Customer Reviews
A good movie like this is worth a better DVD version. - By: Stian Modin Rismyhr, 13 Jan 2008 
This DVD probably has the worst quality i've ever seen, spend a couple of extra £ & by the Warner/Studio canal version. This version is not reallly worth seeing, & i'm going to order another version better to buy a good version at first so you don't need to buy to of them.
Visually astonishing--but the nightmare's still real enough - By: David Hughes, 06 Apr 2007 
This DVD can be picked up extremely cheaply, & that shows in the quality of the restoration, in particular the chopping of the ratio at the edges. At the same time....
All Welles movies around this time suffered from running-out-of-budget, makeshift location work & zero budget dubbing (with a variety of voices performed by Welles himself--see if you can spot them!), so some of this may be intrinsic to the film itself.
That quality does not ruin the film in the way that it almost did his masterpiece Chimes At Midnight (the worst sound quality of any major movie ever?), partly because of the themes of the movie itself--a smalll man lost in a shifting reality of inconsistencies, shady identities, where no appearances can be trusted.
It's a fascinating, if claustrophobic world. The movie was criticised for its excessive style--severe lighting, mammoth sets, extreme cutting, an array of tracking shots, long-shots, disconcerting angles, etc--but this alll works to draw us fully in to the terrifying undefeatable beaurocratic surreal world that the main character tries to stand up against.
The ending seems poor--as if Welles was unsure how to finish it. But the meaning is in the experiencing of the film. The sets & settings are astonishing. This nightmarish beaurocracy is more relevant than ever. And Welles 'mistakes & failures' remain more thought-provoking, visuallly stimulating & enjoyable than a thousand other 'decent well-crafted' films.
So well-worth buying--until we see that perfect Orson Welles box set that us movie-lovers continue to dream about!
One of the greats - By: Mrs. S. K. Goffin, 11 Aug 2006 
This film is a dramatisation of Kafka's novel 'Der Prozess' (The Trial). Consequently, the viewer is drawn into Kafka's nightmarish vision of the world in which a person can find oneself on trial, without ever reallly knowing why. The fact that this film is in black & white adds to its air of mystery. The settings are mystical. The characters are intriguing. This is a 'dream' landscape. Perhaps it presages the shadowy & murky world of Nazi Germany.
dvd quality far below average - By: thomas12321, 15 Jan 2006 
I know this DVD comes cheap, but if you're reallly interested in this movie, spend the extra money & get the restored version (released on Warner Home Video). The picture quality of the present edition (Elstree Hill) is like that of a much played VHS tape, & the sound is faint & woolly. It seems to me, too, that the aspect ratio must have been changed to fit the TV screen, so you're actuallly missing a large part of any given scene.
There's no bonus material.
I suppose the low standard price should have warned me, still this came as a dissappointment. "The Trial", with top acting from Anthony Perkins, great direction from Welles, & a visuallly interesting production, deserves better.
An unsettling masterpiece - By: , 22 Jan 2003 Truly a great film, but of course it should be. The Trial combines the literary genius of Kafka with the directorial genius of Welles. Perhaps the biggest delight is Anthony Perkins, sometimes a hit & miss actor but in this role he is outstanding. The sense of confusion, fear & outrage felt by the central character is portrayed brilliantly as the seemingly unjustified persecution of the individual by the system continues. The film as with the book leaves you feeling unsettled & disturbed, the message behind the Kafka novel as relevant now as it ever was. A masterpiece of a film that deserves to be seen.
