Terry Pratchett: Going Postal

"He didn't believe in angels."
This was actually my introduction to British satirist Terry Pratchett, and what an introduction it was! If you have never discovered his hilarious Discworld, this film is a good place to start. You might just wind up like me in running to the library and the bookstore for more!

"Going Postal" is about a con man who is offered a second chance by the Patrician of the city after being hanged (yes, you read that right -- he was already hanged once!): he can either leave free and unchallenged (unfortunately, the only door out of the room opens into a bottomless chasm) or he can revive the derelict Post Office, because the Patrician is sick of his long-distance games of Thud (like chess) being interrupted by his telegrams getting stuck in the Clacks. Moist chooses, as most of us might, this second option only to find himself in way over his head with whispering letters, a haunting past, a parole officer who lacks a sense of humor (and has an uncanny ability to always find him),...

But words... words have a totally different power. They enter in through our eyes and ears and work their way into our soul
In the city of Ankh-Morpork, all long-distance communication is done by the clacks (sort of platform telegraphs). But all of that changes in "Going Postal," the third miniseries adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books -- this one poking fun at the postal service, with a charmining conman, a golem, and a ragtag band of postmen at the helm.

Moist von Lipwig (Richard Coyle) was a very successful forger, conman and embezzler... until the Watch caught him, and he was hanged for his crimes. Fortunately, he's not QUITE dead. It turns out that Lord Vetinari (Charles Dance) wants to give Moist a choice: he can die for real, or he can revive the moribund Post Office.

So Moist finds himself saddled with a decaying building filled with undelivered letters, two slightly insane postmen, and golem parole officer named Mr. Pump. And every night, letters force Moist to see the fallout of his past crimes, including a terrible one against the prickly Adora Belle Dearheart...

Clashing Mix of Dickens, Mary Poppins, & Monty Python = FUN
LOL QUIRKINESS. A Medieval fantasy in an English Victorian setting with modern phraseology. Stunning sets and costuming to match any computer generated animation's fun. "GOING POSTAL" was filmed in Budapest with a stunning star-studded cast. Rightly so, for such a production of one of Terry Pratchett's amazing Discworld books. And disclosed in the ample bonus material: the author loves this film with 2 feature-length episodes.
SUBTITLES.

Main plot is a con-man (Richard Coyle-Lorna Doone) is saved from the gallows by being forced to become Postmaster at defunct Ankh-Morport PO. A super-con's worst nightmare. His name, Moist Von Lipwig, is as weird as his official cap. Businessman Gilt (David Suchet-Poirot) is amazing, the villain, devilish and funny, and now owns the Clacks. Clacks are a communication system (typewriter, semaphore, tickertape, and network of strings.) Moist lives in the PO and has ghost visits not unlike Dicken's Victorian Ebenezer. Moist's haunting...

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