Occasionally a vaguely Arabic-looking scribe (played by director Derek Jarman) is shown intoning snatches of poetry from Ginsburg and Eliot (who go uncredited), but the majority of this film--which was shot on Super-8, and transferred to video--is given over to a rapid-fire pastiche of apocalyptic and homoerotic imagery. Using home movie footage from the more ordered world of his childhood, Jarman attempts (one guesses) to show the contrast between the simpler days and what he perceives as a hyper-militaristic and repressive current state of affairs in Great Britain. Images of children rolling balls across manicured lawns are juxtaposed with shots of bombed-out buildings inhabited by survivors who huddle around trashcan fires. While some of the imagery is striking, one gradually gets the feeling--as endless stretch after stretch is devoted to some half-naked young stud wandering the rubbled landscape--that the real purpose of the film is as a video love letter. After an hour had passed, during which the senses were assaulted by snippets flashed at subliminal speed, the message began to come through loud and clear: take two aspirin and watch a better movie. Not recommended. (R. Pitman) [DVD Review—Nov. 29, 2005—Image, 88 min., not rated, $19.99—Making its first appearance on DVD, 1987's The Last of England is presented with a disappointing transfer and Dolby Digital 2.0 sound on an extra-less disc. Bottom line: a lackluster DVD release of a self-indulgent mess of a film.] [DVD/Blu-ray Review—July 17, 2012—Kino, 91 min., not rated, DVD: $24.95, Blu-ray: $29.95—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, and latest on DVD, 1987's The Last of England sports a nice transfer, but no extras. Bottom line: a love-it-or-hate-it art film, Jarman's scruffy avant-garde piece doesn't much benefit from high-def treatment.]
The Last of England
color & b&w. 87 min. Mystic Fire Video, Inc., PO Box 1202, Montauk, NY 11954. (1987). $29.95. Not rated. Library Journal
The Last of England
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