Great Performances (TV Series) Cyrano de Bergerac (1974) User Reviews

It's finally on DVD!

[Oscar_Gordon · 9/10 · 9 April 2007]

I waited 25 years for this to be available on video. I was afraid that the years had caused my remembrance of this production to be inflated, but it was every bit as good as I remembered. Peter Donat was as good as any Cyrano I've ever seen (WAY less "actorly" than Depardieu or Ferer), and Marsha Mason leaves all other Roxannes in the dust. Why is Roxanne always cast as a lightweight ingénue? Mason's Roxanne was a woman of spirit and substance - a fitting match for Cyrano.

The previous comment that asks "...do they really help a viewer to feel emotion?" is way off base. When Marsha Mason as Roxanne laments "I have loved one man in my life, and I have lost him twice!" it breaks your heart.

I never miss a chance to see Cyrano performed, and I have seen a dozen productions of this great play, live and on film. This is the production against which all others should be measured.

The best, by far...

[Jeff S. · 10/10 · 13 September 2001]

This is the fabulous, and if memory serves, unabridged production of the wonderful Brian Hooker translation of Cyrano. Even after all these years, it stays in my memory. Gerard...Jose...great actors, but Peter Donat will always and forever be Cyrano to me.

The production blends humor, romance, action, and drama in equal measure, and so many small moments that usually get missed in other productions of Cyrano stand out and shine.

The cast is legendary and all superb in their roles, and the physical production is faithful to its roots as a staged version produced by the A.C.T. in San Francisco while taking a satisfyingly minimal and non-intrusive approach to capturing the show on tape. And yet, it never feels like a taped play. Not to disagree with the gentleman who wrote a previous comment, but I do recall that the production is in full color.

Please...if there is anyone out there reading this with any influence...let this production be released on video so generation after generation will have the chance to see a Cyrano de Bergerac that can awaken the romantic in even the most jaded heart.

Great Film!

[mateorivas-63368 · 10/10 · 7 January 2024]

Great Film and TV Movie! All these actors deserved better Oscar's for it's time for sure! They just don't make them like they use to. If anything 70s rock big time and for this episode to contain both Earl Boen and the late Paul Shenar made it even more entertaining and worth a watch when I bought it for dvd and watched it for the first time ever I was surprisingly amazed with they're performance's now all they gotta do is make it streamable for any popular streaming subscription and services that way we can get it more out into the world like show everyone say on YouTube what this series is all about as a great example to the whole world and can teach us everything we never could in school. :)

Disappointed

[lisliasm · 2/10 · 25 May 2003]

After reading a play, almost any rendition does not satisfy the reader. This is because the actors in one's head do a nearly perfect job. However, most renditions at least make an attempt at being realistic. The 1972 Cyrano de Bergerac makes no such attempt. Instead it is fraught with overacting, leaving the viewer with an overall impression that the rendition is simply histrionic and nothing else. Granted, the actors make a very actor-y impression on the eye and the mind, but do they really help a viewer to feel emotion? Isn't that what acting is all about? Perhaps good for those who don't mind this sort of thing, but I didn't like it.