The Buccaneers
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Movie Reviews of The Buccaneers
Movie Review: the buccaneers
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved it!!! This is a beautifully made BBC series. Top notch all the way. The actors and scenery are perfection.Movie Review: Good Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Very good movie lots of drama, plots to follow, just a note its very long 6+ hoursMovie Review: Wharton's last unfinished novel as completed by BBC's Maggie Wadey... Questionable DVD transfer
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a version of Edith Wharton's last unfinished novel as completed by the BBC screenwriter Maggie Wadey. It was filmed barely 2 years after the first complete version of the novel was published in 1993 (Completed by Marion Mainwaring). It chronicles a very different time (1870s) when class distinctions were clearly marked and the nouveau riche found themselves curtly excluded from the "old money" aristocracy of 19th century America. The story traces the lives of 4 girls from such families who finding themselves rejected in the land of their birth, travel to England to try their charms and new found wealth on the titled aristocracy of the old country. How they fare and the breaking of their illusions form the meat of the story. One reviewer commented on the shallowness and blandness of the characters, of not being able to tell the girls apart. Some viewers may even look at these girls as twittering airheads. This is in part Wharton's doing. Edith Wharton was no admirer of the American upper class. She belonged to it, she experienced it first hand and she despised it and made it evident in her books. Wharton constantly pointed out her society's ignorance, provincialism and prissy narrow-mindedness. None of the girls here really ends up living happily ever after. One of the reviewers here stated that in the absence of Wharton's own ending, the BBC screenwriter has let one of the girls off at the end. But I tend to disagree. Even the heroine Annabelle's running away with the man she loves (supposedly a happy ending) is tinged with the public scandal of adultery, the loss of her titles and privileges, and exile to the other side of the world (Durban, South Africa). This is definitely not what any of the girls would have wanted. Everybody just ends up making compromises and settling for second best. But then such is life.
As usual with the BBC, this is a beautiful production, with gorgeous costumes and sets, filmed at various locations in the English countryside as well as in Newport, Rhode Island which stands in for 19th century America.
The DVD transfer is a rather more questionable affair. According to IMDb, Buccaneers was shot on 16mm film. In America, most TV shows are shot on standard 35mm, 16mm film being used usually for cheaper productions, especially sitcoms and series whose future is in doubt. The BBC alas is publicly funded and doesn't have quite the deep pockets of competing American studios, so many of even its major productions are on 16mm. The critically acclaimed "Brideshead Revisited" immediately springs to mind. For a 16mm film, this actually looks pretty good with strong, vibrant colours, rich blacks and just a slight amount of graininess which imparts a certain softness to the picture, much what you would expect from a 16mm print. It actually looks better than "Brideshead" does on DVD. What is disturbing is the rather odd (1.50:1) aspect ratio presented here. (Yes, I actually popped it into the PC to measure it.) Buccaneers is, I believe, supposed to be in 1.66:1 widescreen. The 1.50:1 aspect ratio means that it has either been cropped or it has had its mattes removed. Either way, it has been modified. Because of the odd ratio it has to be letterboxed into a 4:3 frame. It may matter only to a handful of cinephiles or videophiles but I do wish video companies would take more care in transferring their shows onto discs. Sound is in 2.0 Stereo and dialogue is always clear and distinct.
Movie Review: A gorgeous production, but a little too melodramatic in some areas...
Summary: 4 Stars
I thought it was time to put the North and South DVD down and watch another BBC period drama. I picked The Buccaneers because I'm a big fan of Edith Wharton and I love the novel (despite the fact that Wharton died before she could finish it). The BBC adaptation, despite being filled with more than a little Victorian melodrama, is an enjoyable adaptation and I watched all five episodes in two nights. Annabelle (also known as Nan) and Virginia St. George are two young ladies shunned by New York society because of their new money status. So they move to New England to try their luck there. Nan and Virginia, together with good friend Lizzy Elmsworth, meet a spirited Brazilian called Conchita Closson (Mira Sorvino) and have a great time smoking, drinking and passing off as English aristocrats in order to attend a ball. Nan is given an English governess, Laura Testvalley, and she becomes Nan's most trusted confidante. Unable to fit into Newport society, the girls move to England after Laura suggests a London season. There Nan and her friends experience the differences between the American and English societies, the difference between the world of trading and the monarchy, and how marriage with English aristocrats isn't the fairy tale life they'd thought it would be.
