DVD Review: The Golden Compass (Two Disc Special Editon)

Personally I blame it on a literary tradition that dates back to some guy name Geoffrey Chaucer. They don't even attempt to deny it either, you know. In an interview included on the special features disc of the special edition DVD of The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman, the guy who wrote the His Dark Materials trilogy, says he reads Shakespeare and Dostoevsky for pleasure. With attitudes like that is it any wonder that the British keep churning out wonderful books for children that have has as many adult readers as they do younger ones?

From Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien, to the latest generation of J.K. Rowling and Philip Pullman, they have inundated us with great books that have been and are being turned into remarkably good movies. The latest of these to be given its celluloid treatment are Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, as book one, The Golden Compass, was released in cinemas in December of 2007 and on DVD Arpil 29, 2008. Going upon the recommendation of the person who has always been my best guide in all things literary, my older brother, I picked up a copy of the two disc special edition release of the movie this past weekend. (I don't know about anywhere else, but in Canada it was only three dollars more than the regular edition at Jumbo Video in Kingston, Ontario)

I have to confess that I went into this movie completely blind, knowing absolutely nothing about the story or the series. I didn't even know it was a trilogy, for goodness' sake; it wasn't until the movie was winding down that I turned to my wife and said, "Do you get the feeling that this is a 'to be continued in the next movie' point we're coming to?" Talk about being out of touch, although in my own defence the books were released between 1995 and 2000 and in those days I wasn't paying attention to much of anything. I didn't even notice Harry Potter until 2002 when I was given a copy of The Philosopher's Stone while recovering from surgery. (It's only known as The Sorcerer's Stone in the States - they changed the title and "translated" the text from British to American for American readers.)

So my first exposure to the world of The Golden Compass came when I slid the DVD into the optical drive on my MiniMac this past Saturday, and I'm now good and hooked. (First thing Monday morning I sent a pleading e-mail to my contact at the Canadian distributor of the books to see if they could get me review copies; there was a new omnibus version released just over a year ago on which I'm placing my hopes.) I can't remember when I've been so instantly captivated by anything as I was by this movie. From the opening sequence with the voice-over supplying the introduction to the world the movie is set in to the final frames in Scoresby's flying machine near the North Pole, the movie had me glued to my monitor.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the forthcoming book What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

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