Great Expectations - Criterion Collection

Starring:John Mills, Anthony Wager, Valerie Hobson, Jean Simmons, Bernard Miles, Francis L. Sullivan, Finlay Currie, Martita Hunt, Alec Guinness, Ivor Barnard, Freda Jackson, Eileen Erskine, George Hayes, Hay Petrie, John Forrest, Torin Thatcher, O.B. Clarence, John E. Burch, Richard George, Grace Denbigh Russell
Director: David Lean
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com essential video

David Lean's handsome adaptation of Charles Dickens's classic novel captures the warm humor and richness of character that so many filmmakers miss in their reverent recreations of Victorian England. From the nightmarish opening sequence on the windswept graveyard where young orphan Pip (Anthony Wager) meets the desperate escaped criminal Magwitch (Finlay Currie) to the shadowy, musty mansion of the widow Miss Haversham (Martita Hunt) where he first meets the impertinent young beauty Estella (Jean Simmons), Lean captures a childlike exaggeration of reality with his elegant expressionism. When Pip's sudden change in fortune sends him to London as a burgeoning gentleman in high society, Lean sketches a beautiful, bustling city. John Mills's performance as the adult Pip charts his change from the wide-eyed wonder and generous spirit of the child he was to the class snob transformed by money and social standing, an ugly flaw that Pip confronts when his mysterious benefactor is finally revealed. The outstanding cast also features Valerie Hobson as the grown-up Estella, now a beguiling enchantress, a bright young Alec Guinness in his film debut as Pip's jovial London roommate Herbert Pocket, and the imposing Francis L. Sullivan as the decidedly humorless lawyer Jaggers. Exquisitely photographed by Guy Green (who won an Oscar for his work). Lean and his collaborators effectively maintain the heart of Dickens's epic drama while cutting it to its essentials in this vivid, compelling film. --Sean Axmaker

Description

One of the great translations of literature into film, David Lean's Great Expectations brings Charles Dickens' masterpiece to robust onscreen life. Pip, Magwitch, Miss Havisham, and Estella populate Lean's magnificent miniature, beautifully photographed by Guy Green and designed by John Bryan.

Customer Reviews:

David Lean's Great Expectations.......2007-06-22

Perhaps the finest Dickens adaptation ever, this rich, fascinating film about chance encounters and changing fortunes begins with a nerve-rattling sequence in a graveyard that's one of the finest moments in British film. Both Mills and Guinness are a trifle old for their roles, but their virtuosity fully compensates. Guinness, in his first significant screen appearance, is particularly striking as pocket, giving us a tantalizing taste of things to come. A bona-fide classic.

Great Expectations - Criterion Collection.......2007-01-31

I usually love Criterion editions and am willing to pay the increased price to receive all the usual Criterion extras - commentary, interviews, etc.

Unfortunately, aside from the normal remastered print of the film (very well done indeed), the trailer and the inside notes, this edition had none of the features I have come to expect (and pay dear for). Therefore, I would not recommend this item (at its current high price) to anyone who already owns a good print of the movie.

JBF

An English Teacher's Review.......2006-12-19

I should mention first that this is the only film version of "Great Expectations" that I have ever seen. There may be better ones, but I'm only qualified to talk about this one.

My 10th graders were spellbound by this film. They saw it on a big screen from an Epson 720p projector with big stereo sound, which probably helped. However, their reaction to it really surprised me. From the first frame they were rapt, and it turned into one of their favorite experiences of the year.

David Lean's brilliant cinematography is partly responsible for this - the lighting and composition are absolutely stupendous. Many people talk about the "possibilities" of black and white, but David Lean delivers them. The film is visually stunning.

The film also does a decent, if not perfect, job of following the book; obviously some scenes needed to be shortened or left out entirely or this would have been a five hour film. It is not so accurate that you can read a chapter and then watch it, but it is accurate enough that it is certainly worth showing as a reward for finishing the book.

I withhold the fifth star only because the actresses who play young Estella and "grown woman" Estella are so jarringly different as to be almost impossible to accept as the same character. For instance, young Estella seems to have a nose from Sweden, while grown Estella's nose seems to hail from somewhere near Rome. The actresses just aren't similar enough to sustain even the most willing suspension of disbelief.

The actress who plays Miss Havisham, however, is utterly perfect, and her whole broken-hearted domain is reproduced exactly as I imagined it from the book, right down to the mouse-gnawed, spider-infested wedding cake. Her 25 year-long tantrum is shown as half-hilarious, half-horrifying, which is exactly as Dickens intended it in my opinion, and the actress captures the perfect blend of nuances in portraying this unique character as perfectly as she could be portrayed.

The rest of the characters are quite well done also, including the attorney, Pip's sister, Joe and the "pale young gentleman." Even the clerk with "The Aged" father is well played, although the tour of his castle-house from the book is absent. Pip himself is portrayed very appropriately by both the young and older actors, and never disappoints.

Along with the characters, the film provides an incredible amount of tantalizing 19th century detail, enough to keep even the sleepiest, most sullen student awake at 8:02 am on a cold winter morning. All in all, well worth the $35 asking price, especially because, like all Criterion titles in my experience, the DVD transfer looks and sounds absolutely beautiful.

