Great Expectations [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Immediately grabbing the audience's attention with a heart-stopping opening scene in a dark graveyard, acclaimed British director David Lean realizes the cinematic potential of Charles Dickens' classic 1861 novel, and the result is considered by many to be one of the finest literary adaptations ever made as well as one of the greatest British films of all time. Crystallized into a tight 118-minute running time by Lean, Ronald Neame, and a corps of uncredited contributors, this is the story of young Pip, a lad of humble means whose training as a gentleman is bankrolled by a mysterious benefactor. Along the way, Pip falls in love with the fickle Estella, befriends the cheerfully insouciant Herbert Pocket, has memorable encounters with the escaped convict Magwitch and the lunatic dowager Miss Havisham, and almost (but not quite) forgets his modest origins as the foster son of kindhearted blacksmith Joe Gargery. The role of Pip is evenly divided between Anthony Wager as a child and John Mills as an adult; Alec Guinness makes his starring film debut as the jaunty Pocket; Jean Simmons and Valerie Hobson are costarred as the younger and older Estella; and Martita Hunt is unforgettable as the mad Miss Havisham ("It's a fine cake! A wedding cake! MINE!") Remade several times, Great Expectations resurfaced in 1989 as a TV miniseries, with Jean Simmons, originally the young Estella, tearing a passion to tatters as Miss Havisham; and in 1998 it was remade again, in a contemporary version, with Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert DeNiro, and Anne Bancroft in the Miss Havisham role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: All
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Audio: 5.1, PCM Mono
• Screen: Black and White
• Subtitle: English
• Features:
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • Subtitles

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Won Best Black and White Art Direction - 1947 (John Bryan, Wilfred Shingleton)
•     Won Best Black and White Cinematography - 1947 (Guy Green)
•     Nominated Best Director - 1947 (David Lean)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1947
•     Nominated Best Screenplay - 1947 (Ronald Neame, Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean)

• London Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2006

• National Board of Review

•     Nominated Best Picture - 1947

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  David Lean

• Producer:

  Ronald Neame

• Screenwriter:

  Kay Walsh, Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean, Cecil McGivern, Ronald Neame

• Book Author:

  Charles Dickens

• Cinematographer:

  Guy Green

• Composer (Music Score):

  Walter Goehr

• Editor:

  Jack Harris

• Production Designer:

  John Bryan

• Art Director:

  Wilfred Shingleton

• Executive Producer:

  Anthony Havelock-Allan

• Costume Designer:

  Sophia Harris

• First Assistant Director:

  George Pollock

• Production Manager:

  Norman Spencer

REVIEW:

• Director David Lean's treatment of the classic Charles Dickens novel eliminates the subplots but does an excellent job of establishing the story's gloomy marsh setting, whether it be in the brutishly macabre graveyard or Miss Havisham's musty and oppressive living tomb. The crystalline cinematography helps establish a starkly ironic contrast between the sterile upper class frivolity in London and the rustic rural honesty of Pip's childhood. The casting of near-40-year-old John Mills as the 20-year-old Pip is hard to swallow, but there are several remarkable performances in this film. Francis L. Sullivan's work as Jaggers, Pip's guardian and his anonymous benefactor's lawyer, stands with imposing authority over all his scenes, dismissive of his social inferiors, yet as fair-minded and direct with Pip as his position allows him to be. Alec Guinness, as Pip's roommate and social educator Herbert Pocket, shimmers on the screen like a Hollywood starlet, establishing an interestingly homoerotic subtext to the Herbert Pocket-Pip relationship. Bernard Miles as Pip's Uncle Joe gives a warm performance in the potentially cliché role of Pip's soft-hearted (and soft-headed) childhood guardian. With characters so vividly drawn, their ambitions and disappointments are keenly felt. As a result, we are able to forgive the familiar Dickensian flaws, such as an over-reliance on chance and coincidence and the occasional melodramatic and sentimental treatment of the otherwise serious material. And, other than a few brief courtroom scenes near the film's end, Lean's dramatization of the social criticism in Dickens' novel lacks conviction. ~ Dan Jardine, Rovi