Jude the Obscure (2 VHS Set, Complete Mini-Series) [VHS]

Jude the Obscure (2 VHS Set, Complete Mini-Series) [VHS]

Jude the Obscure (2 VHS Set, Complete Mini-Series) [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Alex Marshall, Daphne Heard, Fiona Walker, John Franklyn-Robbins, Robert Powell
Edition: VHS Tape
Format: Color, NTSC
Release Date: 2000-07-19
Audience Rating: Unrated
Publisher: BBC Warner
Studio: BBC Warner

VHS Movie Reviews of Jude the Obscure (2 VHS Set, Complete Mini-Series) [VHS]

Movie Review: Well, I liked it....
Summary: 4 Stars

My students HATED this film. I showed it in an upper division college seminar on Victoian literature when I was out of town at a conference. I returned to highly vocal complaints--many students called it "the most depressing film I have ever seen!"

Well, that's Thomas Hardy for you.

Beautifully made and acted, but certainly not a laugh a minute riot.

Movie Review: note: this was filmed on video
Summary: 4 Stars

This is a BBC adaptation from 1971. The most important thing you need to know is that it was filmed on video, so it's hard to escape the feeling of cheapness when you watch it. I am told that despite the public's prejudices towards film, video actually renders a superior picture. That may be true, but the fact is that as you watch this you'll be hard pressed to take it seriously, on account of our mental association of video and cheap soap operas. The problem is especially acute with this production on account of the gravity of the ending.

Further, the filmmakers don't appear to have had a lot of money, so most of the scenes are staged indoors. Outdoor shots are brief and cramped.

The three leads are superior, though, and very convincing. The direction, while occasionally imaginative, is mostly stiff and forgettable. (I'm guessing the director was much more comfortable with the stage than film, since it's almost like you're watching rigid adaptation fit better fit for the stage than the screen.)

From its intimidating running time (over 4 hours), you might be tempted to think that is adaptation follows the book excruciatingly faithfully (unlike, say, the recent Jude), but no, not especially. Several liberties are taken, much is changed, and countless scenes or subtleties from the book are dropped entirely.

Movie Review: Doesn't even deserve one star, but it won't accept the review without at least one
Summary: 1 Stars

I enjoy a lot of British productions, but this isn't one of them. It's totally awful - I wouldn't recommend that anyone spend a penny or a minute on this piece of trash.

Movie Review: Jude the Hermit
Summary: 4 Stars

Like the other reviewer, I finished this two-DVD mini-series in one sitting. I was also clueless what I was getting, but my passion lasted 'til the very end.

It was very difficult to understand at first because of the regional British accent characters were speaking. It's to provide authenticity of the language spoken by people from that setting. However, I wished the DVD production company could have provided close captioning for easier watching.

Do not let the language issue deter you though, because the story is very rewarding and very timeless, not only for the production value like the other reviewer pointed out, but the story itself transcends the time period it is set (which is Victorian England, early Victorian, I presume).

The other reviewer already mentioned something about Jude's marriage life. I must mention there is another tragedy (a counterpoint) in Jude's life some of us may relate well. The early focus of the story was on Jude's impotence to fulfill his personal goal. He wanted to be a scholar at a university. However, his financial status as well as social status prevented him from achieving it (this was Victorian era where people must know their places).

To solve the financial obstacle, he learned a trade and worked as a mason. However, he still had to meet the obstacle to be admitted to a university. He was ridiculed as being too educated for his trade. He felt betrayed by the society. The upward mobility in Victorian England wasn't very good. A self-made man was not rewarded.

He later wandered through series of vocational changes (I think this is very relatable, given the time we're in). However, after each new dream shattered before him, he was back as a mason.

While he was wading through the river of vocational identity, he also had an emotional journey. He was a man of tradition value. His acquaintance to his cousin Sue soon turned into a taboo love affair. The problem was not they were close kins, but a legal problem. He was a married man.

She also couldn't make up her mind between her own cousin and her betrothed. Instead, she masked her non-commitment as a break of trivial social convention. Her free-spiritedness disgusted him at first but at the end of the story, we would see a reversal of values.

Sue, on the other hand, after their wedlock children had hung themselves, she believed it was a punishment for her sin. It led her to re-marry her original husband. The tragic ending fit the brand of being Thomas Hardy's most controversial work.

The story is very melodramatic, which succumbs me once a while as a guilty pleasure (*nervous laughter*). It also reminds me of Scarlett Letter, except with a male lead. Jude must face the world's slight opinion of him, both his trade and his value, and bitter end of his own family.

It's a very modern story.

Movie Review: A powerful production not to be missed
Summary: 5 Stars

I don't usually review DVDs and CDs but after reading Claire Tomalin's excellent new biography of Thomas Hardy I decided to rent a couple of films based on his novels. "Jude the Obscure", a mini-series delivered in 1971, was my first choice and what a choice it was! Set on two DVDs (six episodes of forty-five minutes each) I came away dazzled not only with a greater appreciation of Hardy but of this particular group of actors.

Jude is a character of great sympathy who is in constant conflict between his marriage to one woman and his passions for another. Leading this strong group is Robert Powell (the entire cast is British, of course) and he delivers a tour de force in the title role of Jude. The supporting women, (Fiona Walker as Jude's cousin and real love and Alex Marshall as his wife) express a range of emotions that plays true to Hardy's work. This mini-series became so engrossing as I got into it that I watched the entire series in one sitting. It's a drama-packed production, wonderfully directed and photographed and not for one minute seeming to be outdated. I highly recommend it.

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Summary of Jude the Obscure (2 VHS Set, Complete Mini-Series) [VHS]

Thomas Hardy's bleak final novel tells the story of Jude Fawley, a country boy with intellectual aspirations who--like many of Hardy's tragic protagonists--is eventually crushed by forces beyond his control. Jude is an orphan, raised by an aunt who frequently warns him that Fawleys are not made for marriage. He is inspired by a local schoolmaster who teaches him the rudiments of Greek and Latin before leaving for the University at Christminster (Hardy's version of Oxford).

When he is old enough, Jude trains as a stonemason, but his ambition is to become a scholar. This alone would be an enormous challenge, given the rigid Victorian class system, but Jude's problems are compounded when he is tricked into marrying a local girl. When his wife deserts him he is able to go to Christminster, where he meets his cousin, Sue Bridehead. Like Jude, Sue feels trapped by her position in society, and the two kindred spirits struggle together to achieve their ambitions.

Like much television drama of the period, Jude the Obscure was shot on video and feels a little studio bound, a marked contrast to the lavish location filming of more recent versions. However, the relative simplicity of the production focuses attention on the performances, especially Robert Powell's intense, complex Jude. With a running time of close to five hours, this film is able to do justice both to the subtlety of Hardy's novel and its tragic power. --Simon Leake

Drama Video

Genres
Television > BBC > Genres > Award Winners
Drama
Miniseries

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