There are periodic screenings of The Victors on the Simply Movies channel on Sky. This new channel seems to be basically films from the Columbia Pictures archive. Mostly they seem to be very good transfers, all the widescreen films I have seen, including The Victors, were letterboxed, not ancient pan and scan hatchet jobs.
shareBut for those of us who do not wish to pay Sky to watch films, BBC2 today (25.4.09) screened this film for the first time in...
Well, I first saw The Victors in January 1965 (films took a long time to trickle down into the provinces after their London opening in those days), again in the same year (probably summer holidays) and since then - nothing. No video, no DVD, and no screening on terrestrial TV. I think I have checked the schedules nearly every day for the past two decades, or since whenever video came in, and (I am told) missed one showing, a long time ago. I began to think that Carl Foreman had been blacklisted all over again!
But, checked again today, bingo, film duly taped, a red letter day for those of us who agree with the headline User Comment above - America should be proud of this one!
This was last shown in the UK sometime in 2003 but it was a cut version. I think this is the first time it has been shown in this form. About time too. This is a film that was very far ahead in addressing issues that most other "war" films avoided. The hospital scene with the disfigured sargeant is still both shocking and moving.
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Hi Tony-166! The BBC2 online schedule listed THE VICTORS at 147 mins. Original cinema running time was 175 mins. Have you seen the longer version? Can you tell me what was missing?
shareFilm4, Monday October 10 2016 11:00 AM (cut version?)
Running time listed as 175 min, probably wrong as that would allow only 10 minutes for all the commercial breaks.
http://www.film4.com/reviews/1963/the-victors