This controlled release is designed to balance anti-censorship/financial worries with religious concerns.

But fuck that shit, the BFI should release Ken's version in 1080p and be damned. I'll pre-order at £60...

The 2004 version exists only as an SD Digibeta? How depressing. I know in the previous Devils thread the 2004 projection was described as clearly not 2K, but I'd hoped/presumed this meant it was merely HDCAM.

Back in 1970, John Marco Allegro, a world-renowned Biblical scholar who was one of the original Dead Sea Scroll scholars, authored a study of magic mushroom use among Jewish tribes where the avatar of Jesus was revealed as a cosmic penis-metaphor for the Yahwehistic mushroom. The book was recently republished in America to ZERO controversy.

BFI to bring Ken Russell’s controversial masterpiece The Devils to DVD for the first time

The BFI is thrilled to announce that it will be releasing one of the ‘most-wanted’ British films of all time, Ken Russell’s bold and brilliant religious drama The Devils (1971), on DVD for the first time.

Forty years ago, The Devils caused outrage amongst audiences and critics after one of the longest-running battles with the BBFC was resolved, and the film was finally seen in cinemas. Now recognised as a landmark in British cinema history the film will at long last get its DVD premiere on 19 March 2012, in the original UK ‘X’ certificate version.

Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave give magnificent performances in what remains Ken Russell’s most dazzling and controversial film – for which he won the prize for Best Director, Foreign Film at the Venice Film Festival. Based on John Whiting’s stage-play and Aldous Huxley’s novel, the film charts the seventeenth-century events that took place in the French city of Loudun. Reed plays priest Urbain Grandier, and Redgrave is Sister Jeanne, whose erotic obsession with him fuels the hysterical fervour that sweeps through the convent.

Derek Jarman designed the striking, highly memorable sets and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies composed a supremely well-matched score for Russell’s arresting depiction of the breakdown of civilisation.

Film critic and expert Mark Kermode, who has written and broadcast extensively about The Devils, will be contributing to the special features. He comments:

‘Ken Russell is one of Britain's greatest living filmmakers and The Devils remains his most incendiary work – an extraordinary and impassioned depiction of the unholy marriage of church and state which is as relevant today as it was when the film was first released.’

Sam Dunn, Head of BFI Video Publishing says:

‘We are absolutely delighted to be able to announce the DVD premiere release of this extraordinary film. The Devils is one of the greatest British productions of all time, and our special edition will not only feature the longest version of the film ever to have been released on DVD, but will also include a host of new and exciting extra features.’

An announcement detailing the full list of extras and technical specifications will be made nearer to the release date.

It might also have been a projectionist "borrowing" some of the footage for his private collection, though ten minutes sounds like a lot.

Mark Kermode on The Devils.

Well ... Russell has also been "liking" Facebook posts calling for a boycott of the BFI edition, so it might be more accurate to characterize him as neutral/ambivalent on the issue.

You can also choose to focus on either the "exciting" or the "disappointed" from Kermode's video.

You guys have talked back from the ledge a little bit with the argument that comment surrounding the incomplete BFI release may leverage Warners into relenting down the road a bit (I mean, nothing else seems to be working). I'm still of the viewpoint that the Rape of Christ-less edition belongs in the kermode (sorry, been waiting a decade to use that one), but I get why many of you are fine with accepting the X-rated cut as legitimate enough.

As for Facebook, as of this writing, the top two posts on the Devils Special Edition page are calls to lobby the BFI for the uncut version (both "liked" by Unkle Ken), with one of the posters explicitly urging "do not buy" in the comments under his post. A little bit further down there are several posts calling for a Blu edition. I would call this a coherent minority opinion of "close, but not good enough."

And yes, to echo Perkizitore, there is no point whatsoever lobbying the BFI over this.

I would have thought BFI had earned enough credit at this point that it would be a given that if they had their druthers, this would be coming out uncut and in HD, that Warners obviously offered them this or nothing, and that they took what they could get. I could maybe see an argument that BFI would prefer to put out the theatrical cut over the 2004 restoration given the former's historical relevance to the UK (see also how Russian films are presented in the Soviet Influence series) but even then, surely they would have preferred not to make cuts to the Hell on Earth documentary.