WHAT IS IT:
Carnivale is an American drama set during the Great Depression. It follows two separate storylines which are interlinked. Ben Hawkins is a young man with mysterious healing powers who joins a travelling circus as it passes through his hometown. The other plotline follows Methodist ... Read review
Into each generation is born a creature of light and a creature of darkness. 1934. The ... more
Dustbowl. The last great age of magic. In a time of titanic sandstorms vile plagues drought and pestilence - signs of God's fury and harbingers of the Apocalypse...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
In a time of titanic sandstorms, vile plagues, drought and pestilence - signs of God's ... more
fury and harbingers of the Apocalypse - the final conflict between good and evil is about to begin. The battle will take place in the heartland of an empire called A...
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Advantages: Interesting story and excellent characters Disadvantages: Gets a bit confusing at times, cut short before it finished properly
WHAT IS IT: Carnivale is an American drama set during the Great Depression. It follows two separate storylines which are interlinked. Ben Hawkins is a young man with mysterious healing powers who joins a travelling circus as it passes through his hometown. The other plotline follows Methodist preacher Brother Justin Crowe who draws people to his church through his radio sermons and becomes very powerful. The two main characters are linked through ... ... GOOD POINTS: Carnivale is a very strange but compelling show. The characters are bizarre and often grotesque but you still cannot help feeling for them as you grow fond of this assortment of freaks. Nick Stahl is very good as Ben Hawkins and shows Ben's reluctance to accept the responsibility his powers have placed on him. The show is unflinching in its depiction of the Depression and the violence and degradation that resulted from a ... more
WHAT IS IT: Carnivale is an American drama set during the Great Depression. It follows two separate storylines which are interlinked. Ben Hawkins is a young man with mysterious healing powers who joins a travelling circus as it passes through his hometown. The other plotline follows Methodist preacher Brother Justin Crowe who draws people to his church through his radio sermons and becomes very powerful. The two main characters are linked through strange dreams and visions and are drawn closer through the series.
GOOD POINTS: Carnivale is a very strange but compelling show. The characters are bizarre and often grotesque but you still cannot help feeling for them as you grow fond of this assortment of freaks. Nick Stahl is very good as Ben Hawkins and shows Ben's reluctance to accept the responsibility his powers have placed on him. The show is unflinching in its depiction of the Depression and the violence and degradation that resulted from a large section of the nation going hungry. The dialogue is thoughtful and stops the characters becoming too ridiculous. The plot is very involved and the mystical/mythical aspects keep you guessing what is going to happen next and make you search for the meaning below the surface. It certainly isn't easy watching but I found it very rewarding viewing. The bleakness of the scenery is incredible and really establishes the vast journey that the carnival goes on across America. Clancy Brown is superb as the sinister minister Brother Justin. He has a powerful physical and verbal presence which switches between threatening and seductive with ease.
BAD POINTS: It is often very graphic and incredibly gloomy. There is one scene in which Jonesy (the fix-it man) gets captured by a mob after his ferris wheel is responsible for the death of a child. The mob take him out into the desert and tar and feather him. Until I had seen this, I had never really thought about what that entailed or how painful it would be; after watching Carnivale I am in no doubt. It shows the tar peeling his skin away and does not cut away from the gory reality of this punishment. This really isn't viewing for the faint hearted or easily offended as it contains scenes of violence, rape and murder. Another issue is that the mythical aspect sometimes gets a bit carried away making it difficult to understand what is going on. There is often little distinction between what is really happening and the visions of Ben Hawkins and Brother Justin. Unfortunately this show was cancelled after the second series so storylines that were going to be tied up in the next two seasons are left hanging.
Advantages: exciting, full of mysteries, great plot Disadvantages: none
...mystery, danger, revelations and secrecy. Carnivale leaves many questions needing to answer obscured in a chain of unstoppable events.
