Strumpet City (1980/Acorn/RTE Irish Mini-Series)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C Extras: C- Episodes: B+
In the
last golden age of British TV, many great and classic mini-series were made and
this included many literary adaptations.
However, this was the time the IRA were battling actively against
Britain itself and the Irish point of view in any way was hard to come by,
specifically an historic and political one of formidable importance. Author James Plunkett is best known for
writing books about a particularly vital and important period of early 20th
Century Ireland that has always been and still is in danger of being forgotten
or marginalized.
In 1980,
the Irish Network RTE managed to pull off one of its greatest coups by adapting
his book Strumpet City into a
shockingly successful commercial and critical mini-series homerun for the
network and Acorn Media has issued it on DVD for the first time. Cyril Cusack heads the cast of this tale in
Ireland and the religious conflict taking place that includes Irish families
being stripped of their children to be sent elsewhere for a religious education
contrary to the one their parents want and blatant police harassment of anyone
who was considered a potential threat to this apartheid.
Conformity
and its dangers haunt all seven hour-long installments (on three DVDs in
slender cases boxed here) implicating the British as well as churches and the
general oppression of the times, but it is well acted, directed Tony Barry,
adapted by Hugh Leonard and told with a pace just strong enough to be involving
and intense without hitting the audience over the head.
RTE also
landed Peter Ustinov playing King Edward VII in early scenes and Peter O’Toole
is also memorable as Jim Larkin. The
series begins with Mary (Angela Hardy) becoming a maid in an affluent part of
Dublin for an older couple, but the husband immediately shows his conformist
tendencies no matter how exceptionally well she does her job and it becomes an
ominous beginning to this tale of the early years of the new Irish labor
struggles that eventually led to events like The Dublin Lockout. Strumpet
City holds up very well over a quarter-century later telling of events we
still do not know or hear enough about.
The image
is surprisingly presented in a 1.78 X 1 aspect ratio despite being a 1.33 X 1
TV production. Why? Either because the available materials had
flaws or codes in the frame that needed to be hidden, or the filming was framed
for widescreen 1.85 X 1 theatrical presentation and a decision was made to
frame it as such. With that considered,
this all shows its age, with a bit more grain than usual and color that has its
limits. The Dolby Digital 2.0 tries to
boost the old monophonic sound, but the age of the recording is very hard to
overcome, with some dialogue to distorted to hear clearly and with no subtitles
may never be understood by the viewer.
Text on author Plunkett, cast filmographies and historical background
are the only extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
