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Brimstone And Treacle [1987]


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'When the Trumpet of the Lord Shall Sound and Men Shall Be No More'
Review date: 2008-03-21 Rating: 4 out of 10

The transaction from play to film rarely works, `Sleuth' and `the Anniversary' spring to mind as successes, but the over-riding of these things, is those messy Joe Orton adaptations of the 60's, all garish colour and frenzied editing. It's as if the directors of the films want to make up for the inevitable staginess of the plays by projecting them as far away as possible from their original concepts. Imbuing them with sex and outrage to `modernise' them for audiences who wouldn't be seen dead at the National or the Everyman, and still think plays are the realm of a hideous time `before we had the telly.'
Adaptations from TV are slightly different in that they have already been filmed, but generally fall into the same trap. A film director who thinks he knows better than the TV people, and in due process of stamping his own 'visionary genius' on proceedings, only succeeds in mucking things up.
`BAT' is a great example. Adapted by Dennis Potter from his own original, and clunkily directed by Richard Loncraine, it's a resolute disaster from start to finish.
Potter's original was a morality comedy where the devil (named Martin) comes to stay with a lower middle class couple and their brain-damaged daughter. Much jokes about demons and sulphur ensues, and brilliant gags like when Satan spots a picture of Mick Jagger in the girls bedroom, "Hello old pal" he growls.
Potter's vision is considerably neutered by Satan's removal , in fact the devil is hardly touched on, which turns his pitch-black notions into merely a slightly perverse thriller.
Sting plays Martin, and is poor in the role.(tho' he does show commendable shirtlessness, and indeed, trouserlesness in a hammy, mock Ken Russell dream sequence), and it'll come as no surprise to hear the horrifically over-rated Police do the banal soundtrack. All ethnic instruments and dullness.
It's left to stalwarts Denholm Elliot and Joan Plowright, as the girls parents, to salvage something from the film. Plowright is subtly inane and Elliot's performance is so intense, it's scarier than the villains.
With the devil absent, the `sting' in the tale has been drawn, and it's left for Loncraine to utilise standard substitutes. Other films are relentlessly referenced with little effect, most noticeably the shadow on the house night shot from `the Exorcist', Loncraine dumbly telling us that this is no spiritual redeemer arriving.(Wow! Never woulda guessed.) Plowright listens to Squeeze's `Up the Junction' in the hairdressers, a back reference to Peter Collinson's excellent film, itself part of a gritty neo-realism that `BAT' would dearly love to find itself in the vanguard of.
The play was set in an ordinary terraced house, increasing the sense of the intrusion of `normalcy'. Here, we're in a classic horror film mansion, all gales and flashing lighting. Foreboding even before young Gordon arrives.
Although acting isn't Sting's strong-point (see `Dune' or `Quadrophenia' for irrefutable evidence), he does do creepy and ingratiating rather well, but some of the exchanges; "We don't use tea-bags", "I can tell. I can tell you're not that sort of lady at all" which might work with a better actor, seem trite and forced to the extreme with Sting. He listens to the atrocious Go-Go's on the radio(while dressed in women's clothes. Yay!) a device surely employed to make the Police sound good, and he seems to drift through the film without a hint of the required undercurrent menace.
The central premise, that a severely brain-damaged woman (no more than a gurgling vegetable) can be cured by having sex with a handsome young rake is quite offensive too, even to my jaded and corrupt sensibilities.
Loncraine has a wretched view of mankind. All the sweaty, adulterous father's fears are vindicated, just when seems to accept that not every-one in the world is as shallow and devious as he is.
Oh, and the plot-twist at the end is idiotic and rotten.
The BBC play is now available on dvd, so I'd go for that. Don't let salacious thoughts of butt-nekkid Sting sway you to Loncraines flop
I'm tempted to give it an extra star for the performances of Elliot and Plowright, but at 3 stars I'd be lying to you.




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Reviews


Archetypal Potter
Review date: 2005-12-21 Rating: 8 out of 10

Dennis Potter's 1976 contribution to the BBC's 'Play for Today' series was famously banned for eleven years. A young Michael Kitchen plays the part of a demon seeking sport in the streets of London. He inveigles himself, by trickery and manipulation, into the home of Denholm Elliot, the father of a badly disabled girl. Kitchen's obsequious interloper in places echoes Tim Curry's role in the "Rocky Horror Show", without resorting to anything camp or over-stylised.

Potter describes the play as a parable. Evil can be unctuous - it is not obviously evil, but can seem to be kindness and generosity, can seem logical, an worm its way into the hearts and minds of people. Religion, he feels, has been reduced to a sanctimonious function - too many people use religion to justify actions and beliefs which are truly evil. And this is Potter in the 1970's! Little has changed.

The play is a dissection of white, middle class values - of the whitened sepulchre image of suburbia. But the banning of the play was not because of its cynical take on religion or its gentle chiding of the middle classes. Rather, the play involves the rape of a disabled woman by the demon - it's implied rather than seen, there's nothing graphic or salacious.

The DVD offers some interesting extras: when the play was eventually shown some eleven years later, a discussion programme was aired on the subject of its banning - you get to see this, with contributions from Potter. Interestingly, by the time it was shown a film of the play (starring Sting) had already been made and released. An absorbing production, a reminder that television drama used to be risky and low budget, not slick and hyped up. Well worth watching.

Television history at its best. Not to be missed.
Review date: 2004-10-18 Rating: 10 out of 10

Dennis Potters controversial play, was originally scheduled for broadcast on 6th April 1976 as part of BBC1's Play For Today. It wasn't however shown until 25th August 1987, when Michael Grade (then controller of BBC1), allowed it to be aired as part of a Dennis Potter season. This play is even darker than the film version that was made in 1982, and is essential viewing for all fans of the film. The performances are excellent, especially from that of a young Michael Kitchen who plays a more devilish Martin.

This fabulous DVD includes "DID YOU SEE?" - a discussion show broadcast after the play was first aired in 1987 which featured an interview of Dennis Potter.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Patricia Lawrence
Michael Kitchen
Michelle Newell
Denholm Elliott
Paul Williamson

Creators:
Denholm Elliott (Primary Contributor)
Michael Kitchen (Primary Contributor)
Peter Bartlett (Cinematographer)
Tony Woollard (Editor)
Kenith Trodd (Producer)
Dennis Potter (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: 2 Entertain Video
Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video
EAN: 5014503141226
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2004-05-31
Number of discs: 1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 73 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1982
Language: English (Original Language)

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