McVicar (1980)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1980
Running Time	107:41
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (55:37)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Tom Clegg
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Roger Daltrey Adam Faith Cheryl Campbell Billy Murray Georgina Hale Steven Berkoff Brian Hall Peter Jonfield Matthew Scurfield Leonard Gregory Joe Turner Jeremy Blake Terence Stuart
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Russ Ballard Billy Nicholls Jeff Wayne

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    I am a fan of the music of The Who. What's that got to do with anything, I hear you scream...Well, this film was produced by The Who Films Inc and they are all credited as musical consultants. Also, their lead singer, Roger Daltrey, stars in the film as John McVicar, the McVicar of the title. So, that would make this a rock star vanity project then, nothing more than an extended video clip? No, in fact this is a serious film of quite good quality, based around a very good performance by Daltrey.

    John McVicar is a real person, a small-time violent criminal in England who was involved in a break-out from an English prison. He wrote a book about his life, and this film is based on that book. He also co-wrote the screenplay. At the beginning of the film, it indicates that the prison break-out is factual but some of the other characters and situations were fictionalised. The story begins with McVicar out on parole part way through an 8 year jail sentence. When he is caught committing another crime , he is sentenced to another 15 years on top of the 8, meaning he will probably be in jail for more than 20 years. He is transferred to another higher security jail, becoming involved in various misdemeanours and riots. One recognisable face amongst the other prisoners is Brian Hall (Terry the chef from Fawlty Towers) as Terry Stokes.

    Becoming sick of their incarceration, McVicar and another prisoner Wally Probyn (Adam Faith, 60s pop idol), devise a way to tunnel out of the jail. After much work, and daily risk of exposure, they manage to get out onto the roof of the prison. From there McVicar escapes and goes on the run. The rest of the film follows his attempts to evade recapture.

    The film is a fairly straightforward telling of the story but is interesting and entertaining nonetheless. The soundtrack is punctuated with songs sung by Roger Daltrey, but not actually credited to The Who, although the style is quite similar. There is a lot of swearing in this film and anyone who has difficulty with the 'c' word should avoid it, as it appears regularly.

    So, a low-key but entertaining true story of an English prison break featuring Roger Daltrey both as an actor and a singer. Certainly of interest to fans of The Who.

Video

    The video quality is good.

    The feature is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is most likely the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. There was some light grain throughout. The shadow detail was pretty good for a film of this age, and most dark scenes included the expected level of detail.

    The colour was generally good, however the movie had quite a dull colour scheme due to the subject matter and the north England locations. Also, there were some scenes such as at 100:00 where light colours included some colour bleeding.

    There were a few artefacts to be seen including occasional specks, some moire on a TV screen at 15:53, some minor edge enhancement and some minor aliasing such as at 6:29 on a grille, 8:17 on a wire roof, 97:15 on a jacket and 107:20 on a suit. I would not consider any of these artefacts to be particularly distracting.

    There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read but a little small.

    The layer change occurs at 55:37 and is well hidden.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is very good and in the original stereo.

    This DVD contains one audio option, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was generally clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync, although the subtitles occasionally came in handy, especially for some difficult accents.

    The songs used in this film are by Russ Ballard, Billy Nicholls & Jeff Wayne and are performed by Roger Daltrey in most cases. As I mentioned earlier they are not credited to The Who, however, the style is quite similar. The songs come up very well from a sound quality perspective.

    The surround speakers were not used.

    The subwoofer added bass to the music, but this is a result of my amp's bass management.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Nothing!

Menu

    The menu included stills, and the ability to select scenes and subtitles.

    To date, this film has only been released in Region 4.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is good.

    The disc has no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall