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Black Adder Goes Forth, Part 2 | 
 enlarge | Actors: Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson
Studio: BBC Warner
Category: Video
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $1.95
You Save: $13.03 (87%)
Used (6) from $1.95
Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 60354
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original Recording Reissued, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 89 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0790754525
UPC: 794051116734
EAN: 9780790754529
ASIN: B00004WG4N
Release Date: July 19, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: very good condition ships promptly vhs3
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
The final episodes from the ongoing IBlack Adder/I series include "Private Plane," in which Edmund (Rowan Atkinson) is squeezed between German machine guns and a British firing squad; "General Hospital," in which Edmund has a fling with a nurse (Miranda Richardson); and the startling "Goodbyeee," an exceptionally satiric, antiwar episode with lots of laughs but a final scene that is unquestionably somber. The end of a great run as one of the best British comedy series of all time. I--Tom Keogh/I
Description
Black Adder joins the 17-Minuters; convalesces with a beautiful but clinical nurse; and goes over the top.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
Brilliant August 24, 2001
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is one of the best tapes of the Blackadder series. Private Plane and General Hospital are extremely funny, and both deal with Blackadder trying to escape the frontlines before the big push. He tries to join the air force in Private Plane, and is promised a job away from the frontlines if he can catch a German spy in General Hospital.pAs others have said, Goodbyee is funny, but somber at the end. All the characters (except the general) end up on the front line, knowing they are going to die. Although Baldrick has another cunning plan to get Blackadder out by injuring himself on a splinter on a ladder, Blackader goes over the top with everyone else. The action goes into slow motion, as the soldiers rush towards the Germans. Although you never actually see them die, and you never hear that they actually have died, it is obvious from the foreshadowing and the music that they indeed did die. The field of poppies comes into view before anyone actually gets shot on screen.
The Best British War Comedy Ever March 24, 2001
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Goes Forth follows the trials and tribulations of Edmund Blackadder and his pals in the trenches during the war. The first tape is great, but the second it better. All the episodes are brilliant, but the last one, Goodbyeee, is truly unforgettable, and contains the most powerful anti-war statement ever made in British comedy. pGoodbyeee is different right from the start. All the characters are still there; Baldrick is still filthy; George is still stupid; but somehow, almost imperceptibly, everything has changed. For the first time, we learn about the characters' backgrounds and lives; about their hopes and dreams, which seem strangely sad against the grim backdrop of the trenches. For the first time, Blackadder cracks jokes which cut too close to the quick to be truly funny - they're almost sad. And for the first time, we get a sense of the characters really being mortal and vulnerable in a way we've never seen them before; yes, they've died before, but their deaths have been comic, things to laugh at. Here, we don't want them to die. pAnd the character of Blackadder has changed too. He has been toned down just a little; his still easy wit is less cutting, less biting. He has a world-weary air, and often seems as though he is a man who has been fighting for so long that he has almost forgotten what he is fighting for; he just wants to go home. The war that is raging all around him all too visibly has changed him, saddened him; forced him to grow up at last and face his responsibilites. pThroughtout the history of the Blackadders, they have all run from life; tried to escape. Here, Blackadder essentially does the same thing; he doesn't want to go over the top, doesn't want to be a part of the war - doesn't want to die. But here, for the first time, we feel that his fears are justified; we actually sympathise with him. And here, also for the first time, he finds himself unable to escape, and war finds him at last.pBlackadder has died many times before in history, but never as powerfully as here, during the final push over the top. pHe has tried everything he can to escape, but now here he is at last, faced with certain death and no way out. Everything is eerily quiet as the men assemble. Silence. Last hopes are crushed; last goodbyes are said, quietly, with typical English reserve. Then the command is given, the whistle's blow - and they are over the top and running. Here the action slows down, and they run in slow-motion across no man's land, straight into gunfire. They do not get far. The picture freezes, and is replaced by a field of poppies in the sunlight - the single most poingant, memorable image ever captured on British television. The closing theme plays, slowly, in a chilling minor key. It is over.pThe impact Goodbyee has had on British watchers is immeasurable. Broadcast just days before Poppy Appeal, there is no way of measuring the affect it must have had on people, young and old. Rowan Atkinson (Blackadder himself) claims that while shooting the episode, he experienced an unreasonable sense of foreboding, as though he was really going to die at the end. pThank God Ben Elton and Richard Curtis had the sense to end a Blackadder series based on soemthing as serious as the war on a poignant, sobre note. A stupid, comedic death would have trivialised war, which this certainly did not. Also, if Elton and Curtis had chosen to create a hero out of Blackadder, it wouldn't have worked, because if he had done something truly heroic, he would have been out-of-character and far less believeable. However, by keeping him as an essentially normal human being, with faults, and not a hero, they succeeded in capturing the spirit of the war very accurately: the majority of people who died were not heroes; they were not flawless, unselfish people - they were just men.pBlackadder Goes Forth is completely unforgettable.p10/10
 once again 'excellent' September 15, 2000
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
the ending series of a two video set is a must to complete the story. from the loss of captain darlings cushy job to baldricks 'i have a cunning plan' at the last minute. we will be entertained by these characters for a long time to come.
Watch this video again and again and say Never Again. May 5, 2000
Peter Evans (England)
Blackadder Goes Forth should not be contemplated for purchasing. It should BE LAW for you to purchase it. The first two episodes on the tape are fine, funny things with expert comic timing, killer scripts and the usual cannon of genius comedians. Then we have Goodbyyeee! pHave you ever cried when watching a comedy? Cried hard and long? Not likely unless you have watched this. This even beats M*A*S*H and Dr. Strangelove for moving comedy.The most bitter and satirical of all Blackadder episodes Goodbyyeee! is punishing stuff. The blind stupidity of the Generals as they send thousands to certain death is painfully played out with the blackest of humour. The General's cunning attack plan consists of using the same useless failed plan used the previous eighteen times because it would be 'the last thing the Germans would be expecting'. Comprehension slowly dawns on Baldrick and Lt. George as they realise that they ARE going to die like the others and that the patriotic 'give 'em cold steel!' is all a cruel sham. Most tragic of all is the self serving Blackadder whose cunningness cannot save him this time, no matter how many outlandish plans he puts into motion. Finally they are assembled in their trench ready to go over. Goodbyes are exchanged and the whistle is blown. They go over the top into a hail of bulletts and shells. The piano plays the theme true, slowly and softly as they move in slow motion to certain death. . . I cried. You will cry. Never Again.
The best of British! April 24, 2000
Paul B Stevenson (New York, USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Baldrick: I have a plan!pBlackadder: Really! A cunning and subtle one?pBaldrick: YespBlackadder: As cunning as a fox who's just been appointed professor of cunning at Oxford university?
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