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xsBusiness - The Prisoner - Complete Series Megaset (40th Anniversary Edition)
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List Price: $99.95
Our Price: $42.79
Your Save: $ 57.16 ( 57% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
Starring: Patrick McGoohan
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: A&E
EAN: 0733961758580
Format: Box set
Label: A&E Home Video
Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
Number Of Items: 10
Publisher: A&E Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2006-07-25
Running Time: 884
Studio: A&E Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1968-06-01
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Never Been Surpassed -- Aren't You a Prisoner, Too?
Comment: This is a complete set of actor/producer/director/writer Patrick McGoohan's masterpiece -- a show that went over budget and was poorly understood in the late 60s... but which has since developed a cult following as a sci-fi/fantasy achievement more sophisticated than anything since -- even surpassing Star Trek in its intellectually challenging themes. "The Prisoner" surpasses even "Twilight Zone" for its mind warping endings. (Best episode in this regard is probably the outstanding "A, B, and C," in which the protagonist's dreams are invaded, yet he finds a way to turn the tables on the invaders!)
Most of what follows is an overview of The Prisoner. For details on DVD extras, jump to the last paragraph.
"The Prisoner" starts simply enough. A British intelligence agent (McGoohan) resigns angrily -- something we see in pantomine in the opening credits of every episode -- after which he is kidnapped and wakes up in a mysterious place called "the Village." It's a place, charming but isolated, where people are sent who know too much to be allowed to walk away.
We don't know whether the Village is run by Us or Them... for in the late 60s, Cold War paranoia was at a high point. If it is being run by Us (the West), the Village masters need to know for sure whether the protagonist (known as "the Prisoner" or "Number 6") intended to defect. They need INFORMATION.
It also might be run by Them: double agents pretending to work for the British but really in league with the Commies. In that case, they want to pick the Prisoner's brain for secrets. Again, they need INFORMATION.
The Prisoner, meanwhile, is equally anxious to find out which side really runs the village. No one trusts anyone! At first he wants only to escape... but fairly early on in the series, he declares he wants to "escape, come back, and wipe this place off the face of the earth."
So much for the premise. Everything above is essentially backdrop for the REAL struggle. As things progress, it becomes more and more apparent that this is an allegorical battle of the individual against society. THEY must break him; HE is determined to repel efforts to get inside his mind...
...yet even THAT is simplistic! McGoohan was subtle enough to understand that individual and society can't be mutually exclusive. Ultimately, they need each other. Societies need individuals for creativity, innovation, and leadership; individuals living outside of society face at best a brutal existence (a fact the marvelous episode "Many Happy Returns" explores). The question finally posed by the series is: can the individual maintain sufficient personal integrity while acknowledging that he/she is fated to be a "prisoner" of some society or another? What is the right balance? And so -- episode after episode explore not just the "spy who must escape" theme, but attempts by masters of the Village to make prisoners into happy little automatons.
McGoohan and his collaborators created a fictional place unique and yet so familiar that it serves to represent the whole world. There's the Control Room, intrusive government spying; the mysterious "Rover," a special effect that hasn't aged and which represents fear wielded by Authority... an enforcer in the form of an ominous white balloon; a mysterious little butler who never says a word, but always stands next to Authority; and the "Penny Farthing" bicycle symbol that serves as the Village's logo. Above all, everyone is known not by name but by a number... the Prisoner, or Number 6, has a relatively high number indicating his value to his captors. (He'd surely be given a position of authority if he cooperated.) But the real chairman of the Village is the ever-changing No. 2, who reports to the unseen No. 1, the shadowy uber-authority figure behind it all.
DVD Extras:
By far the best is the 16mm film on the final disk, showing location shooting at Portmeirion, a famous resort in North Wales. This priceless footage shows the original Rover (a horrible special effect that looks like a giant cupcake with a light on top) before McGoohan ingeniously replaced it with weather balloons. Then there's fascinating commentary on disk 5 with Production Manager Bernie Williams, and the alternate version of "Chimes of Big Ben" on disk 1. This alternate version shows the original music, opening credits, and closing credits -- which McGoohan wisely replaced. Still, it's fascinating to see how much the show evolved by constant improvements up till the first airdate.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Prisoner
Comment: Possibly one of the best TV shows of all time. Requires thought from the viewer and a certain open mindedness. It helps to have or be familiar Secret Agent Man.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A PRISON OF HIS OWN MAKING! WHAT IT REALLY MEANT
Comment: The Prisoner was a 1968 stylistic, science-fiction fable based on the imaginations of two individuals: Patrick McGoohan and George Markstein.
The core of the series is 7 episodes. One can literally watch these without the others and view The Prisoner in its entirety--as originally conceived:
"Arrival", "Chimes of Big Ben", "A,B,C", "Free For All", "Schizoid Man", "Once Upon A Time", and "Fallout".
The rest were added to make it more palatable for the American market.
Most of the individual episodes are self-evident in their meaning. Anyone who cannot understand what "Free For All" was all about, really shouldn't strain to watch the other shows.
A few questions always debated:
Was The Prisoner in reality John Drake from the Secret Agent Man series. The answer, despite McGoohan's statements, is a simple "yes".
