Search - Blunt: The Fourth Man on DVD

Randal A. (Movieran) from SATELLITE BCH, FL
Reviewed on 7/26/2012...

A glimpse into the characters, lives and times of some British intellectuals who were bucking the establishment through lives of spying. Well executed and very well acted, but for an American audience it fails to show the class distinctions that spawned such thought and behavior, even while they enjoyed the comforts and privileges of the upper middle class.

This one deserves a better DVD transfer

frescobaldi8 | Carmel, IN USA | 01/14/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Anthony Hopkins has made many made-for-TV movies, and this is one of them.And it's better than most.However, DirectSource's video transfer is grainy at best--my copy even jumps forward to the next "chapter" before the end of the previous one! Hardly what I like to find in a DVD. (Therefore the rating of 3 stars instead of what otherwise would rate a 4 or even 4 and a half.)If you're looking for a watchable version of this one on DVD, it will "do," since the subject matter is good enough to hold one's attention. However, if you like your movies presented with a decent image quality, don't spend your money on this one.I can only hope a DVD edition with better picture resolution than this one (the only one available at the moment) becomes available in the future!"

A Little of This....

frescobaldi8 | 03/01/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A little history, a little spy thriller, a little Anthony Hopkins... all adds up to a lot of entertainment!"

A Good Cerebral Spy Thriller, No Special FX, & Dull

Mr. P. Power | Chicago, Illinois USA | 02/18/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"First let me say; I really Like spy movies. And this being a true story (makes it very appealing) with Anthony Hopkins as one of the main characters along with the cheap price made it a must have.

With that being said, my DVD is from "Passion Procductions" This copy has both decent picture and decent sound. Could be better, sure but it is quite adequete and I think a better version/transfer than the one another reviewer has. But hey it's an old movie that never made much money so they aren't going to put bucks into the reprint.

It was for me very Staid, obviously a low budget movie. There's virtually no action and much of the dialogue been very english, couched with many axioms Americans aren't familiar with made it a bit hard to follow at times. Coupled with sometimes you can't even understand what they are saying. But these spots are that often and don't seem to be forfieteing any of the story necessaries. Also it leaves gaps of info. in the front and end of the movie. You never know exactly what these guys motivation is besides them being good friends. What were they shareing/giving up to the russians? And what did they hope to gain by that risk? For me it left made more questions than it answered. It was interesting but showed almost no cloak & dagger affair that I'm sure the real/complete story holds. Its flet like it was the sanitized version that was approved by the British M5.
There's a lot of display of how several of the characters including Hopkins part were Gay. In fact I think they spent to much time on this fact. Like in those days this was as bad as being a traitor? And the ending was, well abrupt and cut short wanting for the full play-out of how they got caught and how it was all handeled in the end.
For me the movie portrayed the English Government and Secret Service M5 either didn't really care about the trist, or was aware the whole time and working it from both ends... or maybe both. Truly a movie for those really into Spy movies.

If you like old spy movies I would recommend "The Spy who came in from the cold" 1965 with Richard Burton"