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Happy Lands (The)
R2 - United Kingdom - Soda Pictures Review written by and copyright: Samuel Scott (31st October 2013). |
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The Film
 ***This is a technical review only. For reviews on the movie from various critics, we recommend visiting HERE.*** When they fought for their country they were heroes. When they fought for their own they were traitors. It's the General Strike 1926 - only seven years after the slaughter of the trenches, miners unions lead the country against savage austerity cuts handed to the nation by a Liberal-Conservative government. Inspired by true stories from local families in Fife, The Happy Lands follows the journey of law-abiding citizens who become law-breakers in a heroic battle against the state. It's never a good time to stand up for your rights - but it's always the right time.
Video
Soda Pictures releases Scottish film The Happy Lands in the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 which has been anamorphically enhanced. Considering the resources that were likely available to the filmmakers, and their obviously low budget, I was very happy indeed with the overall quality of this transfer. The detail is strong throughout the picture, with the various browns and blacks of the period clothing showing great clarity, a stand out moment being the pile of coal besides the train tracks, where each piece is noticeable and there is no colour bleeding, blockiness or crushing. The drab colours of the period are faithfully represented here. Facial details are strong, with skin tones looking natural and contrast levels being consistent (but perhaps a notch too high). I noticed no damage to the print such as scratches or dirt, apart from the archival footage from 1926 - and that is obviously forgivable. The disc is PAL, and the feature runs 108:31.
Audio
There is just a single audio track available on this release, and that is English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. Although not as good as the picture transfer, there is nothing to complain about here. Dialogue is clear at all times, though I suspect some people may find the Fife accent a little strong at times to fully understand. Still, I am glad they didn't attempt to lessen the accent and kept it exactly as it is. There are subtitles in both English and French available for those that require them, but it should be noted that the English subtitles do not always match the actual film, with words such as 'hen' being replaced by 'love', 'crabbid' by 'grumpy, or 'aye' being replaced with 'yes'. Separation is minimal for the dialogue, but is used a little more for the score. I noticed no signs of damage such as dropouts or scratches, and I detected no background hiss.
Extras
The extras start off with a "Behind the Scenes" featurette (13:27), which is actually called "Behind The Happy Lands". It features various amateur cast members who talk about how the story is one that is a close to them and why they decided to audition for a part. We also hear from various crew members about a multitude of aspects including director Robert Rae, producer Helen Trew, director of photography Scott Ward, line producer Greg McManus and floor runner Abi Ross. It shows the community spirit that came together in order to make the project a reality with some footage of what went on behind the scenes, and how problems such as a street not being able to be used for filming were rectified. Not as much technical information as I would have liked, but an interesting watch. The second extras is the Gala Screening footage from June 8th 2012 (12:13). This is actually a surprisingly good extras, and shows the speeches from within the theatre before the debut showing, and the crowd reaction afterwards. This film obviously has very close ties to many peoples family history's in Fife, and it was clear from the reactions of the older folks interviewed at the end that it touched them personally. The local community are proud of what they have achieved, and the enthusiasm for the project oozes from them all.
Overall
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