Why did The Prisoner resign: Too many people knew too much. Intrusiveness was becoming the norm in modern society. Also, you have to do some back reading to understand that, as originally conceived, the main reason No. 6/John Drake resigned was because The Village was his idea. A random thought that deep levels within the governments of the west put into reality. When he found out--he resigned. Sort of makes you wonder if those photos in the opening shots of the show (the ones he was stuffing into the briefcase) were actually shots of a vacation paradise he was running away to; or were they shots of the island where The Village was located? Hmmm? :) I do not think vacation photos would be important enough to shove in your attache case before skipping out on the world!
The ultimate and sad truth about The Prisoner lies in the last episode: "Fall Out".
This is where the whole series boils down to a rather bleak fact. To wit: The whole series utterly becomes a meaningless, incoherent mess!
This is why the show has confounded so many people for so many years. Markstein provided the anchor to reality that McGoohan needed to keep the series from becoming a surrealistic, unknowable quagmire.
Together, they produced a very intriguing and well written, well designed show. When Markstein left around "Many Happy Returns", the show began its downward spiral. When the final moment came to make sense of the whole thing, only McGoohan was left to write an ending. And thus! a series with building potential became nothing more than a non-sensical, pathetic deluge of "I'll do this because I feel like it . . ."
And there is the explanation for "Fallout", which is supposed to sum up this deeply "symbolic statement" on modern society. McGoohan turned something that began as a work of innovative intrigue, into nothing more than a piece of emotional tripe.
There is no answer to the major question that plagues the Prisoner series. Markstein even commented that the last show was a sad display of incoherence. Or words to that effect.
And the surprising thing that establishes all I've just stated is: Patrick McGoohan would later confirm it!
Check out the 4 part interview on youtube he did a few years after the show. It's bizarre; it's frustrating; and it is pitiable as you watch McGoohan give surface explanations about the last show, and then completely say well maybe it meant this instead. Or maybe it meant that . . . et cetera. As I said: Bizarre.
Now I could give you a coherent explanation, wrapping the entire series up in a nice tight bundle of imagery and imagination. I could even explain "Fallout" for you; and tie it in with the rest of the show. But finally we either have to believe that McGoohan is a liar (and I or you can explain the meaning of the series, with last show included); or it is as he stated: Because he felt like it.
Utter rubbish!
Too bad Markstein didn't hang around for the ending. Perhaps he could have slugged out a real meaning for the show. The show worked best that way when Markstein and McGoohan kept fighting.
IN CHRIST JESUS: THE LORD GOD INCARNATE!!!
Mr Braithwaite
Customer Rating:
Summary: This Was On Television?!?!
Comment: Hard to believe something as thought provoking as "The Prisoner" was on TV given all the choices, almost all of them moronic and bad, we have on TV today. The last two episodes in this set are kind of hard to follow--they have that disjointed late 60s style that seems dated now, but viewed as a complete series, "The Prisoner" is fascinating stuff. Can't say it was ahead of its time (again, look at the crap we contend with now, like "Dancing With The Stars"), but it WAS timeless. You can judge it just about any way you like; to this viewer it's a damnation of socialism in all its forms, and the inescapable fact people just want to have their destiny left up to no one but themselves. Be seeing you....
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Prisoner
Comment: I am very happy with this item and I do enjoy it. Good quality also.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Patrick McGoohan’s classic 17-episode British TV series, THE PRISONER, has been mesmerizing American viewers since its CBS debut in the summer of 1968. Now, just in time for its 40th anniversary A&E presents this definitive collector’s edition of the cult classic series. Fully restored and digitally remastered, THE PRISONER is presented in the fan-preferred episode order, offering a chronological interpretation of perhaps the most unusual and challenging television series ever filmed. After resigning from a top-secret position, a man is abducted from his London home and taken to a mysterious place known only as The Village. Residents of The Village, known only by numbers, are held captive on account of their valuable knowledge. The Prisoner--Number Six--must protect his mind in order to preserve his humanity while he struggles to discover the identity of Number One and achieve freedom by escaping from the repressive grasp of his captors. Set includes all 17 complete color episodes: Arrival / Free For All / Dance of the Dead / Checkmate / The Chimes of Big Ben / A, B, and C / The General / The Schizoid Man / Many Happy Returns / It’s Your Funeral / A Change of Mind / Hammer Into Anvil / Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling / Living In Harmony / The Girl Who Was Death / Once Upon a Time / Fall Out DVD Features: Ultra-rare original footage of the 1966 location shooting, accompanied by commentary with Bernie Williams; Bonus Program: THE PRISONER VIDEO COMPANION; Rare, Alternate Version of the Episode "The Chimes of Big Ben"; Rarely Seen "Foreign File Cabinet" Footage; Rarely Seen "Textless" Intro & Outro; Original Broadcast Trailers; Original Series Promotional Trailer; Gallery of Original Production and Promotional Materials; Production Stills Galleries; Interactive Map of the Village; Prisoner Trivia; Interactive Menus; Scene Selection NEW LIMITED EDITION COLLECTOR’S BOOKLET: 60 Fully Illustrated Pages; Hidden Mysteries Surrounding THE PRISONER; Complete Series Guide of All 17 Episodes; Detailed Color Fold-out Map of The Village
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