Night Mail [DVD]

The film 'Night Mail' is an all time classic. Auden's famous poem read by himself and the music by Benjamin Britten are the superb icing on a cake that was always an intersting and dramatically paced documentary about the overnight Anglo Scottish mail train. From seventy years on, it is of course an amazing soci-historical document as well. It incorporates what were for the time some very innovative aerial shots. The whole film is magnificent and of interest even if you have no particular interest in railways.The West Highland Line film is a great bonus with what was a good documentary about this line of fabulous scenery but with the added bonus,like 'Night Mail' of the socio-historic interest, now that the film is so much older (although nowhere near as old as 'Night Mail'). The scenes of Glasgow are particularly poignant for those who remember the city at that time but this is also true of many of the shots of people in the Highlands, with the film reflecting a society which has now long since disappeared into history.

Night Mail is deservedly celebrated, but I bought this DVD for "West Highland", John Gray's beautiful and poetic 1960 BBC documentary about life on the West Highland Line between Glasgow and Mallaig. The line has often been well filmed, but never nearly as well as it was here (in black and white).We hear the voices of railway workers talking about the line, of its beauty and, above all, of its significance. There are simple readings of place names; of the mountains, lochs and glens. This poetry is sometimes inter-cut with bald facts: gradients, miles of track to be maintained, and reminders of the necessity of shovelling coal to boil water to lift hundreds of tons of train up onto Rannoch Moor. In some passages, sounds from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop are used to evoke the dream-like quality of railway travel.To us, the film is about a vanished world but, at its core, it is about the value of community and about the dignity of service. But the film is so well made that that is never expressed. It doesn't have to be.

This collaboration between the GPO and British Transport is here shown at its best and, includes the only complete version of 30 Million Letters - the successor to the iconic "Night Mail" of 1938.

Night Mail [DVD ]The Night Mail - this DVD is a fascinating reflection of our past. One of the films made by John Grierson for the GPO - A steam train - a travelling postal sorting room - mail collected by the train as it passed by gantries furnished with "catching nets" and the sorted mail delivered into similar nets on the side of the line ready for delivery the length of Britain the action accompanied by the music of Benjamin Britten and the words of W. H. Auden - `This is the night mail crossing the border/bringing the cheque and the postal order! A gem which will interest steam train buffs and those who remember when a letter posted in the evening would be delivered promptly the next day!

A great buy of a very rare piece of video that can't be gotten anywhere else. I bought it as a belated Christmas present for my dad who grew up in the 1950's in the age of steam trains. The DVD arrived far sooner than was anticipated in it's sealed box. No problems with it at all. The bulk of the DVD is a documentary of the Royal mails express delivery train that didn't actually stop very often and instead grabbed mail bags that were hoisted up high at the side of the track ready to be caught by the trains automatic catch mechanism. However the real reason my dad wanted this DVD was for the Auden poem which is an absolute masterpiece! Not disappointed ; -)

An excellent production, but probably of rather limited appeal, because it will be suitable solely for those that possess more than one functional neuron between the ears. I had seen the original film many years ago - but this production includes interesting information regarding its' development & production; the disk also contains other interesting material of similar type.

An interesting DVD which has been very well restored. It's good to to see how our mail was transported and sorted. Now road transport is used. I wouldn't think it is a good idea to clog up our roads with heavy transport when we still have a rail service. This is a very good DVD for anybody interested in how things were done in days gone by.

The subject matter was very good along with the narration, unfortunately there were some glaring continuity errors such as scenes obviously edited incorrectly showing engine numbers and lettering back to front. If it should ever come up for re-release then some film restoration would make this a first class nostalgic collection item.