Review of Longitude

Introduction

John Harrison (Michael Gambon) is a carpenter and in the year 1714 is a man determined with creating a method of telling time accurately at sea enabling one to work out longitude. This would solve the age old problem of accurately knowing where you are while travelling the high seas and was a forty year struggle for the man and his family to win over the sceptics and self rightious academics. The prize? £20,000 offered by Parliament to anyone who could reliably tell longitude. But more than just money, it was a serious quest that would lead to saving lives at sea from poor navigation.

Fast forward 200 years to 1914 and in steps a naval commander, Rupert Gould (Jeremy Irons), who comes across all four of Harrison`s machines. In a bid to restore the timepieces to their former glory he spends every spare moment of his time working on the clocks, making them shine and tick once more. It`s an obsession that costs him more than just his time however as he begins to neglect his family.

Video

Presented with a 1.78:1 non-anamorphic video transfer, Longitude looks quite good. It`s a shame it wasn`t treated better but what`s here conveys the story well enough. There is evidence of some compression but it`s minor and doesn`t detract from the overall film. With 198 minutes of video all packed in it still holds itself up as perfectly watchable.

Audio

Dolby Digital 2.0 is the best we get here and it does the job. There aren`t many scenes where a 5.1 track would have enhanced the experience any further so this works fine. With all the space already taken up with video it`s good to have a clear sounding track. All of the dialogue remains well balanced from the centre channel.

Features

Static menu with just scene selection and `Play`. On the one hand it would be good to see something extra (more than just a trailer though) here, but what with space being limited to virtually nothing I`m not surprised there aren`t any supplements at all. On the other hand I`m glad there aren`t any poor PR type things either.

An idea might be to have produced a short Production Notes booklet as an insert with the case, I think this would have made up for the lack of extras here.

Conclusion

You might think that 198 minutes of drama about an obsession with clocks to tell time and navigation at sea could be a recipe for boredom, but I think you`d be very surprised at how compelling it actually is.

Longitude weaves the story of our two central characters by going back and forth in time in a very elegant way. There`s no clichéd flashback, instead the story spends equal amounts of time in 1714 and 1914 and there`s never any danger of you losing your place or sense of what`s happening.

The obession of Gould, played by Jeremy Irons, is something played well by the actor and seems to be a specialty right up to his nervous breakdown. While Michael Gambon`s performance of the working class John Harrison is nothing less than top notch. For what Harrison gave the world, he really is one of life`s forgotten heroes. The rest of the experienced cast, including an irate and pompous Brian Cox as one of the academics, are well cast and add flavour to the proceedings.

Director Charles Sturridge`s script, adapted from the book by Dava Sobel, covers the film well and is paced at the right speed. You`re engrossed from the outset and there`s never a dull moment. The sets, the costume and the period feel is spot on.

Sturridge has done a fine job here. Having written and directed Ted Danson in the superb all-star cast of Gulliver`s Travels as well as Kenneth Brannagh in that adventure epic, Shackleton, he proves himself highly consistent in producing top notch drama. It was an ambitious project for Channel 4 which commissioned this two-part drama a few years ago from the now defunct Granada Films and I still remember the billboard hoardings vividly!

It`s a shame that the disc isn`t anamorphically enhanced, it would have added so much more detail to the well crafted scenes and costume. And alas the lack of any extras might put some off, but seeing as this disc can be had on the cheap it`s worth watching for the story and performances alone. For those of you that can sit through three hours of quality drama, Longitude comes highly recommended.