The series is set in the 1934 which was a time of hardship, hunger, make do and dirt storms. Jobs were rare and just putting food on the table was hard enough. But while people struggled with everyday, the carnivale would roll in and bring a mixture of entertainment, glamour, and to wake them up from the poverty ... ...The first episode of Carnivale opens up with the famous lines spoken by Samson. The camera fixes on his emotional face expressing the ancient tale… Samson - "….And to each generation was born a creature of light and a creature of darkness. And great armies clashed by night in the ancient war between good and evil…."
You are to decide who that is throughout the carnivale season one DVD. The main characters in Carnivale are:
Ben Hawkins = Nick Stahl
...
emi_angel 07.03.2006 (12.04.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Carnivale - Series 1 (Box Set) (DVD)
Advantages: new kind of show Disadvantages: none if you like it
...episode commentaries, the making of Carnivale featurette, interviews with members of the cast and crew at the museum of TV and radio.
Price: varies (about £40)
And if you are still not convinced to buy the box set, you can check the series out on SKY on FX (channel 270) as I know the episodes have been repeated recently. ...
sophie78 21.04.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Carnivale - Series 1 (Box Set) (DVD)
Advantages: Dark, mysterious, and very compelling drama Disadvantages: Sometimes moves a little too slowly
If you have never watched an episode of Carnivale, and are wondering if the purchase of this DVD set would be a waste of your money, wonder no longer. IT WILL NOT BE. For such a strange show, with such an odd lot of characters and such bizarre things going on, it's really a wonder that it is so captivating. But it is. It's a show about a traveling carnival in the 30s (called Carnivale, rhyming -- sort of -- with "aren't we all"). It's a real freak ... ...reader (in a vegetative state), a midget, a telepathic blind man, and... Nick Stahl.
With all those colorful people, it's Stahl's character the show really centers around. His, and a minister named Brother Justin who has (apparently) no connection with the carnival, who lives in a small Texas town with his sister.
To say much more would give away too much, but let me tell you that this isn't really a show about the carnival. It's about spooky things ...
pantherprincess79 10.05.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Carnivale - Series 1 (Box Set) (DVD)
Advantages: Great cast, Wonderful storyline, Genius imagery and filmography Disadvantages: Slightly cryptic. NEED to watch from the first episode
Carnivale is the story of a travelling carnival in Middle America 1934. Among their number are a bad tempered roustabout, the giant (same guy that's in Big Fish), a bearded lady, a blind seer and a comatose fortune teller who reads tarot through her strongwilled daughter. Into this mix comes Ben Hawkins, a young brooding country boy who harbours a secret. He is a very powerful healer and shares visions with one Brother Justin, a evangelical preacher ... ...where the members of the carnivale start to feel like family.
From a personal point of view, I must say, I'm glad I never caught this on the television, as I wouldn't have been able to wait a whole week for the next episode.
By ways of special features, there are audio commentaries for each episode, which I personally have not listened to but I am assured they are good. Who cares about the commentaries though?? This is an amazing piece of television. ...
cocoklo 25.10.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Carnivale - Series 1 (Box Set) (DVD)
Like a cross between TWIN PEAKS and THE GRAPES OF WRATH, HBO's acclaimed television drama CARNIVALE fashions an allegorical fable about the mythic battle of good and evil set against the surreal backdrop of a Depression-era travelling circus. Having lost both his farm and family to the 1930s Dust Bowl, recent prison escapee Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl, IN THE BEDROOM, BULLY) joins an itinerant carnival in a desperate bid to escape poverty, the police, and his own discomfort with his miraculous healing powers. Ben's story is juxtaposed with that of California preacher Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION), whose evangelical ministries with sister Iris (Amy Madigan) take on increasingly sinister overtones and hint at an eventual confrontation between himself and young Hawkins--whose fate seems somehow intertwined with his own through the mysterious figure of former circus showman Henry Scudder (John Savage). As the series leisurely builds to this apocalyptic showdown, there is much drama to be found in the daily goings-on of the carnival denizens. Lorded over by the pint-sized Samson (TWIN PEAKS' Michael J. Anderson) and the strangely unseen Management, the ragtag collection of sideshow freaks features blind soothsayer Lodz (Patrick Bauchau); his bearded-lady companion Lila (Debra Christofferson); matronly snake charmer Ruthie (Adrienne Barbeau); her strongman son Gabriel (Brian Turk); Siamese twins Alexandria and Caledonia (Karyne and Sarah Steben); the lizard-man Gecko (notorious NEA Four performance artist John Fleck); and, most intriguingly, catatonic tarot-card reader Apollonia (Diane Salinger), who communicates telepathically with her sensitive but troubled daughter Sophie (Clea DuVall). Rounding out the eccentric troupe are wounded former baseball-player-turned-roustabout Jonesy (Tim DeKay) and a family of strippers and prostitutes comprised of mother Rita Sue (Cynthia Ettinger); her daughters Libby (Carla Gallo) and Dora Mae (Amanda Aday); and their pimpish father Stumpy (Toby Huss). Creator Daniel Knauf surrounds this impressive cast with impeccable period-piece production design, a rotating roster of directorial talent that includes Alison Maclean (JESUS' SON) and Rodrigo Garcia (fittingly, son of magical-realist writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez), and innovative storytelling that is at once supremely creepy, intellectually provocative, and emotionally gripping. This collection includes all 12 episodes of the series' highly addictive first [...]
