Forbidden Territory: Stanley's Search for Livingstone (1997)

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General		Extras
Category	Adventure	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	87:35
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Simon Langton
Studio Distributor	National Geographic Warner Home Video	Starring	Aidan Quinn Nigel Hawthorne Kabir Bedi Edward Fox Dylan Baker Christopher Fulford Fay Masterson Robert Willox Simon Williams
Case	?
RPI	$9.95	Music	Mark Adler

    The story of Henry Stanley, an American newspaper reporter heading off into wildest Africa in the 1870s searching for lost English missionary/explorer Dr Livingstone is a very famous one, although it is probably more famous for the line 'Dr Livingstone, I presume' supposedly uttered when they met than anything else. This made-for-television movie from 1997 seeks to add extra meat to the bones which I mentioned above and does a reasonable job although you can't help feeling that the story deserves a bigger production and longer running time. The movie was made for Hallmark / National Geographic television and certainly features an impressive cast including Aiden Quinn, Nigel Hawthorne, Edward Fox and Dylan Baker. The main protagonists are:

• Henry Stanley (Quinn)
• Dr David Livingstone (Hawthorne)
• Markham, the head of the Royal Geographic Society (Fox)
• Bennett, Stanley's editor (Baker)

    The movie covers not only Stanley's search for Livingstone, but also their joint exploration for the source of the Nile, and ultimately Livingstone's death and the reaction once Stanley returned to England. The movie was shot in the UK and Kenya.

    An interesting telemovie but it just seems a little short to really do justice to the story.

Video

    The video quality is reasonable.

    The feature is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was reasonably clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was OK but certainly nothing special. There was light grain throughout probably due to the reasonably low bitrate.

    The colour was decent but seemed a little overbright.

    Artefacts included quite a lot of white and black specks, a larger spot at 15:00, some mild macro blocking at 71:03, a few spots of minor aliasing, some jagged edges and some edge enhancement such as at 65:50.

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

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is fine.

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

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The score of this film by Mark Adler was nominated for an Emmy but frankly it didn't grab me.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    None.

Menu

    A very simple menu.

    This movie is available in Region 1 in the same format.

    The video quality is reasonable.

    The audio quality is decent.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall