Butley

Rating:
Summary: Lost treasure found again
Review: BUTLEY is one of a number of Gray works that have been described as dissections of the male menopause. Like all good English drama this is not only realistic but also very very entertaining. This film version [compare it to the text and marvel of how little has been cut from the stage version] is not for the bombastic set. It is for all of those who crave a masterwork of verbosity acted by one of England's finest: Alan Bates. That the AFT series has been buried beneath legal ["administrative tangles"?] for so long is typical of our times but from Australia we thank whoever is responsible for making this series available once again.

I have viewed all five of the AFT [Box 1] and found BUTLEY to be the worst, in terms of transfer. The long shots are slightly blurred and there seems to be a slight bumping in the print used for video transfer which occurs periodically. It is a minor fault however.

Rating:
Summary: A valuable and exciting piece of work
Review: This is a superb cinematic treatment of Simon Gray's outraegous play. The titular character is undeniably theatrical in his nature, and yet the film is able to capture Alan Bates' astonishing performance (and those of a highly adroit ensemble) without losing sight of its identity as a piece of cinema. With Harold Pinter directing, I was not at all surprised that this turned out to be the case. Indeed, the camera seems able to capture so many subtle nuances in the character of Butley that it is difficult to imagine a couple of the more intimate moments emerging onstage. Surely the highest endorsement possible for a stage-to-film adaptation! A very exciting achievement.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Greatest Performances
Review: To me, this has always been the gem of the American Film Theatres almost always excellent series of filmed classic plays.

Alan Bates performance is a wonder of nuaince. Ben Butley is a middle-aged college professor whose life is a disaster. Simon Gray's play incisively presents a harrowing and usually hilarious profile of a decent man gone wrong. That you actually can deeply care about Butley is due to Gray's marvelous script for the film version of his play. Alan Bates, who won both the London and Tony awards for this performance, is as great as Jason Robards' justly legendary performance in "The Iceman Cometh."

And Harold Pinter, who directed the play, also directs this film. He does a world-class job directing his first film. Everything here works to the aim of the play.

AFT's three years of production would have been worth it just for "Butley." Without AFT there would be no record at all of this extraordinary original production.

If you love drama that hits the jugular with deft, knowing and compassionate, but never sentimental, veracity, this is for you.

The entire cast couldn't be better with Jessica Tandy perfect as Butley's unaware academic nemesis.

If most of the increasing idiocy of commercial film as made movies off limits for you, this series--and especially "Butley"--is waiting to alleviate your craving for civilized drama that doesn't shy at cutting deep.

I can't wait to see the other titles in this series again.