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S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

(aka 'The Day of the Triffids; the TV Series')

Directed by Ken Hannam
UK / Australia 1981

 

The very TV nature of the mini-series gives The Day of the Triffids a quiet manneredness that is entirely removed from Hollywood end of the world movies. The series is shot with plain lighting and non-melodramatic effect. (More than anything one suspects that the remake of The Day of the Triffids was inspired by the success a few years earlier of the British TV series Survivors (1975-7), a very Wyndham-esque tale about ordinary people trying to survive in the aftermath of a plague that has wiped out most of the rest of the world and where the survivors have fragmented into diffuse, self-contained and often warring communes). The contrast is no better demonstrated than placing The Day of the Triffids up against the film that came out the same year – Mad Max 2 (1981), which revolutionized film treatment of the post-holocaust and turned the venue into an action movie setting, a vision that could not be further removed from the sober, social perspectives that The Day of the Triffids takes.

As in Wyndham’s book, the Day of the Triffids mini-series is all about the attitudes with which people confront catastrophe. The story contrasts different perspectives and social viewpoints – Stephen Yardley’s ordinary man pleading with John Duttine to stay and help them and ignore the rest of the world; the emergence of the utilitarian group that proposes that only the seeing be taken in and the others abandoned and that all sighted men must take three wives; Coker’s quasi-Communistic society with their ardent belief in the arrival of help from elsewhere and where the seeing are forced to help the blind by being handcuffed to them in chain gangs; Tynsham, which represents naive Christian do-gooder ethic in the face of all reasonable practicalities; the junta that establishes rule by militia and begins allocating the resources.

Excerpt from The SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review located HERE

Theatrical Release: September 10th, 1981

Reviews                                                                     DVD Reviews

 

DVD Review: BBC Warner - Region 1 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover

   

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Distribution BBC Warner Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime 2:39:10 
Video 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 6.27 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s 

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate:

Audio English (Dolby Digital 2.0) 
Subtitles English, None
Features

Release Information:
Studio: BBC Warner Home Video

Aspect Ratio:
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1

Edition Details:

• 12-page liner notes 

DVD Release Date: November 6th, 2007

Keep Case
Chapters: 6 X 6 episodes

 

 

 

Comments:

The only thing this package has going for it is the series content. The DVD appears to have been cheaply transferred - it is on a dual-layered disc but is interlaced and not especially sharp for a TV series of less than 30 years ago. The optional subtitles are in an unusual font that I don't think I've seen before (see below). It has a fair share of noticeable artifacts and I think I'd give it only a 4/10 for image. Audio is fairly clean.

The only supplement beyond the 2.5 hours of the mini-series are 12-pages of liner notes by Andrew Pixley (Note: his essay contains spoilers and shouldn't be read prior to viewing). The DVD inferiorities didn't hinder my enjoyment of the show and I can now understand the 7.9 score on IMdb. The whole flesh-eating plants thing is cool but this BBC series takes it a step beyond the sci-fi mastery. I think it's more like Wyndham's novel in that the social aspects are more deeply explored. Very entertaining - I wish it was longer. It's a shame the DVD wasn't transferred with some more care. 

Gary W. Tooze


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Subtitle Sample

 

 


 

Screen Captures

 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 

 


Light combing evident...
 

 


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Distribution BBC Warner Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC




 

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