to their discovery of an evil sect based on Egyptian mythology that sacrifices young women and whose leader has his own reasons for seeking revenge against a group of prominent Englishmen. Screenwriter Chris Columbus cleverly presupposes the origin of Holmes' trademark pipe and deerstalker cap as well as the reason why he never married.
Sherlock Holmes cult film classic.
Review date: 2007-12-16 Rating: 10 out of 10
I first saw this amazing film at the cinema when it was first aired. This film turned me into Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's biggest fan. He might not have written this film version story, but I think he would be quite proud of this tale of mystery. Nicholas Rowe is a very talented actor and is perfect playing Holmes. I heard somewhere, that he is going to play Sherlock Holmes once again in a new tale sometime soon. Everyone in this production shines. You will not be disappointed by the cast and the story. You sort of get a glimpse of why Sherlock never married. If you love mysteries, then this is for you.
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Reviews
The game is afoot...
Review date: 2007-12-01 Rating: 10 out of 10
Young Sherlock Holmes got a rough ride when it came out - not so much for the notion of Holmes and Watson meeting as children (there'd been a more straight-laced British childrens' TV series about just that a few years earlier that passed without any noticeable outrage) but because it was felt that it owed far more to executive producer than Steven Spielberg than Arthur Conan Doyle. The fact that after it opened to mediocre business Stateside it was retitled Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear to add an Indiana Jones spin to the marketing only added to their impression. Egyptian cults in the heart of London committing human sacrifices, hallucinogenic drugs leading to fatal encounters with turkey dinners and stained-glass windows, flying machines and, worse still, a girl was hardly the stuff of The Strand Magazine's most famous creation. But Doyle himself might have been a bit more forgiving - after all, he had Holmes come up against demon dogs, vengeful Mormons, deadly pygmies and even a vampire, and wasn't adverse to penning tales about vampires and monsters on the side when not attending séances or declaring children's photographs of fairies to be genuine proof of ethereal beings. In many ways the screenwriters have been rather more sympathetic to his creations and their world than they were ever given credit for, speculating on the origins of Holmes' strained relationship with Inspector Lestrade, his reticence with the opposite sex and even his vicious feud with Moriarty (you'll have to stick around for the post-end credits coda for that). And while critics complained that the film was special effects heavy, with his love of camera trickery it's affair bet whatever else he thought of the film, he'd have been delighted by the groundbreaking early CGI effects, which still manage to impress without overwhelming the film (the 2-D stained glass knight in armour is particularly cleverly designed)
Nicholas Rowe is an entirely convincing young Holmes, with an air of natural superiority without being unlikeable, and for the most part Alan Cox (rather unflatteringly used by his father Brian as the model for his turn as Hannibal Lektor!) avoids turning Watson into a clown, while a young Sophie Ward is a very fetching female lead and Anthony Higgins a dashing mentor-figure. The story is enjoyable even if it veers into adventure more than detection by the end, climaxing with a fine swordfight on a thin ice on a frozen river Thames. Not everything is entirely successful - there's a nightmare sequence with some pastries that really should have stayed on the cutting room floor - but the film's much more enjoyable than it has any right to be. It's also beautifully designed with a rather splendid score by Bruce Broughton that ensures it sounds as good as it looks. Great fun.
A wonderful film for the most part, until it moves into young Indiana Jones territory during the last 25 minutes
Review date: 2007-06-20 Rating: 8 out of 10
"It was a cold, snowy day in early December. Lack of funds had forced my old school to close. I was being sent to a new one in the middle of term. I was accustomed to the opened, relaxed expanse of the country, and now, I was in the heart of London at the height of the Victorian Era. The streets were teeming with every activity imaginable. I was very taken by what I saw. As I stepped from my carriage, the sight of my new school filled me with fear and apprehension, yet, I was swept with a wave of curiosity. However, nothing could prepare me for the extraordinary adventure that lay ahead, or the extraordinary individual who would change my life." That's an old John Watson speaking in a narrative voice-over, and moments later at the Brompton School common we're going to see young Watson, played by Alan Cox at 15, meet Sherlock Holmes, played by Nicholas Rowe at 19. Watson has had his trunk delivered and Holmes is scratching away horribly at a violin. Holmes stops and nearly smashed the thing in frustration. "I should've mastered the damn thing by now," he cries. "How long have you been playing?" Watson asks. "Three days!"
The first three-quarters of the movie is a wonderful Holmsian adventure, full of deduction and growing friendship, as we see young Holmes exercise his slightly arrogant intelligence to put an insufferably superior student named Dudley in his place, assist an eccentric inventor, find tentative Victorian love with the inventor's niece, discover a pattern of assassination in the deaths of four elderly men, deal with a lazy Lestrade and a friendly fencing master, and establish a friendship with his young follower, Watson. The high-point is probably Holmes acceptance of a challenge from Dudley to locate where Dudley has hidden the school's fencing trophy...in no more than 60 minutes. The game is afoot as Holmes examines minute particles of...what?, locates snowy footprints in the school quadrangle, examines the school's kitchen...all with the clock ticking away and with the school's students racing after him, with Watson in the lead. It's clever and exiting. As the older Watson says in recollection when Holmes finds the trophy with seconds to spare, "It was a wonderful, heroic moment for Holmes. But little did he know that his amazing powers and talents would soon be put to a much greater test, a test of terrifying and deadly proportions."