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
WARNER HOME VIDEO; CINRAM LOGISTICS
Release date
07/03/2005
No of Discs
6
Catalogue No
D 025386
Barcode
7321900253864
Languages
Main Language
English
Technical information
Special Features
Episode Audio Commentaries, Making Of Featurette, Interview Panel With Cast And Crew At Museum Of TV And Radio
Professional reviews
Review
Addictive and surreal must-see TV. (Arena, )
Gloriously shot in the faded, atmospheric tones of a classic western with fine performances from Nick Stahl and Clancy Brown. (The Observer, )
DVD Description
Like a cross between TWIN PEAKS and THE GRAPES OF WRATH, HBO's acclaimed television drama CARNIVALE fashions an allegorical fable about the mythic battle of good and evil set against the surreal backdrop of a Depression-era travelling circus. Having lost both his farm and family to the 1930s Dust Bowl, recent prison escapee Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl, IN THE BEDROOM, BULLY) joins an itinerant carnival in a desperate bid to escape poverty, the police, and his own discomfort with his miraculous healing powers. Ben's story is juxtaposed with that of California preacher Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION), whose evangelical ministries with sister Iris (Amy Madigan) take on increasingly sinister overtones and hint at an eventual confrontation between himself and young Hawkins--whose fate seems somehow intertwined with his own through the mysterious figure of former circus showman Henry Scudder (John Savage). As the series leisurely builds to this apocalyptic showdown, there is much drama to be found in the daily goings-on of the carnival denizens. Lorded over by the pint-sized Samson (TWIN PEAKS' Michael J. Anderson) and the strangely unseen Management, the ragtag collection of sideshow freaks features blind soothsayer Lodz (Patrick Bauchau); his bearded-lady companion Lila (Debra Christofferson); matronly snake charmer Ruthie (Adrienne Barbeau); her strongman son Gabriel (Brian Turk); Siamese twins Alexandria and Caledonia (Karyne and Sarah Steben); the lizard-man Gecko (notorious NEA Four performance artist John Fleck); and, most intriguingly, catatonic tarot-card reader Apollonia (Diane Salinger), who communicates telepathically with her sensitive but troubled daughter Sophie (Clea DuVall). Rounding out the eccentric troupe are wounded former baseball-player-turned-roustabout Jonesy (Tim DeKay) and a family of strippers and prostitutes comprised of mother Rita Sue (Cynthia Ettinger); her daughters Libby (Carla Gallo) and Dora Mae (Amanda Aday); and their pimpish father Stumpy (Toby Huss). Creator Daniel Knauf surrounds this impressive cast with impeccable period-piece production design, a rotating roster of directorial talent that includes Alison Maclean (JESUS' SON) and Rodrigo Garcia (fittingly, son of magical-realist writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez), and innovative storytelling that is at once supremely creepy, intellectually provocative, and emotionally gripping. This collection includes all 12 episodes of the series' highly addictive first season.
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