Review of Birthday Party, The

Introduction

Originally a bomb on its theatre premiere way back in 1958, Harold Pinter’s conversation piece has since been critically acclaimed and has been recently directed by Sam Mendes. William “The Exorcist” Friedkin’s film version stars Robert Shaw (Jaws) and Patrick Magee (A Clockwork Orange) amongst others.

Video

The picture on this disc is quite simply, terrible. The image is soft, with hairs, specks and blotches all over. The colours are dull and the skin tones off. Awful!

Audio

We are given a stereo track, which just about suffices for this talky theatre piece. No subs.

Features

A few production notes, and a slideshow of stills. A very bare disc.

Conclusion

I find this film hard to recommend, as, if you are unsure whether you will like this or not, you probably won’t. Pinter and his pregnant pauses are an acquired taste, so beware. This film version lacks the subtlety that can be attained on the stage; however, the cast put in a strong collective performance - which cannot be said for the DVD producers. This is quite simply one of the worst discs I have ever seen, and if you are looking to buy this film, you’d be better off looking for a cheap video version elsewhere.