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Customer Reviews of Arms and the Man

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. <
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>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. <
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>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. <
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>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. <
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>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. <
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