Drama > G Drama > Oscar

Advantages: Great script, beautiful cinematography.
Disadvantages: 2 hours is never enough to do this great book justice.

Of all the Austen adaptations, and I'm a huge fan, this is my favourite. It's dramatically strong, funny without being silly, really respects the female protagionists and is so beautifully filmed that it is perfect from beginning to end. Emma Thompson has written a great script. She does not use Austen's words verbatim, but has created a witty and thoughtful story so in character with Austen that one doesn't miss the 'essential' lines from the book, ...
...Moggach's adaptation of 'Pride and Prejudice', where every line, every scene brought a groan of disappointment. The one glaring mistake for me was that Thompson left out one of the most heart-wrenching moments of the book, when Willoughby returns to Marianne and Eleanor refuses to let him see her. Whether this was due to time constraints or to it putting Eleanor (played by Thompson) either in a detremental light or knocking her character out of the ... Read review

Advantages: Cheap to buy
Disadvantages: Unusual film, disturbing in scenes

The story begins in 1963 and centres around the two main characters of the film Ennis Del Mar (played by Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) who pick up a summer job herding sheep in the mountains and ensuring that they don't get sen to the heavens by the Wolves. Left alone in the mountains Jack and Ennis soon find that they have emotional feelings for one another. These are two hard men who live out their lives as Cowboys and ...
...rodeo's. Such feelings are both unusual and frightening that are associated with a filthy love affair. The film was surrounded by some of the finest mountain scenery captured on film. To shows how beautiful and sensitive this film really is. It is a film to watch if you want to let your emotions loose! ... Read review

Advantages: Inspiring to people from all walks of life
Disadvantages: Can seem overly 'English'

This, in my opinion, is one of the most timeless movies ever. Anyone who believes passionately in anything will relate to Eric Liddell, and be inspired by the passion, determination and drive constantly exhibited by this great man. And in the same way, anyone who has ever been marginalised and rejected will understand the pain of Harold Abrams, and the absolute determination to prove 'the establishment' wrong. Perhaps, yes, it has aged a little and ...
...group of priveleged and wealthy young men studying at Cambridge - yet the manicured and controlled beauty of the surroundings of the rich and balanced and humanised by scenes of the Scottish Highlands. Watch this, and I defy anyone not to have a longing to find the nearest beach and just run wild . . . ... Read review

Advantages: Direction, Cinematography and Musical Score
Disadvantages: Small screen can never do true justice

...a little known film actor. Lawrence had a great empathy with Arabs and their culture. It is through this that he was able to command the loyalty of the warring Arab tribes and unite them in aiding the British to defeating the Turks who were allied to Germany during World War I. The most important part of the story, for me, comes after the fighting. With hindsight it explains many problems facing our world today. I have a collection of DVDs, which ...
...Arabia is definitely one of those moments. The setting for my first viewing was a huge tent at Trecco Bay, a large caravan park, in Porthcawl, South Wales where I was on holiday with my family. The floor was bare sand, which added to the atmosphere created by the film, and I was about 11 or 13. The experience was magical and intense, without any full understanding of the artistry involved. Maturity brought the knowledge of why this was such a ... Read review

Advantages: Intriguing, great acting, stunning scenery
Disadvantages: If you don't like drama films, you might find it too long

A Passage to India [1984] . . . In the film which is an almost faithful adaptation of E. M. Forster's novel A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1924), Adela Quested (Judy Davis) and Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft) travel to India to visit the latter's son Ronny (Nigel Havers), who is also Miss Quested's fiancé. Ronny works there as a civil magistrate who is surrounded by other English employees, and these prefer to stay secluded in a milieu which they created to ...
...but this experience ends as a rather tragic one for both. They get the chance to meet Dr. Aziz who seems to have a revolutionary spirit that is not satisfied with how the English treat his fellow countrymen. When he talks to these two ladies, he notices that they are different from the rest, or so he thinks, and he invites them to go with him and discover certain mysterious caves in India. Here things take a different turn. They start by visiting ... Read review