Product Description

One night a frightened Swiss soldier of fortune climbs into the bedroom of a young Bulgarian girl Raina (Helena Bonham Carter) and soon deflates her romantic notions about love and valor. The cast of characters includes a jealous fiance fighting for the other side a bumbling military father and a domineering and social-climbing mother not to mention the servants who see and hear all. This hilarious and charmingly ludicrous look at the misconceptions of love and war continues to delight and unsettle audiences even today.Running Time: 104 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 794051253323 Manufacturer No: E2533

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20105 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-05-16
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 104 minutes

Features

• One night, a frightened Swiss soldier of fortune climbs into the bedroom of a young Bulgarian girl, Raina (Helena Bonham Carter), and soon deflates her romantic notions about love and valor. The cast of characters includes a jealous fiance fighting for the other side, a bumbling military father, and a domineering and social-climbing, mother not to mention the servants who see and hear all. This hi

Amazon.com
A delightful Helena Bonham Carter stars as Raina, a Bulgarian woman from "a civilized family." News arrives that Bulgaria has prevailed in its war against the Serbs, a charge led by Raina's fiancé, Sergius, reportedly the deciding factor. On "the happiest night of my life," Raina receives an unexpected visitor in her bedroom, a chocolate-scarfing Swiss soldier of fortune who had been fighting for the Serbs and is fleeing for his life. His views on the military ("Remember, nine soliders out of ten are born fools") and disdainful account of the vainglorious Sergius's foolhardy charge are counter to her starry notions and high ideals. The return after the war of her "chocolate crème soldier" set in motion romantic entanglements that include Louka (Patsy Kensit), the family maid who is having a clandestine affair with Sergius. Satire may be what closes on Saturday night, as playwright George S. Kaufman famously quipped, but it plays very well on the BBC, from which this sterling 1989 production of Bernard Shaw's 1894 play originated. Shaw himself called his subversively funny play an "anti-romantic comedy," but it is more an anti-romantic-notions comedy whose observations about the "romance" of war and heroism still sting. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

Beautifully done
I almost didn't buy this because, although I have always enormously enjoyed reading this play, I had a sneaking suspicion that it would be impossible to stage well. So many of the characters spend so much time being histrionic if not idiotic, and I was afraid that what was charming and funny in print might prove to be merely irritating when portrayed by an actual flesh-and-blood human.

But I am delighted to say that I was wrong; this performance was delightful. Much of the credit must go to a really lovely performance by Helena Bonham Carter that gives Raina exactly the right balance of real wit and gallantry with extraordinarily silly romanticism. The other performances were all also excellent; not one struck me as off or untrue to my readings of the play, though I could wish that the Sergious had been toned down just a tad.

It's really a very delightful story, and this performance is a keeper. If you know the play and are looking to see it performed, I recommend this wholeheartedly; if you don't know the play but are looking to see a very nice production of one of Shaw's lightest and funniest plays (well suited to kids -- I loved it when I was 12 or so) then this might an excellent option to consider.

Not what I expected
I will admit that I purchased this title thinking it would give me advice on how to use my arms. I am a man and I have arms, even though for many years I did not use them. Exercising with Aquabells dumbells have allowed me to regain strength in and use of my arms, and now I wanted to get to the next level of arms care.

Instead of a how-to video on arms, "Arms and the Man" is a 1989 BBC production of the 1894 George Bernard Shaw play he subtitled "An Anti-Romantic Comedy". The distinctly English Helena Bonham-Carter plays a Bulgarian living in 1885 at the end of the two-week Serbo-Bulgarian war. That in itself is pretty farcical. Not the war per se, because state-sponsored killing is still killing, but the fact that the war epitomized the vain and nationalistic European wars of the 18th and 19th centuries. No borders changed, but Bulgarian unification became internationally recognized and the Serbians found another reason to hold a bloody grudge. Also Helena Bonham-Carter playing a Hungarian is farcical, since she is English and doesn't look particularly Bulgarian, although my only experience with Bulgarians is watching Bulgarian powerlifters during Olympic games, so I really can't be counted on to know Bulgarian physiognomy.

The real farce, however, is Shaw's use of the conventions of romantic comedy to subvert romantic and idealized notions of warfare. Captain Bluntschli, a Swiss mercenary fighting for the Serbs, hides in the bedroom of young Bulgarian Raina Petkoff, played by a young Ms. Bonham-Carter. While hiding from the victorious Bulgarians, Bluntschli disabuses the naïve Raina of the heroic efforts of her fiance, Sergius, in winning the war, as well as the nobility of warfare and soldiers in general.

In the second act, the war is over and Sergius and Raina are together again. Each goes through the postures of romance even while Sergius pursues the family maid Louka, played by a young Patsy Kensit, on the side. Patsy Kensit is not on her side, but rather Sergius pursues her that way. Actually, Sergius is not on his side either, but rather the pursuit itself is done discreetly. As discreet, however, as nosy servants will allow. Bluntschli reappears to return a borrowed coat and is welcomed by Sergius and the patriarch Major Petkoff, both of whom hold no grudges from the war, since they won. The third act brings out the truth of both Sergius and Bluntschli, and Raina finds herself much wiser, if not happier, and about to be married to someone.

As with most BBC productions, "Arms and the Man" boasts an excellent cast with crisp performances, and as with most early Shaw, "Arms and the Man" adopts the ideals of well-known dramatic conceits and gestures only to puncture them with the realities of imperfect life and non-ideal characters. These reasons alone would be enough to recommend the DVD. The inclusion, however, on the DVD of the bonus play "The Man of Destiny" (1981), starring a young Simon Callow, fairly well demands, in a polite and enthusiastic way, that everyone obtain this DVD, especially by fans of Shaw, Ms. Bonham-Carter, war, romance, heroism, or Bulgarians.

Arms and the Man review
The characterizations and direction were all excellent; maybe Bluntschli seemed a little young and 'smooth'. The voices were easily understandable, in contrast to many new TV dramas where the speech is so fast that older people like us (79) simply can't follow! We guess there aren't many versions of this to choose from, but we'd certainly recommend it -- it's one of Shaw's favorite plays for us. F.J.H. and I.R.H.