Just perfect...

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I saw this back in the day. Of course back then, it was for reasons of the flesh on display. The past decade or so, I'm RavenGlamDVDCollector and looking to get all my old faves on DVD. I didn't really remember all that much. To cut a long story short, this time round, with myself as a much older guy, besides those wonderfully immortal words by Bridget Fonda, "well, he would, wouldn't he?" which I view as an all-time favorite, what really stands out in this movie, is the most amazing performance by John Hurt as Steven Ward.Now, people, I DO NOT tend to go around praising actors. I very seldom do. I focus on actresses. That's what The Raven does.So, take it from me, a compliment from me to a male actor must be about something astounding.Believe me, John Hurt's performance in this movie is just exactly that. Astounding. Of all performances in my movies-on- DVD (view my list on my member's site) I would say the Raven- Oscar goes to John.He brought me to tears.Need I say anything more?So, the Profumo affair really was a storm in a tea-cup used to sell newspapers, but the collateral damage claimed a guy who was caught up in the middle of it, the likely scapegoat. A head had to roll, and there was this social gadfly who all could be dumped on. John gave a magnificent performance as Steven Ward, and I felt like I was watching helplessly.It's years later, I haven't seen it in a long time, but the news of John Hurt's death early this year also kept the movie in mind.Highly recommended. Highly indeed. This is a truly praise-worthy flick.Do I think any of you would be misled by this review? If you want to see a movie about a real-life sex scandal, THIS IS THE ONE. If you want to see an award-worthy acting performance, JOHN HURT in SCANDAL.Overlooked. People wouldn't look past the naughty bits.John Hurt, I salute you. Respect! Awe!

More then thirty years before Monica Lewinsky nearly destroyed Bill Clinton's presidency, Christine Keeler brought down the sitting British government. Her affair with then Minister Of War John Profumo, the scandal that followed and the effect it had on those involved is the subject of Michael Caton-Jones' 1989 film Scandal. Caton-Jones, with the help of a first rate cast and script, brings to life the scandal that brought down the British government.The film's cast is fantastic to say the least. Leading it is John Hurt as Osteopath/Playboy Stephen Ward and Joanne Whalley as the infamous Christine Keeler. Both are well cast, Whalley being a very good physical match for Keeler especially, and both give what seem to be honest performances as people who find themselves going from the time of the their lives to the worst moments of it. Right behind them are Bridget Fonda and Ian McKellen as the other two major players in the scandal: Mandy Rice-Davies and John Profumo respectively. The supporting cast includes Jeroen Krabbe as Soviet naval attaché Eugene Ivanov, Jean Alexander as Keeler's mother, Leslie Phillips as Bill aka Lord Astor and James Villiers as an MP. The cast is fantastic and helps to sell the realistic recreation of the scandal.The realism is also helped by the production values as well. The production design of Simon Holland and the costumes of Jane Robinson bring to life the late 1950s-early 1960s world of the film from lurid clubs to country estates and the halls of government. Mike Molloy's cinematography is key to much of the film as it often gives the viewer a feeling of being a fly on the wall of the events taking place. There are moments also where it gives the viewer a feeling of what it must have been like as the scandal grows and the world closes around some of the characters. Angus Newton's editing helps that as well even though the film itself seems to be just a bit too long. All of this, under the superb direction of Caton-Jones makes the film's recreation of this world seemingly complete.That wouldn't the case though without the script. Drawing from a number of different sources listed towards the end of the film's end credits, Scandal traces the journey from 1959 to 1963 as what starts out as Ward's attempt to introduce the beautiful, young Keeler to his friends in high places leads to a scandal that destroys the sitting British government. The script by Michael Thomas is more then just a simple accounting of the scandal though. It is a study of the different people involved in it and how, by accident more then design, then found themselves caught up in it. Scandal takes the viewer into a world of sex, booze and above all else hypocrisy. This is no better illustrated then in a scene early in the film where a group (including Ward and Keeler) are in a nightclub, surrounded by scantily clad women, celebrating the victory of the Conservative government in the 1959 UK general election. The result is an eye opening journey into the human side of an infamous political scandal.From its first rate cast, production values, direction and script Scandal is a fine example of history being brought to life on film. It is a journey into a world of sex, booze and hypocrisy that bred an infamous scandal that brought down a sitting British government almost fifty years ago. It is also a journey into the human cost of that scandal told in a way that is haunting, realistic and perhaps even truthful as well.

The British have always enjoyed this kind of masochistic self-scrutiny, and what better wound to scratch than the notorious Profumo affair? The sex and treason scandal toppled England's conservative government in the early 1960s, and cost the life of at least one man: London doctor and celebrated freethinker Steven Ward, who enjoyed the heady, highbrow thrill of life in high places and understood how the quickest way into the corridors of power was through the pants of the men at the top. John Hurt manages to pull a sympathetic character out of the doctor's unsavory reputation, and freshman director Michael Caton-Jones recreates (with pitch-perfect sleaze) the boozy, lascivious mood of early '60s sex and politics. The details would have been compelling even without so much trendy visual overkill, but a little stylistic embellishment is to be expected in a film condensed to feature length from a proposed five-hour television miniseries. And although the script by Michael Thomas says nothing about power and privilege that isn't already common knowledge, it's nice to be reminded of the all-too human animal lurking just behind the typically English stiff upper lip.

Scandal is not the best film of the eighties. It is rather a risqué raunchy and daring way to tell a sex scandal story in the sixties British politics. John Hurt is terrific as always and surprisingly Bridget Fonda does a great job as a British scandalous singer/actress. The best part of the film is during the credits at the end of the film with Dusty Springfield singing "nothing has been proved." It is also great to see Jean Alexander on the screen again. I never heard about the Profumo Affair until I got this tape. I was surprised to see Bridget Fonda in another London based film. Maybe she was trying to get away from being a Fonda back home, she does do her job. With Dusty Springield singing with the Pet Shop Boys, this movie is must for Dusty fans. I think Jean Alexander deserves an honor by now. After all, last year she was voted greatest British soap actress of all time. Almost 20 years after she departed Coronation Street, isn't time for her to get honor.