The Shout [Blu-ray]

The Shout is based on a Robert Graves short story upon the idea of a man just back from 18 years living with Aborigines in Australia where he has picked up shamanic practices like psychic possession, and of a shout that can kill people. The director is Jerzy Skolimowski who also made Deep End with Jane Asher. The story is set in north Devon, dunes, rocky-fingered beaches, isolated hamlets, a church and a cottage where young couple, Anthony (John Hurt) and Rachel (Susannah York), slightly bohemian and artistic, live. Anthony also plays the organ and is having an affair.At a cricket match set in the grounds of an asylum, between some villagers and the inmates, patient Crossley ( Alan Bates) and villager Graves( Tim Curry) sit in a hut recording every run, over and wicket. Crossley recounts a terrifying story of how he came to possess supernatural powers that enable him to kill with a shout. The film cleverly cuts between the typical English match and the story of Crossley attaching to Anthony,an experimental musician, and his wife Rachel, living with them, and through his possession of her shoe buckle, using magical powers to take control of the wife. He is dangerous and insinuates himself in their marriage. They are on their guard but he’s put a spell on them.Hurt is shown creating sounds in a studio made out of recording ball-bearings sliding a tray in water, or an opened tin can and violin bow, or a wasp in a jar. Crossley thinks the music hollow and is asked to demonstrate his shout out by the dunes, while Anthony stops up his ears with wax. Sheep fall over dead and a shepherd dies. The landscape and the atmosphere of the film are eerie and magical, transferring to anEngland of the mind, a more primitive folklore from Aboriginal myths. The film’s imagery is pepped up by the use of shadowy figures from paintings by Francis Bacon and a figure of an Aboriginal spirit who they share in dreams, as well as haunting score in a layered soundtrack, used especially in instances of the magical ‘shout’.Bates is superbly suited to the role with his odd looks, strange gestures, lisps, taunts and sardonic delivery. York and Hurt capture the film’s humanity. York’s crawling across the floor shows her totally vulnerable to Crossley’s possession. The cricket match slowly breaks down, when the inmates start disputing the judge’s decisions,then the thunderous rain and lightning cause havoc. Driven to extremes, Anthony finds a key to exorcise this possession. The film explores the strength of beliefs. Winner of the 1978 Jury Prize at Cannes.

This is truly a cult film. There is no point trying to explain its storyline, or attempting to persuade anyone with no knowledge of it to buy it by demanding that it is brilliant. The entire cast is wonderful, Alan Bates is mesmerizing, and Susannah York, John hurt and the versatile Tim Curry are all in fine form, and the creation from script to film by Jerzy Skolimowski is mindblowing.. Anyone who knows this film will either love it or hate it. If you love it then this new blu-ray transfer is something for you to behold.This is all about the Blu-ray, and what a glorious presentation it is. If you adore this piece of film making, then you can now safely throw out the questionable presentations on previous DVD's and be amazed at the sound and vision of The Shout. The DVD is indeed created from original film elements and looks perfect on Blu-ray. The sound which plays an essential role in the whole storyline is excellent in simple, but effective, stereo as presented here. The extras are slim but the enthusiastic commentary from two sources are quite informative. An additional booklet is excellent with stills, two essays, and promotional material in the form of an original theatrical brochure from the time of release. Overall it is a very good package, but most important is that the film itself is presented perfectly on the Blu-ray format.If you are an admirer of this obscure cult classic, then this Blu ray presentation is an absolute must have in anyone's collection.

As the other Amazon reviews suggest, very much a film of its time. We are presented with a story within a story, told by Alan Bates (Crossley - an inmate of what used to be called a mental asylum) to Tim Curry (Robert Graves - real life author of the short story on which the film is based).As the two keep scores for a village versus inmates cricket match, Crossley spots John Hurt (William Fielding), who is batting. This encourages the Bates character to regale poor old Tim Curry with a tale that is beautifully evocative of Devon countryside in the summertime, but laden with quasi mystical hokum.In the scoring hut story, Crossley insinuates himself into the married life of Fielding and his wife Rachel (Susannah York) by, um, following Fielding home and sitting outside his house.Clearly Skolimowski's film is not intended as a work of realism; the central narrative is, after all, told by a madman, but it rather stretches credulity to have the Bates character insert himself into the lives of Fielding and his wife Rachel quite so easily. The dinner scene where Crossley tells them that he has committed infanticide is particularly hard to swallow, and in terms of sexual politics, the dynamic between Crossley (Alan Bates dripping with testosterone, admittedly...) and Rachel is as ludicrous as it is dated.The 'shout' of the title features along the way, rather to the disadvantage of the local Devon shepherd and his woolly friends - collateral damage, sadly - and the film ends as it started, at the cricket match, but with added lightning, shouting and silliness. At least Tim Curry has the foresight to run away.It's all beautifully shot, and as noted, British summertime never felt as dreamlike, but one gets the feeling of a short story that should have stayed as just that, and a film with too little substance on which to base its characters and themes.The overdone, over long shots of birds, buckles, beaches, etc. were quite the thing at the time, but now look redundant and lazy. Do we really need a shot of Bates and Hurt walking along that goes on for about 30 seconds? They're walking along - noted, now move the story along too...Of course, there's not really anywhere for it to go beyond broken pebbles, hysterical wives and cricket amongst the cowpats.A film to watch on x4 fast forward, or perhaps, not at all.