Who'd have thought university would be so time-consuming!
Who'd have thought university would be so time-consuming!
Member since:19.06.2005
Reviews:131
Members who trust:90
I was rooting through my "free DVDs from newspapers" collection yesterday, and what should I find but David Lean's adaptation of Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens. Guess what book I'd just finished reading the day before. So, if you don't mind, this review is going to be a bit of a compare and contrast with the novel.
This is the only real movie version of Great Expectations (there's a 1997 film by Alfonso Cuaron, but that's only based loosely on the novel), so it's fair to say that this is the definitive adaptation. It's directed by David Lean, who also made the classic Oliver Twist film, as well as Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia. It stars the late great Sir John Mills, and it won two Oscars in 1945 for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography.
Great Expectations is the story of Phillip Pirrip (or Pip, as he's known), growing up with his nasty older sister and her kind, simple husband Joe. One day on a walk through the cemetery, he bumps into an escaped convict, Abel Magwitch, who threatens Pip with the uncomfortable removal of his heart and liver if he doesn't bring him some food. Needless to say, he complies. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the convict is caught after a big police chase, and that's the last Pip sees of him for a while.
A few years later, Pip is chosen by an eccentric, rich old lady, Miss Havisham, to come and entertain her at her decrepit old mansion. There, he meets a beautiful girl, Estella; a meeting that will have a profound and lasting impression
on him. Estella treats Pip cruelly and makes fun of his common upbringing and "heavy boots", but this only causes Pip to want to be a gentleman, so that Estella can love him as much as he loves her.
After that, Pip is suddenly informed that he has "great expectations", i.e. a wealthy, unnamed benefactor is to give Pip his chance at becoming a proper gentleman with his own property. He says his goodbyes, and leaves for London, where he is to be looked after by the super-efficient lawyer, Mr. Jaggers, and his assistant, Mr Wemmick, whilst living with a friendly young man, Herbert Pocket. However, Pip soon learns that being a gentleman is not quite as he imagined, and that wealth does not bring with it happiness.
As with all cinematic adaptations of books, the plot is thinned out enormously, so whilst the above description is only the absolute bare bones of the novel, it pretty much describes the film. It does have a couple of extra plot strands, a few more supporting characters, and of course I haven't told you any plot developments that would spoil the film. But I definitely think the film would have benefited from being maybe half an hour longer, and including more of the book's details, since it feels very rushed.
So far then, not so good.
However, the content that did make it into the film is transferred extremely accurately. The dialogue is virtually straight from the book; only a couple of lines were made up where they needed to be, and the rest includes all the best catchphrases and lines from the novel. Most of the main characters, and certainly all the memorable ones, are in the film, so on the whole it is very faithful.
The only scene which I found to be notably changed was the ending, and I think this was only to done to make it more dramatic, although to be honest it didn't really add much to a perfectly good ending already.
The performances were great all round, right from the very start, with Anthony Wager playing Pip as a child, and Jean Simmons (or was it Gene Simmons?) before she was famous playing the young Estella. I thought John Mills was excellent portraying older Pip's change into snobbishness (although it's done much more subtly in the novel), and Bernard Miles was perfect as Joe; just as I'd imagined from his description, and always absolutely likeable.
Finlay Currie plays Magwitch with real menace and gruffness, Martita Hunt is completely barmy as the eccentric Miss Havisham, and Alec Guiness plays Pip's friend Herbert - he's very posh and twee which sometimes gets irritating, but then again that's exactly how his character is in the book. The only difference between the actors and how I'd imagined them to be was with Mr. Jaggers - the name Jaggers had conjured up an old, thin, spiteful-looking man, whereas in the film he's played by a middle-aged, shall we say large man. This wasn't really a problem though since his fine performance more than made up for it.
I've never read any other Dickens novels, so I can't compare them with Great Expectations, but I can see why this is one of the most famous. He thinks up wonderfully imaginative characters, which brings with it a surprising amount of laugh out loud humour, and the film is therefore quite funny in parts. Pip's sister borders on pantomime she's so nasty, with "the tickler" (a cane-like instrument of torture); and Estella is so mean to Pip that you have to just laugh. My favourite character is Wemmick's father, who is only ever referred to as "the Aged Parent", and who gets very happy when people nod at him.
But all the humour is balanced by Lean's dark, atmospheric vision of London and the marshes of Pip's home. The film is black and white, which definitely adds to the ambiance, and the first scene contains more mist and fog than you could shake a torch at. Miss Havisham's creepy old house, which she has left untouched for years, is brilliantly re-created, with plenty of cobwebs and shadowy corridors. The music score is also good; it's not exactly memorable, but it matches the varying tone of the film well.
My advice, as always, is to read the book rather than watch the film, but if you don't fancy that, this is a very good adaptation. It stays very close to the main parts of the novel, and it's just a brilliant tale with fantastic characters. If you've already read the book, this is worth watching for the fine ensemble acting, but you might find it too brief and rushed, and lacking detail. ______________________________________________
As I said, I got this film free in a newspaper, but if you don't fancy waiting for it to appear again, you can buy Great Expectations, the single disc edition, for exactly £5 from www.play.com.
John Mills … Pip Valerie Hobson … Estella Martita Hunt … Miss Havisham Francis L. Sullivan … Jaggers Alec Guiness … Herbert Pocket Finlay Currie … Abel Magwitch Bernard Miles … Joe Gargery Jean Simmons … Young Estella Anthony Wager … Young Pip
Running Time: 113 minutes
Classification: PG
Production Year: 1945
My Rating: 4 stars
Pictures of Great Expectations (DVD)
Young Pip with his evil older sister
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2003 - Drama - Director: Michael Winterbottom - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Tim Robbins, Samantha Morton, Om Puri, Jeanne Balibar
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
I liked this book, I really remember two things, the bit where Estelle says 'you may kiss me if you want' and the bit at the end, which I wont spoil for non reader/viewers, but you know what I mean....
MissTopaz 17.11.2006 18:37
Never read the book...never seen the film! But good review hehe x
Dudo_Perudo 15.11.2006 11:30
Brummmmmmm....great book (school GCE's), Great Film..Mills makes it....for Mills nearly as good as the one when he plays super-pilot DB.....what am I waffling about now. Great op. TC. T
The key ingredient in this modern-day version of Charles Dickens's classic is director ... more
Alfonso Cuarón, who made the glowing, estimableA Little Princess. If you saw that (and you should), understand thatExpectationshas those ingredients (great sense of ...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
David Lean's handsome adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel captures the warm ... more
humour and richness of character that so many film-makers miss in their reverent recreations of Victorian England. From the nightmarish opening sequence on the windswe...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The key ingredient in this modern-day version of Charles Dickens's classic is director ... more
Alfonso Cuarón, who made the glowing, estimableA Little Princess. If you saw that (and you should), understand thatExpectationshas those ingredients (great sense of ...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
The moment young Finn sets eyes on Estella, she becomes his inspiration... and his ... more
obsession. Despite being warned, she'll only break your heart, he vows to win her love. Years later, thanks to a mysterious benefactor, aspiring artist Finn is off to Ne...
![Great Expectations [DVD] [1974]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78529598.jpg "Great Expectations [DVD] [1974]")
![Great Expectations [DVD] [1998]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78541247.jpg "Great Expectations [DVD] [1998]")
![Great Expectations [DVD] [1946]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78538723.jpg "Great Expectations [DVD] [1946]")
Nov 11th, 2006
very helpful by (100%):
