Review of Witchfinder General

Introduction

It is 1645 and England is in the grip of a savage civil war. Law and order has collapsed as local magistrates take advantage of the disorder around them to pursue their own individual personal whims at the expense of the populace. Among these is a man called Matthew Hopkins (Vincent Price). A man who will stop at nothing to abuse his position for his own personal lust for power and wealth.

Loosely based on historical fact, Hopkins would be known as the Witchfinder General as his search for innocent victims, who would be condemned as witches and tortured until they admitted it or died, was endless in his pursuit for power. Many would die in these so called witchtrials all across Europe, and `Witchfinder` gives us a chilling insight into what it actually must have been like during these times at the hands of men like these.

Vincent price is (as always) wonderful as the `Witchfinder` whose selfserving actions, usually involving lots of graphic, sexually motivated persecutions of innocent men and women across war torn East Anglia are carried out with the usual grace and charisma that only Price can pull off.
Ian Ogilvy stars as the model soldier who must avenge the rape of his betrothed and put an end to the tyranny of the Hopkin witch trials.

The violence in this film is portrayed in a very matter of fact, almost documentary kind of style and we see many graphic depictions of torture with the emphasise on shocking realism. At the time of release this was too much for censors and so this film was subjected to extensive cuts which are restored here.
Essentially Witchfinder General gives us a glimpse into the barbarity inherent in all societies when the rule and order of that society start to collapse. It`s a frightening idea being at the hands of the mob.
Witchfinder is really quite a dark and unforgiving film. There are no heroes, or winners. Everyone loses and as such this film can be seen as mirroring the state of mind of the director Michael Reeves who suffered from depression and would later die from an overdose shortly after making this film at the age of 25.

Video

Sporting an anamorphic print and an extended uncensored cut, this DVD sounds like a godsend for fans with their old, worn out imported VHS copies, but sadly Witchfinder General has seen better days I think and ultimately disappoints in the picture department. The main problem stems from the fact that upon the initial release, the film was substantially cut due to excessive violence and because these scenes today only survive on film duped from multi-generation copies, quality is obviously very low.
Although great effort has been made to try and retrieve all the `lost` footage so that the most complete version can be shown, this does mean that picture quality very often jumps back and forth, from an average rating of say five or six, to a below par three or four. This of course is very distracting and certain scenes are almost unwatchable due to the bad quality of the print.

Although I`m all for having the most complete version of a film available as the director intended, it almost made me wish for an option to see the film without the restored bits added. This film is not subtle in its portrayal of the torture of its innocent victims and its clear that every effort has been made to try to repulse people by its use of explicit, almost documentary like visuals.
And although the violence is portrayed as realistically as possible, up to today`s standard you may just wonder what all the fuss was about during its initial release. Maybe viewing the film without the extended torture scenes would give more room for the imagination to make up its own devilish visuals, which I think would be far more effective. In general the print is fairly average with plenty of grain, dark muted colours and lack of detail. There are plenty of scratches and occurrences of dirt, and altogether the picture has a general muddy kind of look that at the end of the day I suppose remains quite fitting for the piece. Occasionally the print starts to look really quite good but its not long before we plunge back into the sea of mediocrity.

This is probably the best quality print your going to see Witchfinder General in for some time and I`m sure fans of the film would welcome this with open arms. Just don`t expect miracles and you won`t be too disappointed.

Audio

Sound is presented in its original mono. Like the picture the added scenes suffer a little with decreased quality but thankfully its nowhere near as distracting or noticeable. Certain scenes have obviously been dubbed with added voices and such and the sound can sometimes sound a bit fake, but overall this is due to the original mix and not the DVD. Obviously the track is restrictive in dynamics and can sometimes sound a little harsh but overall it`s nothing to really complain about.

Features

Extras include a very interesting documentary about the young, some say to be, genius director Michael Reeves and his early films including of course his third, and only notable work Witchfinder General.
This documentary has lots of information and anecdotes from the actors and associates that Michael worked with, and gives a real insight into this young, not very well known director who would end up dying, (some say suicide) from a lethal dose of prescription drugs shortly after making Witchfinder.
Also included are a cheesy rock video, trailer, notes and stills.

Conclusion

Witchfinder General is considered by some as a genre classic and it is easy to see why. The picture has a distinctive style and its use of violence in what is essentially a historical based piece was groundbreaking for the time it was made. Witchfinder however is far from a perfect piece of cinema it is sometime made out to be. It is often overlong in places, especially in the riding back and forth across England scenes, and the camera can dwell far too long on the violence at the expense of the pace of the film and the storyline. Essentially this is a film your either love or hate. I wouldn`t recommend it to the average viewer, but anyone interested in the genre, British filmmaking or in the senseless persecution of so called `witches`, then you may just find something in this DVD.