Changed from the book but still worth seeing!.......2006-06-23

The characters of Charles Dickens's timeless tale come to life in spellbinding black and white that perfectly captures the book's tone. Both Estella and Miss Havisham's characters are vastly sweetened from the book. Estella has genuine affection for Pip instead of just seeing him as another person to manipulate. Miss Havisham is actually concerned when Estella and Pip fight instead of being happy that her master plan of having Estella break Pip's heart is succeeding. These changes allow for the overly saccharin ending that is greatly different in tone and plot from either of the two grim endings Dickens actually wrote for the book.

A Great Movie From A Great Novel, And Perfectly Cast.......2005-12-25

If a movie ever captured better the look in your head of a book you've read than David Lean's Great Expectations, I don't know what it would be. From the moment young Pip is seen running along the marsh road to the deserted cemetery and his encounter with the escaped convict, Magwitch (scaring Pip as well as us half to death) to Pip the young man ripping down the dust-laden, moldering drapes in Miss Havisham's decaying mansion and letting the daylight in, we see what we imagined, and it's just about perfect.

Great Expectations is one of Charles Dickens' greatest novels, and the movie, in my opinion, is David Lean's greatest accomplishment as a director. You'd have to be a cynic not to be captured by this story of a young, poor boy, an orphan raised in a blacksmith's home by his sister and her husband, who unexpectedly becomes a young gentleman of great expectations.

Lean chose actors who bring the characters vividly to life. Pip (John Mills) is a young man who has become self-satisfied with the mysterious funds he receives that have enabled him to become a gentleman. In time, however, he realizes "that in becoming a gentleman, I had only succeeded in becoming a snob." But Pip's innate honesty and humanity come through as he accepts the debt he owes to his benefactor and faces the love he has for Estella. Jean Simmons as young Estella and Valerie Hobson as Estella the woman are beautiful and cruel, as Estella was raised to be by Miss Havisham. Francis L. Sullivan is perfect as the large, shrewd lawyer, Mr. Jaggers, who knows all the secrets. Miss Havisham is played by Martita Hunt. Miss Havisham was abandoned on her wedding day years before. She has retreated into bitterness, living within her mansion as if time at stopped, the draperies closed, still wearing her wedding dress, cobwebs festooning the rooms and the banquet table still fully set, bearing what remains of the bride's cake. She will see to it that men, through Estella, will suffer as she suffered. Finlay Currie is Magwitch, the tough, hulking convict who was unexpectedly touched by young Pip bringing him food. Alec Guinness is Herbert Pocket, good natured, energetic and a true friend.

At the end of the story, Pip and Estella realize they will have great expectations together. There is sadness, happiness, redemption, regret and love. Most off all, there are these marvelous characters in a great story.

The Criterion DVD looks fine. There are no significant extras. An insert contains an informative essay about the film and Lean by Adrian Turner, a British film critic.

Great Adaptations - Criterion Collection (Great Expectations / Lord of the Flies / The Most Dangerous Game / Oliver Twist)

Average customer rating:

Great Adaptations - Criterion Collection (Great Expectations / Lord of the Flies / The Most Dangerous Game / Oliver Twist)
Starring: Joel McCrea , Fay Wray , Leslie Banks , Robert Armstrong , and Noble Johnson
Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack , Irving Pichel , and David Lean
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

Drama | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

Classics | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

Boxed Sets | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

All | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

( G ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Viridiana - Criterion Collection
Insomnia - Criterion Collection
Wild Strawberries - Criterion Collection
Harakiri - Criterion Collection
My Man Godfrey - Criterion Collection

ASIN: B0002JELNQ
Release Date: 2004-09-07

Description

Great Expectations: One of the great translations of literature into film, David Lean's, Great Expectations brings Charles Dickens' masterpiece to robust onscreen life. Pip, Magwitch, Miss Havisham, and Estella populate Lean's magnificent miniature, beautifully photographed by Guy Green and designed by John Bryan. Lord of the Flies: Lord of the Flies is famed theater director Peter Brook's daring translation of William Golding's brilliant novel. The story of 30 English schoolboys stranded on an uncharted island at the start of the "next" war, Lord of the Flies is a seminal film of the New American Cinema and a fascinating anti-Hollywood experiment in location filmmaking. As the cast relived Golding's frightening fable, Brook found the cinematic "evidence" of the author's terrifying thesis: there is a beast in us all. The Most Dangerous Game: "One of the best and most literate movies from the great days of horror," The Most Dangerous Game stars Leslie Banks as a big game hunter with a taste for the world's most exotic prey—his houseguests, played by Fay Wray and Joel McCrea. Before making history with 1933's King Kong, filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack wowed audiences with their chilling adaptation of this Richard Connell short story. Criterion is proud to present the DVD premiere of The Most Dangerous Game in a new digital transfer. Oliver Twist: Expressionistic noir photography suffuses David Lean's Oliver Twist with a nightmarish quality, fitting its bleak, industrial setting. In Dickens' classic tale, an orphan wends his way from cruel apprenticeship to den of thieves in search of a true home.

DVD:

DVD

DVD

DVD

Dead Man

Legend Of The God Of Gamblers : Video

Fear [1996]

DVD: Star Blazers - The Quest for Iscandar - The Complete Se

Shanghai Knights