Silas

Silas was another series I watched in the mornings when the BBC shown it in about the late 1980's during the school holidays . This was often on just before before Gentle Ben, so watching these two shows was an ideal way to spend an hour.

Silas is about a boy who runs away from a circus and gets in all sorts of adventures and often landed himself in trouble.

This was a German series, and as a result, is dubbed. You can sometimes tell when the words of the English voice overs don't quite match the German speaking actors. That didn't spoil my enjoyment though.

Like Gentle Ben, it would be nice to see this series again.

I didn't remember much of this, but I am certain I watched this along Momo back when I was a kid. Momo remained more vivid in my brain, but also not in a way that I would dare write a review about it. I generally like only to review something if I can actually say something while not spoiling anything about the story.

Silas played by Bach, a very young boy at the time and one with quite the sass to say the least. What I really liked about the show/mini series is how it throws you in. You have no real idea what is going on and yet you do adapt quickly. You see Silas, you see the circumstances he lives under and what he has to do and endure. And then you see him do anything to keep his head above water. Which includes a lot of animals by the way.

One of them being a bear - I can only imagine that it was trained heavily ... still quite the risk having a real bear, but there was no other way (unless they would have put someone in a suit ... but that would have looked ridiculous and would not have aged well).

Having said that, there are other things that feel like bumps in the road and weird acting choices and things that plainly have not aged well. Overall still a really good tv show and one that especially kids will like - even more so if they watched it back in the 80s or close to when it was released. Children in danger, cliches and other stuff you have to be willing and take into account ... suspend your disbelief and all that.

as a child i loved this series on tv. the cheesy dubbing never bothered me-but what a great storyline! young boy runs away from the abusive circus owner,wins a horse and embarks on adventures. the most memorable bit though-the music! each character had a theme,when the evil shrew appeared on screen wailing electric guitars blasted forth-brilliant stuff.

Famously badly dubbed, this was pretty watchable as a kid back in 1985. But the version to see is the original German with English subtitles - several unofficial efforts are doing the rounds on the internet. Shame on you ZDF - bring out an official subtitled version ! The plot as others have stated is "12 year old boy runs away from abusive circus owner." That doesn't really do it justice. Without the unintentionally hilarious dubbing it's actually a superior but very dark tale which probably would never get past a modern editor. a few examples for illustration :

(a) The first episode begins with Silas standing against a wooden board having knives thrown at him. They look both sharp and too close for comfort - I get the feeling the fear on Patrick Bach's face is no act. The the circus owner then tries to push a sword down his throat, it's a violent scene that is quite difficult to watch even now.

(b) A man drugs Silas to steal his horse, then pushes him into the river on a boat he's just made a hole in - we get a closeup of this, just to make the point that this man is trying to kill him.

(c) When faced with direct attack Silas defends himself very effectively with a knife, facing down the bad guy. This is one of many examples where Silas shows true courage, he could run away from a direct physical threat but does not.

(d) Many times Silas is portrayed as exhausted and in despair. It's a fine piece of acting, although the 16 hour days Patrick Bach was working at the time might have contributed to the realism of these scenes !

Adding to the quality feel, large quantities of Deutchmarks were obviously burned through during the production, also good cinematography, careful direction - and a great music score by Christian Bruhn. This is TV matching the quality of the modern 'Band of Brothers' rather than a simple kids show.

At the end Silas decides to abandon his newly found comfortable life and throw his lot back in with Godik. This scene is much criticised but makes perfect sense to me. He's the only person Silas can really trust. Only in the original German does the bittersweet nature of this choice show through.

Downsides - the overall length of it. 4 hours rather than 6 would have been about right. Also the plot starts well but meanders in the middle. But these are minor gripes.

It was probably 15 years ago when I saw not more than 2 episodes of silas on TV. You might certainly consider this as a hell of a long time for still remembering. But as this movie could deeply thrill me in that stage of life, an unbound boy of 10 years age, it is the adventurous part inside me that remembers what this movie was able to submit on a boy like me, all over curious. I would say, that it gave me hope. It made me definitely believe that life is an excitement - in all it's beauty you might find it somewhere out there...