Brimstone and Treacle [DVD]

Great little gem of a film! Sting and the entire cast really perform well. Of course, the soundtrack is an added bonus with cuts like I Burn for You. I love this movie and really miss those days. I still have it on VHS!

Brimstone and Treacle 1982 - I loved this movie. Sting is very good in this movie as the devil's or perhaps the angel's advocate to help a family resolve their emotional problems. Sting's character, Martin Taylor, is the catalyst to help the Bates family expose their family secrets and bring their daughter Patricia back into the world from her self imposed hiding. She needed an emotional shock to bring her back to her family. This is the second version of this movie, with the first produced in the 1970s and banned by the BBC for about 15 years. This version is a little lighter but tells the story well.

This is a very underrated little film. Don't be scared away just because Sting is in it...he is actually very well cast here, having the perfect face for this quirkily creepy role. The plot raises many questions about whether the means sometimes justify the ends in life, and how sometimes good is spawned by the wicked. The dark, autumnal atmosphere, great title and closing graphics, and the strange twists of plot, leave one puzzled but pleased when all is said and done. The soundtrack is a bit mixed...some songs should've been left out, but many of the moodier pieces work quite well. I recommend this film highly!

Terrific movie -- Sting is spot on as titular character -- is he Brimstone or Treacle or both?!? One of the best performances I have seen by the late, great Denholm Elliot (you are missed!).

Sting does a good job playing a sick [...] in this twisted psychodrama & it's not hard to see why this would get banned.This flick is disturbing & not easily forgotten since I first saw it back in the early 80's.The characters in this flick are just plain wrong,wrong,wrong....

Love this older movie of my favorite singer!!

Loved the movie especially since I'm a big Sting fan. The music was great the acting by Sting was right up his alley...the beguiling and coy personality was donr without a hitch. Would like to have seen more of the young girl talking because I feel she could've brought more of a lighter side to the movie but I had no problem with the flick.

I liked it.

Brimstone and Treacle: a tragedy this film isn't much better known. In turns poetic, dark and toxic. A visionary film that anticipated much of the magical realism of later films. Dark and thick as rich as treacle. When a mysterious young man (played by Sting) "stumbles" into the lives of Mr. Bates (played by the ever amazing Denholm Elliot) and Mrs. Bates (played by Joan Plowright) their lives are turned upside down: and the nightmares and secrets they've been hiding from are dragged into the light. This is an amazing film with tour de force performances by all the leads. But it is not for the faint of heart. Trivia fact: comic book writer Alan Moore based his creation John Constantine on Sting's performance in this film. I'm off to watch my copy again...

We seem, assisted by the BBC, to have forgotten Dennis Potter. He wrote with a passion absent from contemporary drama. This is one of those ambiguous themes that is so close to life it hurts. And yet it is fantasy, such a good one though that you learn more about the human condition than from the unremitting drearines of the reality peddled by contemporary tv. In this piece tragedy steps away from the characters and threatens from the shadows of your mind. It's theme is that ordinary folk cannot cope: unwelcome news but the path to salvation, another unpopular idea. The bbc is unworthy of Potter but, as a public institution, it should acknowledge his stature and let us hear more of him.

Muy bien

Awesome !

It is a nice movie.