John Osborne And The Gift Of Friendship
With his 1956 play, 'Look Back in Anger', British dramatist John Osborne renewed the emotional and rhetorical intensity of English theatre. Unfortunately, misunderstanding and controversy surrounded most of his career. This program reconstructs Osborne's life and artistic journey using rarely seen archival films and firsthand .. Read more
| Starring | John Osborne, Tony Richardson, Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton |
|---|---|
| Director | Tony Palmer |
| Genres | Documentary |
loading...
John Osborne And The Gift Of Friendship
With his 1956 play, 'Look Back in Anger', British dramatist John Osborne renewed the emotional and rhetorical intensity of English theatre. Unfortunately, misunderstanding and controversy surrounded most of his career. This program reconstructs Osborne's life and artistic journey using rarely seen archival films and firsthand accounts from the author's inner circle. A veritable who's who of the London stage appears here-including Laurence Olivier, Albert Finney, Nicol Williamson, Richard Burton, and director Tony Richardson - in personal interviews and in lengthy excerpts from 'Look Back', 'Luther', 'Inadmissible Evidence', and other Osborne plays. The result is a dynamic portrait of English drama as it developed in the latter half of the 20th century.
| Starring | John Osborne, Tony Richardson, Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, Natasha Richardson |
|---|---|
| Director | Tony Palmer |
| Studio | DIGITAL CLASSICS DVD |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 8 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Documentary |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 08 May 2006 |
| Format | DVD |
-
Most helpful member's review
View all -
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
The Gift of Friendship
I knew little of John Osborne other than his authorship of 'Look Back in Anger' and his reputation back in the 60's as something of an enfant terrible. This film proved to be both absorbing and illuminating, and I'd recommend it to anyone who has an interest in theatre in this country. The film tells how 'Look back in Anger', praised by some august critics, damned by others, changed the direction of theatre (and indeed film) in this country, moving it away from the essentially middle class offeringsof Rattigan and his peers towards the more earthy subject matter of 'Look Back..' Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' etc.
The film includes some classic clips illustrating Osborne's work. Richard Burton is splendid as the 'angry young man', Laurence Olivier reminds you he did other things than Henry 5th, and better, in 'The Entertainer', and Nicole Williamson, sadly underused these days but in his time a giant, is great to see again, albeit briefly, in 'Inadmissable Evidence' -
Most recent members' review
View all -
Friend above all?
You definitely need to be intrigued by every aspect of John Osborne's life, and to admire his work, to enjoy this film. i came to it having re-read the autobiography, which as David Hare points out is one of the best-written autobiographies in the English language (I agree). He was always a very challenging personality: the point is that he wrote so damned well. But people loved to damn him, just as he was quick to damn others. The English language was the thing he really loved. I hadn't realised quite how much he valued friendship, though, nor that his gravestone says 'Playwright, writer, friend'. The film brings this out, and John Heilpern, his official biographer, makes an important contibution to assessing Osborne as a playwright and a man in a more holistic manner. The film seems almost amateurishly put-together sometimes, with a lot of quite poor quality footage and some very irritatingly solemn background music,the pace is slow - but it is all precious material - Olivier in the stage production of the Entertainer; Osborne himself opining or reading; lingering shots of 'The Hurst', the house in Shropshire where he was happiest; Nicol Williamson and a tribe of other thesps and playwrights and producers reminiscing. The liberal mix of old and new footage, without always explaining the vintage, made it sometimes a little confusing to watch. But I was very glad to have seen it, and glad that nobody dwelled too much on the hard time he gave the women in his life - it pulled the whole story, including the often ignored parts of his repertoire, showing clips from Luther (Albert Finney - fascinating) and Peter Egan reading from Dejavu, also Robert Stephens, together very well.
-
More like this
View allShowing 1 to 4 of 16
Related user collection
83% from 13 members
Buy from the LOVEFiLM shop
-
-
-
John Osborne And The Gift Of Friendship
With his 1956 play, 'Look Back in Anger', British dramatist John Osborne renewed the emotional and rhetorical intensity of English theatre. Unfortunately, misunderstanding and controversy surrounded most of his career. This program reconstructs Osborne's life and artistic journey using rarely seen ...
-