And with that we're off into a case of murderous hallucinations with all sorts of scary special effects, of a deadly Egyptian cult in the heart of London, of young girls used for human sacrifices, of a caldron of revenge...and we realize that we've moved from a young Sherlock Holmes to a young Indiana Jones. From a loving and clever imagining of Holmes and Watson meeting at school and solving a vicious, exotic series of killings, we're up to our necks in the calculated hokum of a boy's own adventure, courtesy of executive producer Steven Spielberg, assisted by George Lucas' special effects studio. We even have an E.T. moment when young Holmes and Watson take off on a pedal-powered flying device to soar over London at night in pursuit of the villain. The first part of the movie is so good that it just about disguises the calculated playing-with-the-audience build-up to the conclusion. Nicholas Rowe, tall and lean, and Alan Cox, round and quizzical, are first-rate as young Holmes and young Watson. They've continued to act but never had better roles. Michael Hordern, who gives us the narrative voice of the older Watson, provides much of the heart of the movie. We can imagine an elderly Watson looking back at this first case with affection and appreciation. At the end of the movie Holmes is leaving Brompton School while Watson will graduate and go on to medical studies. Watson says goodbye to his friend and stands near as Holmes enters the horse-drawn carriage. We hear the older Watson tell us, "As I watched Holmes settle into his seat, a sudden feeling came over me -- that I would most certainly be seeing him again. So ended my first adventure with Mister Sherlock Holmes. As I watched his carriage disappear into the distance, I realized that I had forgotten to thank him. He had taken a weak, frightened boy and made him into a courageous, strong man. My heart soared. I was filled with confidence. I was ready for whatever mystery or danger lay ahead. I was ready to take on the greatest and most exciting adventure of them all, and I knew it was bound to involve Sherlock Holmes."
The DVD transfer looks very good. There are no extras.
Well worth a view
Review date: 2007-01-11 Rating: 8 out of 10
I first saw this film many years ago, and recently bought it for my daughters, who loved it just as much as I had on first viewing. Nicholas Rowe and Alan Cox are wonderful as the young Holmes and Watson, and another reviewer's comment on Cox as Harry Potter is exactly what I thought when watching it again. I thought that Sophie Ward was a bit of a weak link, but not enough to detract from the skill shown by the young men. I know this film has had some poor reviews from film critics, which I think are undeserved. It has its weak points (particularly when Holmes decides his injured true love can wait while he has a final duel!), but overall it's well made, enjoyable and extremely watchable.
The game's afoot!
Review date: 2005-12-15 Rating: 10 out of 10
Sherlock Holmes is one of the best known detectives in the world -- so famous in fact, that 221B Baker Street in London continues to get mail addressed to this fictional character almost a century after he would have died had he been a real person. There are groups of people -- Sherlockians and Holmesians, the distinction between which is rather subtle -- who delight in retelling the tales; it has become somewhat traditional to try to fill in the gaps, things left out of the 'canonical' stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- 56 short stories and 4 novels. The official tales allude to happenings beyond them -- some authors take up the point there, and others create fanciful tales altogether. These have been made into films, television programmes and radio programmes for most of the history of their publication.
This film, 'Young Sherlock Holmes', derives from the mid-1980s film of the same name, produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Barry Levinson as an homage to Holmes and Holmes fans. The screenplay, written by Chris Columbus, was adapted into novel form by Alan Arnold. This story fills in the gaps of Holmes' childhood and education.
There are many wonderful pieces here -- it breaks with the canon in that it introduces Holmes (then 16 years old) and Watson as school mates at a private school. Holmes is struggling to learn to play the violin (a canonical piece), and already displays prodigious powers of observation and deduction. He is a loner for the most part, a bit of trouble with authorities and often underestimated. Lestrade is also introduced here, as a junior policeman.
The game is afoot in short order when Holmes' favourite, highly-eccentric professor dies mysteriously; this death mirrors in a fashion several other deaths, which leads Holmes and his new sidekick Watson on a merry chase, along with Elizabeth (this early relationship and its outcome is meant to explain the later absence of women in Holmes' life). The headmaster is generally supportive of Holmes, but is his support all that it seems?
The chase leads Holmes through the London underworld he will later come to know very well, tracking down a mysterious cult with Egyptian origins. Arnold's researching into the Egyptian lore, as well as details about London and Holmesian detail is impressive. Arnold holds Holmes as an ideal, stating in an author's epilogue that Holmes is as much the chivalric medieval knight as a Victorian and Edwardian gentleman.
This is a mystery very much in the spirit of Conan Doyle. The clues are there -- one merely needs to follow them to a logical conclusion. Some purists may balk, but this is an intriguing addition to the body of post-Conan Doyle literature, a worthy pastiche.
The lead is played by Nicholas Rowe, an actor deserving of more recognition. Alan Cox plays John Watson - had the Harry Potter stories come about twenty years earlier, he might well have been cast in that role. Sophie Ward plays the love interest for Holmes - Holmes is noted in the stories for not being particularly amorous of nature, and this story attempts to explain that. Anthony Higgins is the villain (do be sure to see the final bonus scene after the credits for the transformation of the villain), assisted by Susan Fleetwood as his 'moll' of sorts. Rounding out the cast is Freddie Jones as Cragwitch and Nigel Stock as Waxflatter, an eccentric (possibly mad) scientist/academic who is friends with Holmes.
The CGI graphics stand up with to time - the walking stained-glass window knight is reminiscent of the knight in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'. The sets, costumes and other effects of the film are really well tended, as is the care taken to add elements faithful to the original stories of Holmes.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Susan Fleetwood
Sophie Ward
Nicholas Rowe
Anthony Higgins
Alan Cox
Creators:
Nicholas Rowe (Primary Contributor)
Alan Cox (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: Paramount Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment
EAN: 5014437835130
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2004-02-02
Number of discs: 1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 105 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1985-12-04
Language: English (Original Language)