Official Synopsis
His ability to escape from handcuffs, strait-jackets and water tanks is legendary – breaking the shackles of his past proved more challenging. HISTORY®’s Houdini follows the world-renowned master of escape’s transformation from immigrant into the world’s first superstar. Driven, disciplined and actively chasing the American Dream, Houdini constantly pushed his physical limits to accomplish feats of strength that amazed audiences in an age of spectacle. And though they saw what he wanted them to see, his reality was more elusive than his escapes.
The History Channel did a great job with hiring the right actors and putting together the best amount of story that it could uncover to make Houdini interesting. From beginning to end, this television broadcast kept me glued to the screen at home.
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The television series starts off right, as Houdini (Adrien Brody) is narrating his own story. We start with Houdini jumping into a cold bay while shackled. He find his way out of the shackles through his own devious methods, and then gets stuck under the ice. At this point, the story jumps back to the beginning of Houdini’s life. We learn about his parents, a mother he adored and a father he despised. We shift into how he got into magic and then jump to when he met his wife.
Not a bad way to begin things, especially starting with an ice jump from a bridge, which will make you want to go grab a blanket. It catches your attention and then hooks you. I also appreciate the style that it’s presented, as we get to see how he escaped certain tricks, quick hitters of multiple daring escapes, and his infamous ‘punch me in the stomach’ offer, which would be his undoing. This is all in the first part of the series, and it’s a good setup.
As the magician becomes more famous, and we get to see his unnatural obsession with his mom (it starts out endearing, but gets creepy quick), the story starts leaving spaces. What I mean by that is that it starts to jump a bit here and there, and the life of Houdini hits a fifth gear, but passes some important rest stops.
For example, we jump from the top of his career, where he is escaping such traps as the Chinese water torture cell, to his involvement in espionage for the British empire, as the Brits are trying to keep an eye on Germany and the impending World War about to erupt. It’s just an abrupt jump that isn’t done smoothly. It’s interesting to see him as a spy and see how he obtained information from high ranking officials, but they just gloss over his feelings and how he kept it from his wife. What I’m thinking, and how it felt, is that they just simply didn’t have enough details to fill the story holes. The movie J. Edgar Hoover had this issue, and it feels like Houdini suffers the same problem.
As Houdini’s career starts to dip and then bloom again, his mother passes and then Houdini becomes enormously out of sorts. His life spirals and instead of magic, the story shifts to Houdini’s focus on debunking mediums (folks who talk to spirits). The end part of the movie focuses solely on this portion of his life and how it eventually, and directly, led to his death. I won’t give that away, but it’s an interesting shift and feels like a completely different story. Is that bad? Not at all, but it’s not consistent and feels incomplete — at least the connection between his magic life and its shift to this part of his life. It also slows the pace of the movie down into dark drama.
Again, it feels like there weren’t enough details to make a complete story. That certainly isn’t the History Channel’s fault, but at the same time I wish there could have been just a little bit more filler to make it feel a bit more complete. As it stands, the life of Houdini in this television series is fascinating and it will keep you glued, but it moves a bit quick, which might have hurt it as well (television can be so limiting when it comes to time in telling stories).
Having said that, a bright spot in the series is Adrien Brody’s performance as the magic man Houdini, which is quite excellent, maybe better than the series deserves. He’s fun, passionate, tough, believable and you forget halfway through that Adrien Brody is playing Houdini, if that tells you anything about his performance. He was the right choice for the series and he deserves some solid praise for what he brought to the role.
In the end, Houdini is an interesting series. It definitely gives you some solid perspective about his life and how he was with his magic. It also gives you a creepy side of him that you may not have known. Overall, I wish there had been better transitions from point A to B, but it simply may not have been available. I forgive it because it brought some interesting and entertaining stories about Houdini, but it certainly doesn’t feel complete.
On the Blu-ray side of the release, it’s damn good. The effects don’t give much beauty to the release, but it looks and feels just as solid as the other History Channel television releases (The Men Who Built America comes to mind), as there are a lot of green screen moments. Because of those effect moments, graininess and artifacts rear their head in the picture here and there (especially during scenes with a lot of white in them). When the series works with sets or outdoor moments of actual outdoor scenery, the HD shines. There is a heavy amount of green, yellow, red and black — all of which look gorgeous in the transfer. It’s definitely above most limited series of its type.
On the audio side, you get DTS-HD 5.1 with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1.
Finally, as for features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– Houdini the Greatest
– The Great Escapes
– The Real Houdini
– Cheating Death
It may not seem like a lot here, but it’s actually quite packed with additional details about Houdini. I like that and I appreciate the extra insight about him. It’s all worth a good look.