Poldark 1 (6 VHS Boxed Set)
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VHS Movie Reviews of Poldark 1 (6 VHS Boxed Set)
Movie Review: An Astonishing, Largely Unknown Series
Summary: 5 Stars
This excellent series was first broadcast on Masterpiece Theater back in 1975 and is based on the novels by Winston Graham. It plays out much like an 18th Century soap opera. Ross Poldark (Robin Ellis) is the story's central character; after being injured during the Revolutionary War, he returns to his home in England (Cornwall). What he discovers ignites a chain of events that is brilliantly designed to grab and hold the viewer's attention until the very end. You do not need an elaborate understanding of England's history during this time-period to follow or enjoy the Poldark series...it is no more than an countless string of captivating subplots complete with daring rescues and dangerous liaisons, each carefully woven to support but never overshadow the story's crux: a complex, intricate love triangle that would stupefy Pythagoras himself.Overall, I found the series to be more entertaining than Graham's books, which at times were slow and uninvolving. However, the story does not end with Poldark 2: Graham continues the saga with several more books (including "The Loving Cup," which is currently out of print), but alas, except for "Stranger from the Sea," these were never adapted to the small screen. If nothing else, I suggest you watch the series to get to know Demelza (Angharad Rees), one of the most stunningly beautiful women I have ever seen.
Movie Review: Part of a series equal to the complete Anne of Green Gables
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent period piece from England about the time of the American Revolution. It is as best you can get on NTSC.Movie Review: Excellent PBS series that is vastly under-rated
Summary: 4 Stars
The Poldark series is vastly under-rated and in my opinion is easily the best Masterpiece Theatre series ever produced. The time period is 1780's to 1790's set in Cornwall. The scenery is magnificent and the acting is very well accomplished - with social stratification for the period intact. Capt Poldark is returning to Britain after being captured and reported to be killed in the "Colonial Wars" in America. He returns "as if from the dead" to find his former fiance now married to another man, his father dead, and sole inheritor of a family estate in great disrepair. To make some sort of life is the task set before him. I assume that his experience with the "freedoms" in the colonies has embued him with a certain desire to try to provide a sense of social justice in his dealings with the tenants on his land and others of different social strata.
The whole story is a marvelous window back in time to a previous era in Britain, prior to the Napoleonic Wars. It is truely well worth the price for this series.