Description: Aliens pretending to be friendly come to Earth and are received openly. The aliens have masqueraded themselves to look just like humans. When it is discovered that the aliens' planet is dying and that they have come to rape the Earth of its natural resources, the war for Earth begins. An important key to the humans' success is distinguishing the their own from the aliens.
Amazon.com: In its day, V was a monumental event that for one generation remains a pop-culture touchstone. Close Encounters of the Third Kind may have reassured us that perhaps we have nothing to fear from alien visitors and E.T. introduced us to a benign extraterrestrial who only wanted to go home, but Kenneth Johnson's 1983 television miniseries knew better. Visitors who claim to come in peace are revealed to be nothing but human-looking reptilians on human conversion and conquest. As in the dark days of fascism, some collaborate with the enemy; others form the resistance.
At the time, the epic scale of this production was unprecedented. Those 50 motherships that hover over Earth's major cities anticipate Independence Day by more than a decade. The special effects and makeup are still awesome. Less so is the often-hackneyed dialogue. But thanks to their signature roles, the mostly no-star cast, most of whom would be reunited for a sequel and subsequent television series, have ensured themselves standing invitations to sci-fi conventions. Marc Singer is cameraman-turned-freedom-fighter Mike Donovan. Julie Parrish is a medical student-turned-rebel. Richard Herd is the aliens' supreme commander. Jane Bradler is Diana, the ravishing but ruthlessly ambitious alien science officer. Leonardo Cimino lends dignity to his heavy-handed allegorical role as a Holocaust survivor. Look for a pre-Freddy Krueger Robert Englund as one of the aliens.
The DVD is presented for the first time in widescreen format. Supplemental features include an amiable and enlightening director's commentary and a brief "making of" segment. --Donald Liebenson
More trash from Ken Johnson If you like really bad dialoge, lousy action scenes, and weak casting then anything by Ken Johnson would do. This mini-series is a joke, The Johnson commentery and short featurtte is a joke, and as useual it is packaged with Warner Brothers second rate DVD standards.
Remember the one where the lady swallowed the Guinea pig? Unfortunately, that's one of several reminders I throw out there whenever I'm trying to find out if someone has ever watched V before.
Eating live rodents, harvesting humans for food, and stealing the earth's water supply are not usually the big plot items that turn people onto a TV show or movie. And yet in 1983, everyone was glued to their television sets to watch V. (And even those who weren't were joining the throng of fans a year later for V: THE FINAL BATTLE.) Perhaps, it's because, although most people are not science fiction fans, they will watch a science fiction show (or movie) that has a non-sci-fi element as its primary vehicle. For instance, there are the mythological and mystical aspects of the STAR WARS saga. Many feel that there's a theological theme to the MATRIX trilogy.
In the same vein, V is undoubtedly a World War II/Holocaust allegory. The Visitors' emblem looks very similar to a swastika. They post propaganda posters all over the place. They establish the Visitor Friends Group in every major city (equivalent to the Hitler Youth). The Visitors require all scientists and their families to be registered; these same scientists (with their families) are often the target of outrageous persecutions and false accusations of conspiring against the Visitors.
V is the quintessential cheesy 80s melodrama. There are no fabulous performances in V, and none of the principle actors went on to bigger and better careers. The special effects, though unremarkable by today's standards, were way ahead of the game 25 years ago. (And many of the special effects sequences are recycled not only throughout this series but also throughout V: THE FINAL BATTLE and V: THE SERIES).
The unique thing V does offer is fun, exciting, intriguing, and action-packed family entertainment. And this kind of entertainment was delivered at a time when family entertainment was, unfortunately, going rapidly out of style.
From profound to medicre V the mini series and it's sequel V the final battle are great SF. Tough the special effects are not up to today's standard, this is more than compensated for by the interesting storyline (a parable about the naziregime) and protagonists who are real people with real faults and doubts. Some become collaborators, some become heroes against their will, but there are no black and white characters all good or all bad, except for Diana (a Dr.Mengele-like character only with real power, not a follower like Mengele was). Together these two form an epic story of real interest. Unfortunately the formula was milked into a television series (V The complete series) wich has deteriorated to mediocre or less. The stories have become childish, the characters have flattened out to two-dimensional. Shots of entering shuttles and the docking bay are recycled endlessly etc. The ending is very unsatisfying, because it doesn't really end but an opening is left for a sequel of the series which fortunately never came to pass.
A Classic TV Sci-Fi that Ages Very Well! I remember it well the first time I saw this on television as a kid and I was totally in awe at just how great a drama this was. I would look forward every week for the next installment of how we would defeat the aliens that stole our water and ate our flesh. Even at that level I was able to thoroughly enjoy the entire series. It wasn't until as an adult while viewing this again on dvd did the Nazi analogy become obvious to me and although the effects lack the CGI touch of today, I'm still impressed at just how good they were even for today.
Few television series from my childhood age well and so I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I still enjoyed viewing this dvd after more than 25 years. "V" has even aged better than "Battlestar Galactica" for me which takes quite some doing.
The sound quality in Dolby Surround is also very good and although the picture quality isn't perfect as there are still spots and other imperfections, they are not very widespread and do not detract too much from the overall viewing experience. This is just half the story though as you will need to get the follow-up "The Final Battle" to see how it all ends.
Very good television sci-fi with a pertinent underlying message that is still relevant today makes this highly recommended.
Disappointed I loved the '83 original V miniseries. I just want to know....where is the rest of the 6 hr. miniseries???? This item is only 196 minutes!!! We didn't even see the monster baby born. Please tell me that there is a disk somewhere with the rest of the series......
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