David Copperfield
|
List Price: Our Price: $12.49 You Save: $7.49 (37%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $7.97 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of David Copperfield
Movie Review: David Copperfield (1935)
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent.
I really wanted the this release.
So glad to have gotten it.
Movie Review: THE GREAT COPPERFIELD
Summary: 5 Stars
WHAT A GREAT MOVIE AND GREAT CAST, THE LATER SERIES WITH THE BBC IS ALSO GREAT.Movie Review: Not Exactly Like the Novel, But Good On It's Own
Summary: 4 Stars
Let me preface this review by saying that most of the merit of this film comes from the fact that, like MGM's "The Wizard of Oz" it is a nice movie on its own, without complete adherence to the original story. Many of the actors - particularly Edna Mae Oliver and W.C. Fields - put their own comical twists on the characters so that they are fresh but still recognizable as the people Dickens created. I really enjoyed the film from beginning to end and I would certainly recommend it.
However, I don't know if it can be called the "definitive" version of DC because it does take several liberties with the story - it is NOT the most book-accurate version of David Copperfield. Though it was of course necessary to condense and combine the plots, the screenplay seemed at times a bit too merry, missing the darker themes Dickens included. In addition, some important scenes were either cut entirely - like the experience at Salem House - or overly minimized, like the development of David's relationship with Agnes. The film also suffered from a bit of bad acting from both the young and adult versions of David and a very lame Steerforth.
Overall I will have to honestly say that you should not expect the accurate "page-to-screen" adaptation this movie is often called, but you should expect a very pleasurable, family-friendly, Dickens-inspired film that is nevertheless worth watching. :)
Movie Review: a dearth of Copperfields
Summary: 3 Stars
If the BBC can devote 26 episodes to the Forsyte Saga (an excellent movie), surely they can devote 12 episodes to the greatest novel in the English language. Or to put it another way, if the BBC can devote five hours to an inferior novel like "The Buccaneers", surely they can devote twice that number to David Copperfield.
The 1974 version of the book is 5 hours long, the longest version so far. It includes all the important events of the novel, but only touches on these events and the many characters and does not have time to make the events as effective as they could be. The script is creditable except a few times where they ducked a dramatic scene, breaking before and coming in afterward, including the scene which Tolstoy called the greatest in all of world literature--the storm at sea. It is also a low budget film.
The casting is inferior with weak performances of almost all the actors (the exceptions being Anthony Andrews as Steerforth, the actress who played Aunt Betsy and the actor who played Heap, who gave us the best Uriah of any of the movie versions). Outstanding examples of bad casting were (1) David's mother, who should have been young and dainty instead of 40 and rugged, and (2) Dora, who should have been 16 and petite instead of late 30s and tall and sturdy. Also, the actor played Macawber too seriously without the touch of comic absurdity which the book has and which the part required. The actor who played the grown-up David did not look half so bad as the picture on the cover and played his part adequately.
The 1935 version with its stark black and white resembles the Cruikshank drawings in the book, and many of the performances are definitive: Freddy Bartholomew as young David, Edna Mae Oliver as Aunt Betsy, Basil Rathbone as Murdstone, Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Peggoty, as well as the people who played David's mother, little Emily, and most but not all of the minor characters. The scenery is a joke, cardboard sets, painted backdrops and the desert landscape of California are offered as the English countryside. Still, this is an effective and indelible movie, marred only by having to leave so much out (2 hours 10 minutes) and by the horrendously inappropriate casting of W.C. Fields as Macawber (the most laconic actor in the movies to play the most loquacious character in all literature?!) His laboring to get the words out is painful to watch. The director, George Cukor, wanted Charles Laughton. Louis B. Mayer overruled him. But the filmmaker knew how to make movies, and the screenwriter knew how to write screenplays. The same cannot be said for the other film versions.
The 1970 version is a joke. Some smart-aleck screenwriter thought it would be clever to chop the story up into bits, toss them in the air, pick them up randomly and show them to the audience. All the moving events are thus rendered totally ineffective. This version is useful only as a lesson in how to ruin a great story.
The 1999 version is only three hours long and has more elaborate sets, some location shooting, and background music, but suffers from poor or inappropriate casting. Maggie Smith chose to play Aunt Betsy as a straight serious role, depriving the character of the comic touches which make Aunt Betsy such a cherished character. Bob Hoskins' performance bears no relation to Macawber, thus depriving us of one of the most colorful characters in all literature. Incredibly, the actor chosen to play Murdstone looks almost identical to Hoskins! Imelda Staunton portrays Mrs. Macawber very well, and the boy does well enough as young David, but the rest of the cast is lamentable. And the omission of Traddles is a loss. The script is hit and miss. But the most serious problems are the introduction of a narrator who is constantly narrating and keeping the audience at one remove from the events, and the actor who play the grown-up David who constantly smiled and smirked, sometimes even in the tragic scenes. He seemed to have no other facial expression.
Bottom line: If you can only afford one version, the 1974 version is your best bet. Alas.
Movie Review: Too Long, Slightly Boring
Summary: 3 Stars
David Copperfield is a book by Charles Dickens, so the themes of class struggles and broken family are prevalant here. This movie adaptation features a long cast list of famous classic stars including Elsa Lanchester, Lewis Stone, Madge Evans, and Una O'Connor among others.
David Copperfield (Freddie Bartholomew) is born without a father to a widowed mother who wants the best for her son. She soon falls in love again (Basil Rathbone), but when married finds that the man she picked is a tyrant. Unfortunately, she dies in childbirth, and David is left without a mother and without a home. He goes to a family of poor but happy people with a curmudgeon father figure (Lionel Barrymore) to hold them together. David also meets Micawber (W C Fields), a friendly but eccentric character who takes him in for a short time. When Micawber fails to make enough money to support the troupe, David is forced to seek his stuffy old aunt Betsey (Edna May Oliver) for assistance. Unexpectedly, she takes him in with open arms and educates him as part of society.
David grows up (Frank Lawton) and begins to visit with the people from his past in an attempt to repay them for their kindness. He fields trouble with the Wickfield family due to the sinister Uriah Heep (Roland Young). He also falls in love with a beautiful but childish Dora (Maureen O'Sullivan).
The film drags in places, and becomes too complex in others. Essentially, it is a series of vignettes of David's life. Somehow, despite the cast, the film does not gel the way it should to be a masterpiece that it had the potential to be.
Also included on the DVD are a few unrelated short subjects including a strange technicolor film about a drunken man who imagines the dummies in a department store are alive.