Gulliver's Travels

Director: Charles Sturridge
Actors: Ned Beatty, Geraldine Chaplin, Ted Danson, Edward Fox, John Gielgud
Studio: Genius Products (TVN)
Category: DVD

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Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars 2 reviews
Sales Rank: 15669

Format: Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc, Special Edition, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 187 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7

MPN: GEPD81215D
UPC: 796019812153
EAN: 0796019812153
ASIN: B001AR0D22

Theatrical Release Date: 1996
Release Date: September 9, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Gulliver's Travels

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Customer Reviews



5 out of 5 stars An outstanding rendering    January 7, 2009
wiredweird (Earth, or somewhere nearby)
Johnathan Swift's beloved satire has amused readers for over 250 years, and shows no signs of waning. So many people have loved (or at least read) it, that it presents difficult target for movie-makers. No matter how they render it, they're sure to violate someone's image of the story. Despite a very few flaws, this version works remarkably well.

For one thing, it presents a reasonably complete telling of Lemuel Gulliver's story. I haven't read the original lately, but this seems to cover the entire tale, not just famous favorites like the visit to Lilliput. It also covers some of the moments that other versions skip, like putting out the Lilliputian palace fire. A parody of academic research holds up well, too, and might be even more relevant today than when Swift poked fun at the Royal Society's experimenters. Competent special effects make it easy to suspend disbelief for the film's duration.

Perhaps it's unfair, but the high points of this recreation work so well that the few low points seem even lower by contrast. The visit to Brobdingnag retains its political bite, buthis made-for-TV movie had to cut a few "adult" moments from Swift's version. The Struldbrugs really suffered at this director's hands, though. Perhaps there was some political correctness issue in toning their senility down, but that passage lost nearly all the impact of the original.

The good outweighs the bad, however, and the good includes some remarkable star power, including Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole, and John Gielgud in brief but significant roles. The storytelling format works too, as flashbacks of story bubble up through Gulliver's damaged mind. This two-disc set is sure to brighten many rainy afternoons, as long as your younger viewers aren't skittish sorts.

-- wiredweird


5 out of 5 stars An Immodest Production    October 19, 2008
Robert Carlberg (Seattle)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I recall being enormously impressed with this 2-part made-for-TV movie when it was first broadcast in 1996, and the intervening twelve years have not diminished it any. The production is fairly true to Swift's original, and contains many innovative and surprisingly-effective special effects (for the time). All of the cast members give boffo performances, particularly hammy Peter O'Toole in the role of a lifetime. But most impressive of all is the gentle and very sly interweaving of fantasy and insanity, where Lemuel Gulliver's state of mind continuously shifts between frames of reference both in size and veracity.

Swift's vulgar sense of humor is given free expression, and the biting satire of his political wit still rings familiar 270 years later. The film contains the free-wheeling giddiness of Terry Gilliam's "Time Bandits" (1981) and the time- and frame-of-reference-shifting vertigo of "Smoke Signals" (1998). Tiny details and thrown-away background elements make it a production for rewarding repeated viewing.

In short this is a film of Brobdingnagian proportions which has received Lilliputian acclaim. This is a gap of Yahooian injustice.