YOUNG CATHERINE As I am currently changing all my VHS tapes over to DVD's I am struggling with some really good "old" mostly historical tapes that I don't think will ever be transferred over to DVD, and this is one of them.....the only copy I had, prior to acquiring this one is an old tape from the actual TV drama itself which has been played so often that it is skipping and missing words. I believe that some individual was selling a DVD that they had made but the review was that the picture quality was lousy, so I won't go there. My personally opinion on this movie is that IT IS THE VERY BEST PORTRAYAL of Catherine the Great of Russia. Unfortunately there was a much more recent remake with Catherine Zeta Jones in the starring role....forget that! Julia Ormond leaves Zeta Jones in the dust when it comes to playing this great role and the line up of well known extremly talented stars who play numerous parts is mind boggling. Some of the story is a best guess because nobody really knew the truth about Catherines' rise to power (which is not unusual in anything coming out of Russia) But the story line is splendid and absolutely everything that is portayed 'could' have happened. Color, costumes, spacious frozen scenery, huge houses and castles will take your breath away. I do not know if I might try to get this transferred over myself because I know that the life of the VCR is limited and sooner or later tapes won't be a viable alternative but, until that is the case I will watch this over and over again. If you can get hold of a copy of this before they are all go PLEASE DO SO, you won't regret it. I hope upon hope that the movie makers will take a second look and bring this out on DVD because it is well worth it as it is so superior to the Zeta Jones version.
TNT Is Missing a Bet by Not Having the 187-Minute Version on DVD TNT, having made this extraordinarily good series on Catherine the Great, with a stellar cast and scenes often filmed in the original (opulent) locations, incredibly has failed to make the full 187-minute version available on DVD. They do not appear to realize that what this forces the viewer to do is tape the full version off the air. (Many people do not want to buy VHS sets, and even the 180-minute version in this case has scenes missing.) What can they be thinking at TNT? Having spent all the money to film this classic, shouldn't they be the first to WANT the public to buy it? It just boggles the mind.....And of course, if they really want to do us a favor, they should add the Russian language sound track (there is a Russian-only available version), as well as any other languages (French, for example? -- German, which would also be appropriate, considering that Catherine was a German princess?) to the set. Now THAT would be a set worth having! And has it not occurred to them that Europeans would also be interested in having this set available on DVD?
Great feature AND IT IS AVAILABLE ON DVD - just purchased one on Ebay... and yes it's the TNT feature staring Julia Ormond and Vanessa Redgrave.
SELLERS REGRETS I got rid of all of my VHS about 5 years ago, this was one I planned on replacing with DVD. If I had known it did not come in DVD format I would never had sold it. PLEASE PUT IT OUT ON DVD, GREAT MOVIE, I WATCH IT OVER AND OVER!
When will it go to DVD???????!!!!!!!!!! THE BEST HISTORICAL FILM to date, and it needs to come out on DVD!!
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