Director
Simon Langton
Cast
Colin Firth”¦”¦”¦.Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy
Jennifer Ehle”¦”¦”¦.Miss Elizabeth Bennet
The Movie
Making Jane Austen’s book “Pride & Prejudice” into a film doesn’t require much, as the material translates well enough that even a Bollywood version of the film, 2005’s Bride & Prejudice, took the established story and kept it entertaining with singing & dancing sequences. Every version of the film has been highly regarded, most recently garnering an Oscar nomination for Keira Knightley. But in adapting it to a film, large portions of Austen’s book are gutted in order to keep the film at a reasonable running length. In 1995 the BBC would bring the entire book to life in the most acclaimed mini-series of the year, Pride & Prejudice.
The five hour series encompasses one of the great epic romances of our time: Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth) and Elizabeth Bennet (Jennifer Ehle). After initially dismissing one another due to perceived faults, circumstances beyond their control bring them together begrudgingly. Blossoming into love, the film follows the two as they go from loathing one another to the sort of love that romance movies are all about.
The thing about this film is that there’s no short-cutting of the book’s tremendous story. All of the subplots, normally cut for the cinema, are included as Simon Langton gets to film the entire story and present it as such. With five hours of viewing time to use, he uses all of it to tell this epic love story set in 19th century England. With a lot of time, Langton gets to tell the story in a much slower way than the previous film versions are able to. It’s a much more complete story, much more satisfying in nature than the masterpieces that were the previous film incarnations, and yet its beauty is in its simplicity.
Darcy and Elizabeth have a love that is evident from their very first meeting; and much like other versions of the book made into filmed counterparts Pride & Prejudice works because of how strong its lead actors are. This is perhaps the best acted on any of the Pride & Prejudice adaptations, if only due to the sheer amount of time provided to the actors. Subtleties of the characters that they have an opportunity to work with haven’t been provided to other productions of the film if only due to the two hour or so running time a theatrical version of the film falls upon.
This is the series that raised the bar for how a costume drama should look and even 10 years later it still holds up on a And until it was equaled by the Knightley version in 2005, this was the definitive version of the film if only for how authentic it looked and felt. It’s as if one is being transported back in time to the 1800s for the series, as everything about the series is amazingly authentic to the period.
When it comes to Austen and her books, adaptations have generally been the most favorable to her over nearly any other author in her situation. This version of Pride & Prejudice is easily the best of them and worth the five hour investment of time.
The Audio
Presented in a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround, it’s a good transfer but sub-par in comparison to most DVDs circulating today. While everything comes through loudly and clearly, it’s not as good as current releases.
The Video
With a newly remastered widescreen format, the film does have a terrific transfer. The film is a little bit grainy at times, but for the most part it’s been cleaned up quite well and looks terrific for the most part.
The Extras
There isn’t a lot in terms of quantity for extras on this new edition but what is included is of such quality that it makes up for it. There’s an A&E Biography episode about Jane Austen which is quite fascinating to see. It’s easy to see where she got her ideas and how it inspired her to write her fiction. Lasting Impressions is a retrospective documentary about the making of the classic series. Set up in seven parts, most of the principles involved in the film (minus Firth and Ehle for undisclosed reasons) have come back to discuss the mini-series with a lot of candor. This isn’t the usual Electronic Press Kit sort of feature that dominates many DVDs; the cast talks candidly about making the film and relays several behind the scenes stories about the near six month filming session. Running nearly an hour, it’s an exhaustive look at the series. There’s also a 120 page deluxe companion book, “The Making Of Pride and Prejudice” with photos, illustrations, and interviews with cast and crew about the film.
