The Lost Boys (1978/BBC)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C Episodes: B
In the midst and hopefully the tale end of a bunch of
posers trying to be hip by jumping on the pseudo-artistic, pseudo-intellectual
“Peter Pan Bandwagon” in TV and feature production, the release of Rodney
Bennett’s J.M. Barrie TV mini-series The Lost Boys is very welcome. It takes a hard, real, deep, honest, mature,
adult, serious look at Barrie without infantile reductionisms about him and the
cast of the great Ian Holm as Barrie only furthers that end. Running just over 4.5 hours, it covers the
relationships he had with his friends and family.
Most important, it shows that the man was not trying to be
a child or stay a child like so many dippy happy, feel-good fantasy productions
that are never sincere or for real. We
also see his marriage in trouble and the kind of creative struggles that come
with real thinkers like Barrie and not posers who are living in a fantasy world
that has to do more with their egos than anything else. Holm nails the role and the rest of the cast
is pretty solid too. Don’t settle for
the current cycle of silliness. If you
like Barrie and his work, see this British production instead.
The 1.33 X 1 image shows its age as it was shot on older professional
analog PAL video. That means you have
imperfections throughout and there is a bit of softness having far more to do
with the master tape than Acorn’s high quality transfer. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono fares a little
better despite also showing its age, while the Dudley Simpson score is not
bad. Stills and an interview with
teleplay writer Andrew Birkin are the only extras.
- Nicholas
Sheffo
