Bravo Two Zero

• Cert:
• Cat.no: BBCDVD 1010
• Running time: 112 minutes
• Year: 1999
• Pressing: 2000
• Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
• Chapters: 22 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Surround (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing
• Widescreen: 16:9 (1.77:1)
• 16:9-enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: No
• Disc Format: DVD 9
• Price: £19.99
• Extras : Booklet, Interview, Trailer, Behind-the-scenes training
  

  ---

  Director:

  Tom Clegg

Producer:

Screenplay:

Adapted from the novel by:

Music:

Starring:

Andy McNab: Sean Bean
Ray: Jamie Bartlett
Chris: Kevin Collins
Baz: Ian Curtis
Stan: Robert Hobbs
Dinger: Steve Nicolson
Mark: Richard Graham
Tony: Rick Warden

I don’t read books,so when Andy McNab‘s novel Bravo Two Zero was released it wasn’tthe top priority of my list of things to check out.

Watching this TV movie, however, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only is ita thoroughly entertaining watch, but Sean Bean, as McNab, actuallyappears to give a decent acting performance for a change.

It’s the Gulf War and the aim of the game is to seek out and destroy the Scudmissile launchers in Northern Iraq. Eight SAS soldiers will be dropped in byhelicopter, make their way along the 20Ks to the point where they have to carryout the next part of their mission and Saddam’s scuppered.

What they didn’t plan for though was to be spotted in daylight by a simpleshepherd which would lead to them being tracked and followed. It’s a story thaton one hand you couldn’t make up and, on the other, it feels like a Hollywoodmovie where the heroes keep trying to make the best of a bad situation butare hindered at every turn, not least when some of the men are captured andtortured. And as for the rest…

The cast is mainly made up of unknowns – to me at least – but it does includeI.D.‘s Richard Graham as Mark.

Bravo Two Zero, so called because of the soldiers’ call sign,was first broadcast on TV in the UK on January 3rd and 4th, 1999.

Presented in an anamorphic 16:9 widescreen ratio, there are a couple of nightscenes where the picture isn’t quite perfect, but the rest of the time theencoding copes admirably with the gritty desert scenes.The average bitrate is 6.59Mb/s, often peaking close to 9Mb/s.

The sound is presented in Dolby Surround (Dolby Digital 2.0), as you’d expectfor a TV programme and I have no complaints with it whatsoever, be it forscenes of gunfire or for the atmospherics of a dingy Iraqi cell.

Inside the case is a classy-looking 8-page booklet which provides picturesof the cast, plus info on McNab and the SAS. On the disc itself is a brief30-second Trailer and a 5-minute featurette: Behind-the-scenestraining with Sean Bean and South African firearms instructors.

The main extra though is a 23-minute Interview section with McNabhimself, shot in silhouetted profile so as not to reveal his facial features,looking at many different aspects of the man, the mission and the movieand is helpfully split into 11 chapters alone.

The main menu is static and silent with the standard options includingEnglish subtitles.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL