The Prisoner - Set 2: Checkmate/ The Chimes of Big Ben/ A, B and C/ The General (Bonus)
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List Price: $39.95Amazon.com's Price: $18.99 You Save: $20.96 (52%)as of 11/22/2009 16:01 EST
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: A&E
EAN: 9780767029643
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
ISBN: 076702964X
Label: A&E Home Video
Languages: EnglishOriginal LanguageDolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
MPN: AAED70138D
Number Of Items: 2
Picture Format: Pan & Scan
Publisher: A&E Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: October 31, 2000
Running Time: 208 minutes
Studio: A&E Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: June 01, 1968
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Studio: A&e Home Video Release Date: 10/31/2000 Run time: 208 minutes Rating: Nr
Amazon.com:
Where am I? In the Village. What do you want? Information. Whose side are you on? That would be telling. We want information...information...information. You won't get it. By hook or by crook, we will. Who are you? The new Number 2. Who is Number 1? You are Number 6. I am not a number, I am a free man!
The groundbreaking 1960s TV series The Prisoner continues with four more episodes of Number 6's struggle to escape the bizarre, picturesque confines of the Village. In "The Chimes of Big Ben," a Village art competition provides the perfect smokescreen for Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan) to hatch a daring escape plan with the help of another new arrival in the Village. Can she be trusted? In a brilliant and memorable performance, Leo McKern invests a humanity--alternately menacing, jolly, and paternal--to the role of Number 2, a quality lacking in many of his successors.
Colin Gordon plays Number 2 as a slightly insecure authoritarian in "A, B, and C," which concerns an attempt to break into and manipulate Number 6's dreams in order to discover why he resigned. Was he indeed "selling out" to the other side? Lively dialogue and a satisfying conclusion bail out what's otherwise a rather far-fetched episode. Gordon returns to the role in "The General," another one that's no slouch in the strained-credulity department: Can an entire university-level history course be delivered to people, via hypnotic TV, in 15 seconds? That's what the Village is experimenting with, but Number 6 smells a rat when he realizes that everyone seems to be reciting the same chunks of history--verbatim. It's a Twilight Zone-esque warning about the dangers of automated mass education, but it falls a bit flat in the end.
"Checkmate" fares much better, exploring the psychology of imprisonment and the difficulty Number 6 has figuring out who among his fellow Villagers works for his captors, and who against. One of the most visually stunning episodes, it opens with a magnificently staged chess match on the Village green, with humans as the pieces, "moved" by two Villagers using megaphones. And Number 6? A pawn, naturally. --Steve Landau
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I own all the DVDs for this series and recently watched it while recovering at home. A great series that I first watched in college (VHS then) and it still rings true as an allegory to our current civilization with the tensions between individuality and the community. My son watched the whole series last year at 17 and I think it meant more to him since I recall that when I watched it in college it was more meaningful than my recent re-viewing experience. Still, some great episodes that are not ... Read More
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SPOILER ALERT!!! What follows divulges show secrets. If you haven't seen The Prisoner, do NOT read on. (I am assuming that most people at all interested in a show as old as The Prisoner have already seen it.)
Now, with that said, The Prisoner is easily, hands down, without any reservations the single greatest TV show in history. (A close second, in my book, would be the first four Doctors on the ORIGINAL run of Doctor Who.) The Prisoner wasn't only entertaining, it was thought provoking. ... Read More
Rating: -
This set of episodes 4-7 from The Prisoner (as A & E sequences it) contain what I feel are three of the best entries in the series and they can each stand viewing on their own.
Checkmate is a memorable story because of the human chessboard introduced at its beginning and for the daring, exciting escape attempt which follows as Number 6 learns to tell the difference between the whites and the blacks.
The Chimes Of Big Ben is many viewer's choice for the best episode in the entire ... Read More
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Patrick McGoohan's classic 1967 miniseries begins as an offbeat spy thriller and ends as a surrealistic allegory. It concerns an ex-secret agent (McGoohan) held captive in The Village, a prison camp that looks like a vacation resort. Everyone is identified solely by number, and our protagonist is No. 6. The Village is managed by No. 2, who reports to an unseen and unidentified No. 1 -- and who gets replaced regularly. THEY want to know why No. 6 resigned, he wants to know who THEY are and where he is.
Read More
Rating: -
Back in 1967, an allegorical television show emerged that has yet to be topped by any other English television series. The show: The Prisoner. Starring Patrick McGoohan, he plays the role of No. 6, a former secret service agent who resigned for unknown reasons and then finds himself knocked unconscious and trapped in a seemingly peaceful place called "the Village." Each episode features a new No. 2 (with a few exceptions), who watches his every move and strives to find out why he resigned. The only superior is ... Read More
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: A&E
EAN: 9780767029643
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
ISBN: 076702964X
Label: A&E Home Video
Languages:
Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
MPN: AAED70138D
Number Of Items: 2
Picture Format: Pan & Scan
Publisher: A&E Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: October 31, 2000
Running Time: 208 minutes
Studio: A&E Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: June 01, 1968