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Film: A War of Children (1972)


Can anyone tell me if this film is available on DVD or Video and where can it be brought from?

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Dear Alison,

I don't know where the film can be obtained today -- I did obtain a commercially-available copy on VHS a few years ago (around the time that I posted my review in 2001) from what I recall was a video outlet affiliated with PBS. It's an NTSC version (i.e., playable in the United States and Canada). Interestingly, I was contacted shortly after that (via IMDB) by one of the young boys -- now all grown up -- who appeared in the movie in 1972 but had never seen it! We corresponded back and forth for a while (he still lived in the UK), but he did tell me that he was eventually able to get a copy in a PAL format (or whatever video version they use in the UK).

There is no version (either in or out of print) that I can find listed on either IMDB, Amazon, Barnes & Noble et al. If you're unable to obtain a copy through any other means and can use an NTSC version, I can make a DVD copy of the tape (they actually copy surprisingly well!) and send it to you. Please let me know.

aldanoli

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Hi there, thank you very much for your reply. It is wonderful that some who appeared in the movie contacted you about this film. In the UK it is region 2, but my DVD player is set to multi region 0, so it is compatable with region 1 NTSC versions. Yes, I would be very interested in having a copy of this film as it is very hard to find anywhere. How would I pay for this? I live in the UK and I also have a paypal account.

Regards,

Alison.

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Dear Alison,

I'm glad to hear that you've got a "region 0" machine -- I've never understood why, if we have multiple browsers and operating systems yet can all talk to one another via the WWW, every English-speaking part of the world still has incompatible DVD players! (Some years ago my father, who has relatives in Germany and had a PAL player-recorder so he could exchange tapes with his relatives, copied a PAL tape that I had obtained from the UK into NTSC format . . . I've never seen such a complicated system for copying something in my life.)

Anyway, I'll be happy to make the copy and send it to you gratis -- consider it a favor from one movie fan to another. (We all have to look out for one another.) I'd be reluctant to do this if the tape were available as it was when I bought mine . . . but when they've disappeared from the face of the earth, that seems to me to be something different. The cost of the DVD is only about a dollar (or even less), and the postage is likewise negligible. You can "repay" me if you want by someday doing a similar deed for someone else and passing it on that way. I'll have to locate the tape (it's buried in my closet), but once I find it, it shouldn't take that long to dupe it and send it off to you. You can give my your mailing address and I'll send it out to you.

aldanoli

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[deleted]

Hi, aldanoli,

I also have a multi-region DVD player and would love a copy of this film. I was so moved by it as a kid. Are you sure you don't want some compensation? You are certainly a monarch among movie buffs. Thanks, greenegg

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I'll have to double-check that I still have my copy of the VHS where I can locate it easily, but I don't mind sending a copy to you -- I'm certainly not doing this to make money, and as I said in an earlier post, I wouldn't do this if copies of the film were widely (or even sporadically) available. Just give me your name and address and I'll send it along. I only wish I had a decent copy of another lovely film that featured Jenny Agutter -- "The Snow Goose" -- which unfortunately has never been released; it was produced by Hallmark, but Paul Gallico's family has refused to allow a commercial release. And as I said to the earlier poster -- you can repay me perhaps by sharing a similarly-unavailable movie with someone who can't find a copy anywhere else.

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[deleted]

I'm afraid a good copy of The Snow Goose only exists at UCLA and the BFI in London - I was lucky enough to see it in the company of Jenny herself last October and she was smiling as tears rolled down my face. There have been claims of people having good copies but as soon as they're asked for details, they go strangely quiet. My copy is very poor but still worth more to me than any other dvd.

I'm also looking for A War of Children if it is still available.

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