Game of Thrones: Season 1 [Blu-ray] [2011]

Description

Product Description Summers span decades. Winters can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun. It will stretch from the south, where heat breeds plots, lusts and intrigues; to the vast and savage eastern lands; all the way to the frozen north, where an 800-foot wall of ice protects the kingdom from the dark forces that lie beyond. Kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars, lords and honest men...all will play the Game of Thrones. A new original series based on George R.R. Martin's best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series. Extra ContentBlu-ray Complete Guide to Westeros An interactive compendium of the noble houses and lands featured in season one, PLUS 24 exclusive histories of the Seven Kingdoms as told by the characters themselves done with animated illustrations that provide more information on the background of Game of Thrones. In-Episode Guide In-feature resource that provides background information about on-screen characters, locations, and relevant histories while each episode plays. Anatomy of an Episode An in-episode experience that explores the creative minds and colossal efforts behind episode six, "A Golden Crown." Hidden Dragon Eggs Find the hidden dragon eggs to uncover even more never-before-seen content.Making Game of Thrones An exclusive 30-minute feature including never-before-seen footage from the set and interviews from the cast and crew.Character Profiles Profiles of 15 major characters as described by the actors portraying them. Creating the Show OpenAn inside look at the creation of the Emmy®-winning opening title sequence for Game of Thrones.From the Book to the Screen Executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss along with author George R.R. Martin talk about the challenges of bringing Martin's epic fantasy novel to life on HBO.The Night's Watch An in-depth look at the unique order of men who patrol and protect the Wall, a 700 foot ice structure that separates the Seven Kingdoms from the darkness beyond.Creating the Dothraki Language An insightful glance into the comprehensive language created for the Dothraki people in Game of Thrones.Audio Commentaries Seven audio commentaries with cast and crew including David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, George R.R. Martin, Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Mark Addy, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Maisie Williams, Sophie Turner, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Bryan Cogman, Harry Lloyd, Daniel Minahan and Alan Taylor. desertcart.co.uk Review It’s hard to think of any more satisfying way to bring the world of George R. R. Martin’s Game Of Thrones to visual life than has been managed with HBO’s acclaimed series. Within minutes of season one kicking off, you get the feel that you’re in safe hands, with a creepy opening that sets the scene for a series with real justification in calling itself epic. The creative team here clearly understand and respect the source material, and yet aren’t afraid to make changes to suit a television production. Not that you’ll notice it’s a television production. Made with the scope and scale of a major movie, Game Of Thrones look and feels dramatic in scale. Its story certainly is. Centered around the battle for power in days of old, there’s conflict, despair, romance, lust, backstabbing and no shortage of ice, both real and metaphorical. It demands your concentration, but remains accessible. It’s also a strictly adults-only adventure.As befitting a series of such magnitude, they’ve clearly gone to town on the Blu-ray set. As well as revealing plenty of detail as to the production itself, with making of material and episode guides, there are some brilliant, less obvious features. The Blu-ray exclusively features, for example, an excellent guide to the world of Westeros, who everyone is, the backstory, and the noble houses. You can comfortably lose hours in it.There’s simply so much depth in the set. Even the commentaries, often quite bland affairs, offer real insight and interest. That it’s wrapped up with a brilliant 1080p transfer, and speaker-shaking audio, is fitting. An excellent, ambitious piece of television, in a Blu-ray set that befits it perfectly. --Jon Foster Review: A Song of Ice and Fire: Part 1 - Here it is then. the long awaited television interpretation of the first part of George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy series. This show will affect you in different ways depending largely upon two possible scenarios, 1. you have read the book(s) beforehand, or 2. you haven't. If you have read the books then you will have the added advantage of going into this series with some serious background knowledge, which, given the expanse of Martin's literature, can only be a good thing. It is good (as a fan of the books) to see the characters portrayed on screen by, what can only be described as, an excellent cast. My personal favourites are Sean Bean (fellow Yorkshireman like myself) who plays Lord Eddard Stark, the proud, strong and brave (if not a bit stubborn and old-fashioned) Lord of Winterfell, the icy kingdom of the north. And, Peter Dinklage, who gives, as ever, a wonderful performance as Tyrion of House Lannister, a noble-born dwarf cursed by the hatred of his proud father but blessed with an unmatchable wit and intelligence. The story is relatively straightforward insofar that nothing groundbreakingly orignal happens. Martin's fantasy literature is about believability and realism; it is completely unlike Tolkien in that way (I don't like to compare the two authors, but most people seem to be doing so lately). Whereas Tolkien favoured Orcs, Goblins, castles and wizards, Martin prefers the medieval touch, dealing with knights, lords and priests. The story is very intricate and may leave you slightly unfulfilled at the end of the series, but, bear in mind this is only the first part of seven. One good thing, as a fan of the books, is that Martin had a very close hand in the production of this series which means very little tinkering has been done. If you compare it to The Pillars of the Earth for example, parts of the tv series didn't even come close to representing what happened in the book leaving hardcore fans a little bewildered, and not a little irritated. Martin's books though are so jam-packed with plot and character building that there really isn't much room for artistic license for the directors. They have a lot of story to get through, and only 10 episodes to do it in!! If you have never read Martin before then, what can you expect? Well, it is fantasy first and foremost (like I said earlier, with a medieval twang). Without spoiling or giving anything away the