I love the backdrop of the 1870s, how the new ways of the world clash with the old ones, how fast science is advancing and how the British monarchy is slowly coming to a standstill. Those are some rather insightful parts of this mini-series. The book explores this more than the series adaptation, but they illustrate some insights without losing focus of the central storylines. The actors are all wonderful. I'd never seen any of them before except for Sorvino, but they're a talented lot. James Frain is great as the Duke of Trevenick. He showed a great deal of depth and dimensions and made the character complex and compelling. I also liked Ronan Vibert as Lord Richard. Cherie Lunghi as the governess and Carla Gugino as Nan are great as well. All of the stories centered on the girls' marriages and how they cope with the harsh realities of their callous husbands are quite touching if kind of depressing at times. Nan's marriage to the duke is especially heartwrenching and her forbidden love for up-and-coming politician Guy Thwaite (Greg Wise) is romantic in a bittersweet kind of way. The one thing I have against this series is that some scenes were a little too melodramatic and theatrical for my taste. Why does overacting seem like a prerequisite in a Victorian drama? And the ending doesn't seem like something Edith Wharton would have written. But I'm glad the ending had been written this way, for it is bittersweet rather than tragic. All in all, The Buccaneers is a beautiful production. The wardrobe is impressive. The train skirts from the 1870s are gorgeous, a real eyeful for costume drama fans. And there are some truly wonderful scenes in this series. I especially love the parts where Nan gets lost in the artwork, especially those beautiful paintings in her apartments at the Trevenick estate. This series is almost as fascinating to me as North and South and Richard Armitage (sigh), and the DVD is a great investment, the best ten bucks I've ever spent! I recommend this gem.
Movie Review: An absorbing melodrama
Summary: 4 Stars
My review of 'The Buccaneers" is confined to the screen production as I've not read Edith Wharton's unfinished novel of the the same name. Some of Wharton's works have been successfully adapted for the big screen such as The Age of Innocence [with Daniel Day Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer] and The House of Mirth [with Gillian Anderson]. In The Buccaneers, we follow the adventures of a group of nouveau riche aka "New Rich" American girls - sisters Annabelle/Nan[ Carla Gugino] and Virginia St James [Alison Elliott], Lizzy Elmsworth[Rya Kihlstedt], and Conchita Closson [Mira Sorvino]. Since their New Rich status bars them entry into the Old Rich high society of new York, they go off to England in search of well-connected husbands.
The girls attract the attention of men of the English nobility who in some instances, have only prestigious titles to their names and not much else. All the girls get married but with the exception of Lizzy who makes a stable and happy marriage, the others end up being miserable with their choice of husbands. Conchita [Mira Sorvino] marries Lord Richard, a weak-willed alcoholic, Virginia marries Richard's brother Lord Seadown [Mark Tandy] who marries her only for her money, for he has a long-standing affair with an older woman [Jenny Agutter], and free-spirited Nan [Carla Gugino] settles for the Duke of Trevenick, though her heart belongs to Guy Thwaite [Greg Wise aka Mr Willoughby of Sense & Sensibility].
"The Buccaneers" is at heart the story of Nan, and her fight for the right to be her own person despite a calamitous marriage, and the restrictions that her position as Duchess of Trevenick imposes upon her. Carla Gugino shines in her role, and her transformation from an idealistic teenager into a mature, young woman who learns to deal with the harsh realities of life is very credibly done. The other noteworthy performance is of Nan's governess, Ms Test Valley[Cheri Lunghi], who portrays a woman who has had to fend for herself by working as a governess since she was 17, and at the age of 40, finds herself bemoaning the fate of women during her time, the inability to live their own lives the way they deem fit, and to not have the choice of loving whom they please.
A brief note on the DVD - it seems that BBC Video has put The Buccaneers onto a single DVD with Side A containing 3 episodes, and Side B the remaining 2 episodes with an added feauturette about the production of the series. In all, the series itself runs to about 5 hrs.
In conclusion, this is a well-made period drama that will appeal to fans of the genre, and has lush landscapes, not to mention sumptuous costumes and of course, fine acting by an ensemble cast.