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Anne of Green Gables (1986) Multi LanguageRating:
Release Date: 04 February, 2003 Retail Price: $24.99 OUR Price: $19.99 You SAVE: $5.00! Cast: Complete Cast (8 total) |
Anne of Green Gables (1986) Multi Language Reviews
A PASSIONATE VALUER!
Kevin Sullivan's TV movie "Anne Of Green Gables" is as unusual in theme as it is beautiful. On the surface, this 4-hour adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's classic novel deals largely with everyday events (everyday, at least, for Canada's rural Prince Edward Island, in the early 1900's). But in terms of fundamentals it is a richly romantic story about values and their role in human life.
Talented Megan Follows plays the feisty red-haired heroine to perfection. Richard Farnsworth and Colleen Dewhurst give unforgettable performances in their roles of Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, the elderly brother and sister who ask an orphanage to send them a boy to help on their farm, Green Gables. Instead of a boy they are sent 13-year old Anne Shirley by mistake.
Anne is bright, imaginative, and talkative, dreamily preoccupied with poetry and tales of romance. But she is a passionate valuer, constantly searching for a "kindred spirit" or "bosom friend" to share her values with. Passed from one foster family to another, with no one to care for her, she has known little happiness; but she loves life's promise with an aching intensity that makes her shine out in the midst of her bleak surroundings, and makes her seem "odd" to most people. Marilla, a hard-headed "realist" who seems almost to have given up valuing, meets Anne's affection with nothing but crustiness, at first. Matthew, on the other hand, is a painfully shy, quiet, gentle old man, who blossoms for the first time in his life under the warmth of Anne's love. He is first to realize something it takes Marilla much longer to understand: that they needed Anne even more than Anne needed them.
At the beginning of the story Anne is an impractical idealist with her head in the clouds, constantly coming into collision with her surroundings, falling from one misadventure into another. With the best of intentions, she insults Marilla's friend, gets into trouble at school, is caught trespassing in a neighbor's cow pasture, and falls off a roof. Marilla shakes her head: "When I said you could stay as a trial, I had no idea you'd take me literally." Teased at school by a pesky boy who pulls her pigtails and calls her "carrots," Anne breaks a slate over the boy's head. In despair over her red hair, she tries to dye it and accidentally turns it green. Finally Marilla begins to soften, as she recalls how her own fiery temper used to lead her into trouble as well. Thoughtfully, she tells Anne that the girl may now stay with them permanently: "I think you may be a kindred spirit, after all."
"Anne Of Green Gables" does not have a complicated plot, but is full of colorful incident: Anne loses her best friend through a misunderstanding, attempts to act out Tennyson's "Lady of Shallot" in a leaky rowboat, lets a mouse get into the pudding, attends her first ball, and saves a baby's life.
But her transformation from an impractical idealist to a romantic realist is what the movie is really all about. This is a highly unusual theme, and it is dealt with better in the movie version than in the original novel. One character, early in the movie, tells Anne she hopes that life will "shatter this dream-world that you live in;" and eventually Anne does change. But unlike most people, whose youthful love of life is eroded and replaced by cynicism, Anne's values are merely transformed into practical goals, and she remains as much an idealist as ever. (The transformation is not actually completed until the sequel, "Anne of Avonlea," which is also noteworthy, though not as good as the first movie.)
As an added bonus, "Anne of Green Gables" is beautifully filmed at historic sites on Prince Edward Island and elsewhere. And Hagood Hardy's benevolent music score is rich in inspiration. This masterpiece of romanticism deserves to live forever.
Timeless Classic
All the great reviews written previously say it all - Anne of Green Gables the movie is a timeless classic of the classic novel. I've been watching this movie since I've been a child, and I still watch it as an adult. A movie like this doesn't need "special features" for it to be attractive as a DVD(Although the commentary is great!). Just the fact that no matter how long I keep this and how often I watch this movie, it won't change like VHS does.
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