main plot is basically this: the continent of Westeros, ruled by king Robert Baratheon, falls into turmoil amidst a hungry power struggle between the realms nobles and knights. Expect a lot of plot twists and cliffhangers at the end of each episode. A quick word of warning to any of those sensitive souls out there as well, this series contains graphic bloody violence, nudity (tactful), swearing and some scenes of a sexual nature. It certainly IS NOT for kids (like Lord of the Rings etc.). Overall then I will sum up for you in some quick bullet points: + George R.R. Martin's literary masterpiece brought to life + great cast + wonderfully made, no corners have been cut, everything looks imacculate and professional + entertaining plot, good twists, beautiful ladies, handsome men, fighting, loving, laughing, crying (really, something for everybody here) + hour-episodes mean for a great amount of entertainment for your money - series 1 deals with book 1 of 7, if you get into this now, don't expect to see the ultimate conclusion for at least another 10-15 years (the last two books haven't even been written yet) - a little cliched in parts (I really didn't get this impression from the book though) I would highly recommend people to take the time to see this series and get into the number 1 fantasy series of the modern era. I would also recommend that you buy and read the books. Thank you for reading. (Thank you to everyone who found my review useful. I hope you are enjoying GOT!) Review: The start of a song of ice and fire - For the uninitiated: This is an adaptation of a fantasy novel A Game of Thrones (Reissue) (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) which is the first in a long series of books about the struggle for power in a fantasy kingdom called Westeros. The book series hasn't been finished yet. But let's not get started on that. Westeros is a land of medieval style technology and living. Different regions have their own lifestyles. The king of Westeros went mad fifteen years before and was killed after a rebellion led by two lords. One of whom then became king. But two of the dead king's children escaped to lands in the east and have been trying to build an army to win the throne back ever since. The north of the kingdom is dominated by a huge wall built a long time before to keep out creatures that lurk in the snow covered lands beyond. The wall is manned by a group of warriors called the nightwatch. As our story starts, Lord Eddeard Stark - the one of the two aforementioned warriors who didn't become king - gets a visit to his castle in the north. The king has lost his right hand man, known as the hand of the king, and needs Eddeard [known as Ned] to take on the role. He does. And finds himself in the middle of intrigue and a struggle for power. Meantime, the two exiled royals in the east are getting into a potentially dangerous alliance. And things are stirring in lands beyond the wall. Westeros is about to erupt into conflict. And things will never be the same again for all concerned. This series condenses a very long book down into ten tv episodes that run from fifty to fifty five minutes each [approx] and if you haven't read the books then you will quickly be confronted with a large cast of characters who talk about a lot of the above mentioned backstory. And more that I haven't mentioned. It has a huge cast of characters. Lots of storylines. And lots of settings. There are episodes when certain characters and storylines don't figure. The fantasy elements are rather kept to a minimum in this season of the show, so it's more intrigue and swordplay in a medieval style setting. So you may have to concentrate if you want to get into this. But it is worth the effort. A big and involving story. Intriguing settings. And a fine cast of characters. All of which makes for epic television. As those who have read the books will know, they are very gory and don't skimp on language and adult relationships and the like. Thus this is an eighteen certificate product. And the tv show doesn't skimp on that either. Watch out for beheadings, the bloody consequences of swordplay. And lots of naked people doing things that naked people often do. Body parts are often on display. From ladies and gentlemen. Those who have read the book will find this does an excellent job of condensing a very long narrative down into a tv version. There are some minor changes to the timeline of the books, with things happening a little differently. But all key scenes and elements from the book are here. And there are also some scenes involving characters who weren't viewpoint characters in the book, which make them viewpoint characters in the scene. This does have the effect of adding depth to some of those. Which is quite pleasing. All in all it is a commendable effort at getting a seemingly unfilmable book onto the screen. And it's well worth a watch. There are five discs in the box set, with two episodes to each. It has the following language and subtitle options: Languages: English, French, Castilian, Hungarian, Polish. Subtitles: English, French, Castilian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Dutch, Croatian, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Norwegian, Portugese [Iberian], Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, Swedish, Turkish. Extras are as follows: Seven of the ten episodes have commentaries from various members of cast and crew. Disc one has character profiles. Fifteen short features lasting no longer than a minute or two with the actors talking about their characters. Supported by lots of clips. These can be watched individually or all in a row, and if you do the latter the whole thing lasts thirty minutes. But most of the clips come from later episodes so you may want to leave it till you've watched them all. Each of the five discs contains complete guide to Westeros. An interactive map/diagram that will tell you all you need to know about all the main characters, and many others. And the various settings of the story. And disc five has some featurettes. A pretty good thirty minute long making of documentary. From the book to the screen: a five minute feature about how the book was adapted [most of this one is in the main making of documntary anyhow]. A five minute feature about the title sequence of the show was created [it has a full animated title sequence. An increasinly rare thing in tv these days]. Creating the Dothraki language: Another short feature, this one about how the language spoken by some of the characters [with subtitles] was created. And the Night's watch: a nine minute long feature all about the aforementioned guardians of the wall. The season ends on a cliffhanger of sorts. Season two will be along on dvd in due course. I look forward to it.