Review of Under Milk Wood

Introduction

Based on the radio play by Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood is an odd production about the lives of the inhabitants of a small Welsh fishing village and is based loosly on Thomas` own life.

The film boasts an excellent cast, including Peter O`Toole and Elizabeth Taylor but the highlight for me was Richard Burton`s performance as the narrator.

Video

The overall quality is pretty good, the anamorphic transfer is welcome, considering the age of the film (1973). There are a number of dark scenes in the movie, especially at the start and these are never muddy and detail is preserved.

The print does, however look rather tired and suffers from rather a lot of graininess in places.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 is actually a mono sound mix. Sound quality is good throughout, very important as, being a convert from the radio, voices are very important.

A lot of the action goes on inside people`s heads in typical rambling Dylan Thomas style so I found myself concentrating more on what people were saying than what was happening on screen.

Features

Nothing fancy I`m afraid.... a rather poor trailer and a stills gallery is all we get except for a set of servicable subtitles.

Conclusion

A very odd film. The cast are excellent and go about their business perfectly well. As I noted before though, the visual aspect of this is almost redundant, one should be able to work out what`s going on from the audio side of things.

If you have the chance, grab the BBC tapes and listen to the original "Play for Voices".