Brideshead Revisited 30th Anniversary Edition
($59.99 DVD, $69.99 Blu-ray; Acorn Media)
Considered by many to be the greatest TV miniseries in history, the 1981 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel introduced American audiences to Jeremy Irons and the homoerotic tensions of young Englishmen between the wars (sigh). This 30th-anniversary edition includes the documentary Revisiting Brideshead and new commentaries.
Out on DVD
christopher di spirito
Ryan Gosling can flap his manhood in front of me anytime.
yolanda
Irons is always sexy even now
Michael Bedwell
“THE greatest”? Uh, how “many” think that? In any case, incomprehensibly, PBS chose rabid homophobe and all-around neo fascist William F. Buckley to host the series when it was shown in the US in 1982. We assume it was because he liked to think of himself as a Brit and was a ridiculously obsessive Catholic like many of the story’s characters. But those infamous Great Fake Liberals at PBS chose to forget that, among other things, Buckley had called Gore Vidal a “queer” on live television in response to
Vidal having used Buckley’s own term back at him for protestors at the 1964 Democratic National Convention who were getting beaten up by Chicago cops—”pro crypto Nazi.” [But that paled at what Buckley wrote four years after the “Brideshead” broadcast—suggesting any man with AIDS should have a tattoo indicating same on his ass—a belief he reaffirmed years later.] While the series turned tedious once Sebastian left, that it was
still treasured despite having to sit through Buckley’s slithering-tongue commentary
speaks to how great those first episodes were.