Fuddland

LoveFilm is the new name for DVDsOnTap — the online DVD rental company from whom I receive three or four films a month for the subscription fee of a tenner.

As part of their rebranding, for the next few months they’re giving away three month’s free membership to lucky people randomly [or pseudo-randomly] drawn from those who have submitted reviews of DVDs they’ve rented. Ordinarily I wouldn’t bother entering, but since I’d rented Rabbit Proof Fence from them and already written what’s essentially a short review of it, I just trimmed off the first couple of sentences and sent it off.

I liked the matter-of-fact approach to the story-telling — after all, this was the obstensibly true [if inevitably fictionalised] story of three half-caste girls in 1930s Australia who were taken from their Aborigine mother and put in a camp 1,500 miles away to ensure their offspring had their Aborgine ‘bred out’ and be raised as lower-class citizens, only to run away soon afterwards and attempt to walk the entire distance home, following the recently-erected fence built to keep the diseased rabbits of the east away from the farmlands of the west.

All the performances are terrific, but for me the standout is David Gulpilil as Moodoo, the tracker trying to bring the girls back to the camp. It’s a fantastically understated display, stoically going about his duties but occasionally letting slip the merest hint of a smile when the girls once again evade his capture, secretly proud of their guile.

LoveFilm vets the reviews before putting them on the website, in case there’s anything inappropriate in the content. Today I received this message from them:

Unfortunately your review for Rabbit Proof Fence has been rejected due to the following reason(s):-
- Crucial plot elements given away

What? Where? I just said the girls give the tracker the slip every now and then. Is that such a shock? Be a pretty crap story if they escaped and were promptly recaptured without any difficulty. I’ll chop off that last bit and resubmit, to see if that really is the controversial part of my review.

By the way, whenever I hear or read about people escaping from prison or somewhere like that, my brain automatically replays the opening titles of The A-Team [“These men promptly escaped…”]. It’s an affliction.

The following is an entry which follows on from the above:

1. No reason [Fuddland]. Excerpt: Following on from last Saturday's entry concerning my rejected and re-submitted review of Rabbit Proof Fence for LoveFilm, I've just received this email: Unfortunately your review for Rabbit Proof Fence has been rejected due to the following reason(s):...

#1

Daisy | 2004 / 01 / 25 – 19:25

£9.99/month to rent a dvd for a month? Um, wouldn’t it be better to buy a dvd each month? Or am I missing summat?

#2

David | 2004 / 01 / 25 – 19:51

Re #1: No, here’s how it works. You build up a list of DVDs you want to rent. They send you the one at the top of the list. When you’re done with it — and you can keep it for just one day or as long as you like — you send it back in the prepaid envelope they’ve provided, and they send you the next one on the list. And repeat, as much as you like.

Postage strikes notwithstanding, you can get through about six or seven DVDs a month if you watch them pretty much the day they arrive, and all you pay is £9.99 a month. I average about four or five DVDs a month, so that’s £2–£2.50 a DVD — cheaper than your average high street rental place, and without the hassle of going there to get it and take it back.

For £14.99 you can get two DVDs sent at a time, and for £19.99 you get three at a time.

Sorry for the confusion — is that any clearer?

#3

Daisy | 2004 / 01 / 26 – 14:50

Perfectly clear - great system for the organised amongst us you.

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