The Final Programme

[Anonymous]

Hi
Anybody know if Final Programme is availble on video in th UK ??
Anybody seen it and think its wirth buying or seeing
Allways found Cornelius my favourite Eternal Champion
Cheers
Dobbie :twisted:

[Michael Moorcock]

It might be worth checking Amazon films. I know it was available both as VHS and DVD in the US, certainly until recently. I remember looking at the site and noting that the comments there were pretty accurate in that they had the same low opinion of the overall film as I did. There are some great actors, some great performances, but the direction and script leave much to be desired...

[ThanosShadowsage]

Final Programme

I don't know, even with all the bad reviews... I'd want to see it just because it's The Final Programme. Any suggestions as to what retailers (if any) would hold it? I've checked at Best Buy... they don't sell much of what I like though. Usually just the blockbuster hits.

Thanos

[NeonEagle]

The Final Programme video

Yes it is worth watching. I rented it from a video store about ten years ago & wouldn't mind having a DVD of it now. If you are expecting it to live up to the books forget it. In order to enjoy viewing it you need to accept the work on it's own terms. If you can do that then you might find that it's better than most of the style over substance crap that's currently on TV. Even if it's not an entirely loyal adaption it is still fertilized by the mind of Mr. Moorcock & that counts for something worthwhile on some level in my book. 8)

[VenusVictrix]

I did manage to get a copy at the end of 2002 when it was re-released. I think it's only available as a VHS in the U.K. I tried to get it through Blackstar who were pretty useless, and in the end I think I got it from Virgin online. The producers of the video are DD Video I think.

I have to say that it is a pretty uneven movie. However I shamefully admit that I love it. It starts off pretty well, managing to capture some of the cold distance of the novel, but does rapidly tail off into banality. As MM says the performances are great (Finch is genuinely funny and his big fight secene is satisfyingly absurd. Oh, and he does look great in black nail-varnish), but it barely skims the themes of the novel. One of the main sticking points for me is the scene in which Jenny is seduced by Miss Brunner. This is spoiled for me by Jerry's uncharacteristic macho pettishness. I think he says something along the lines of "if you want the real thing you know where to come", which only makes him seem like some dodgy Jason King clone. I seem to remember someone once saying that they expected Jerry & Miss B. to run off together to open a boutique, which made me giggle, 'coz it's a pretty good summing up really.
Hey my first post!

[MJR]

I found it for region 1 DVD on EBAY.


The ending is great! :P

[zakt]

It's available through Amazon UK on VHS. I saw it on TV in the late 70s, and found it again this year. Everyone seems to recognise the deficiencies of the film, and I think the main problem was that it was a 70s British picture .... no budget, 70s attitudes to women and homosexuality (relatively advanced ones for the 70s media in that the camp wasn't seen as a bad thing necessarily), but as MJM says, good actors (especially Jenny Runacre - nearly as good as she was in Jubilee) and overall it's worth watching. Lindsay Anderson's Brittania Hospital reminded me of the feel of the film in some ways, but was MUCH better!

[manmiles]

I just saw the film today.

An interesting adaptation, choosing more for Spy Adventure heroics than intelligent Science-Fiction. The Needle Gun design was pretty good, but not in keeping with how I imagined the Needle Gun to look like, I was imagining this sleek futuristic weapon.

Jon Finch did make Jerry Cornelius, if only he had a chance to do a script much closer to the book. Some of his lines were funny, especially the quips when figthing Dimitri at the end...."Help Mrs Brumner I'm losing!" always comes to mind.

But my only question is why did they go for this Pseudo-2001 ending with Jerry and Brumner merging into some kind of Pseudo-Ape then the hermaphrodite which would've gone for a much more visually interesting apocolypse like in the book.