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Pride and Prejudice - The Special Edition Customer Reviews (67 - 69 of 229 Reviews)

best movie ever
I was very impress with this movie. The plot doesn't have much to it, but the excelent performance of all of the actors, the acuracy of the period time (respected in details), truly takes you in the romantic world of Regeny and keeps you captivated through out the entired movie.



This TV 'Pride and Prejudice' is far better than the movie...
Review of the TV production of 'Pride and Prejudice' starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle

I have long been a devotee of Jane Austen's novel and I am always interested in dramatizations of it. This TV production is certainly the best I have seen; and contrasts very favourably, in my opinion, with the film that was recently released. It is always a challenge to turn a novel into a film, especially when the novelist is as great a wordsmith and stylist as Jane Austen. How can a dramatization, which must entail the abridgement of the words to a serious extent, succeed in presenting a meaningful interpretation? And how, in a production aimed at a wide audience, is the apparent gulf between the contemporary viewer and the language of a late 18th/early 19th century novel to be bridged?

The most obvious point of contrast between this production and the recent movie lies in its preservation of much of the original dialogue, and hence, not only of the nature and depth of the personalities of the novel, but also of its central theme: the painful and humiliating process of enlightenment which Darcy and Elizabeth must both undergo in order to merit their happiness. The easy path, followed by the movie, of modernizing (and frequently replacing altogether) Austen's language, is fortunately avoided here.

Firth and Ehle bring to their parts a crucial ability to communicate intelligence and depth of feeling, and give us the clear impression that they have thought seriously about the nature of the characters they are playing. The challenge presented here to Firth as the actor of Darcy lies in the fact that in the novel we are never given Darcy's view of events except in an oblique way. Firth has clearly endeavoured to create Darcy's own inner narrative - and I find his attempt interesting and convincing. Whole scenes are added to provide additional insight into the 'missing pieces' of Darcy's personality and experience, and the viewer must make up her mind whether these are successful (the famous 'diving scene' at Pemberley, and the fencing lesson are two major examples).

In fact, it is easy to identify differences between Firth's own view of certain scenes and some explicit descriptions in the book. An important example is the early interaction between the two at Netherfield, where Elizabeth indirectly accuses Darcy of pride. In the novel, the exchange is conducted at a playful level, and Darcy's growing attraction to Elizabeth is not yet a matter of serious anxiety to him. In this production, on the other hand, Firth's Darcy is visibly disturbed at his emotional response to her; and the exchange is fraught and intense. Whether Firth's deviation from the overt intention of the author, here and elsewhere in the production, amounts to any kind of challenge to Austen's own judgment in building the story, or should rather be viewed as a side-effect of translating the story into a visual medium (perhaps that is why it was thought necessary to spell out the birth of Darcy's conflicted passion for Elizabeth in a more obvious way) is an interesting question to consider. In any case, the quality of Firth's acting ensures that the scene is successful.

On the whole, I think the director has done an admirable job of making the novel entertaining for a contemporary audience, and at the same time preserving the essence of Austen's novel. A clear example of the superiority of this production to the recent movie, is the 'second proposal scene', where Elizabeth finally accepts Darcy. The scene is plausible and dignified, and the actors understand, and manage to recreate for us, the mixture of restraint and profound emotion, of propriety and daring, that Austen creates on the page. In the movie, by contrast, the interpretation of the scene is so loosely 'adapted' that nothing is left but a sweet and banal love scene between characters who merely happen to share the names of Austen's characters, and look nice in their period costume. An adaptation of 'Pride and Prejudice' should surely strive to present the novel's inner substance, and not just its outer shell. By this measure, it is the TV production that succeeds.




























great movie
This is a great adaptation of a classical standard. We truly enjoyed the movie.

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