LastingAware The greatest movie ever!

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

kerndreamer In 1979 When I was a Senior in High School My English Teacher got this movie and showed it to the class to do a report on. It took a few days but it really stuck with me. I'm Not sure why it made such an impression on me. But I went on to see two new versions and didn't realize this had been re-made almost 17-or more times since 1917. Very Impressive. Loved the actress Estelle Winwood. What a career. I love movies that keep you captive and you need to figure out what the back story is... and then some how it all comes together to make sense at the end... Absolutely mesmerizing. I still Love it. Would love to buy for my classic collection. Not sure why I like the black and white version, maybe it gives more mystery to the fog scenes, the mansion, etc... if you haven't seen this version I highly recommend it.

TheLittleSongbird Great Expectations is a difficult book to adapt, that is true of a lot of Dickens actually, but that doesn't stop this 1974 TV film from being a disappointment- and on its own merits as well- especially considering the talent involved. Of the adaptations there is, the definitive one is David Lean's, one of the best Dickens adaptations there is as well, while this fares the weakest from a personal perspective. The redeeming qualities are in the costumes and a handful of decent performances. The costumes are very beautiful-looking, and of the performances Margaret Leighton, James Mason, Joss Ackland and Anthony Quayle fare the best. Leighton brings mystery and tragedy to Miss Havisham although the writing can work against her. Mason makes for a Magwitch that is both creepy early on and dignified in the latter parts of the story. Ackland is effectively subtle and forthright as Joe without ever trying too hard. And Quayle's Jaggers is very intelligently played with the right amount of occasional pompousness.Unfortunately, these four performances are the only ones that work. The worst case was Sarah Miles, the very meaning of miscast. Yes she is beautiful, which is just part of Estella's character, and Estella is not a likable character at all. But she plays the character as too much of a overly-hysteric and condescending snob, and manages to not be cold or haughty enough. The decision to cast her as Young Estella too backfired hugely as well, she doesn't convince at all playing a character that is meant to be over half her age. Michael York is a good actor as well as handsome, but seems wooden and ill at ease as Pip. He and Miles don't have that much chemistry and their scenes are lifelessly paced. Robert Morley is too comedic and not shrewd enough for Pumblechook, though he gets the indignity right, he's done these types of roles before so it did come across as rather predictable. Rachel Roberts looks and sounds bored as nasty Mrs Joe Gargery, and while the boy who plays young Pip acts very reasonably and is very photogenic he didn't really convince as a seven year old, too tall. And you'd be hard pressed to find a blander Herbert Pocket than Andrew Ray.The adaptation does have other problems other than the casting. Of the production values, only the costumes left too much of an impression. The camera work lacks character or any distinction, and completely fails to give any atmosphere in the opening graveyard scene. Done so unforgettably and hauntingly in Lean's film, the choice of camera work- the scene works so much better with Magwitch appearing suddenly instead of having the camera work focusing completely on him- made the scene devoid of any surprise or tension. The settings are also colourless and too TV-bound, with very little of the dreary and desolate quality that Dickens' writing and the other adaptations portrayed. The Satis house was the sole exception, the details were quite well done there such as the wedding cake. The music sounds beautiful and is ravishingly orchestrated, not a surprise as this is Maurice Jarre we're talking about. Unfortunately, it is both not appropriate and poorly utilised, in places it's very syrupy and in others it is comically rousing, it never seems to find the right tone and it's rather repetitive as well. The script is dry and stilted, also often taking a simplistic approach, the additional dialogue veers on ludicrous. Miss Havisham's taunting of Pip was not needed and very insensitive, it also distorts Miss Havisham's character.But it's the story where the adaptation falls down most upon on, adaptation-wise and on its own. The basic structure is faithful but that's pretty much it, the worst cases being the ending, Biddy's role being changed to a significant degree and Miss Havisham and Estella's character writing taken to extremes. The storytelling is much too simplified to the extent that some instances don't make sense, any darkness, conflict and ambiguities are completely lost and even the underwhelming ending of the 2012 Mike Newell film wasn't this horrendously bungled. With a longer length and much more secure pacing(details were rushed but the pacing on the whole was tedious) things probably would've been better. Apparently it was originally meant to be a musical, but the songs were excised, even with that happening a lot of it is staged in a way of anticipating some big musical number, but one that never happens. In conclusion, good costumes, good Satis house and four good performances but uninspired and dull. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Syl I remember being assigned to read Charles Dickens' novel, "Great Expectations," as an English major in college. I think this movie would have greatly enhanced my understanding of the story. The film has a first rate cast featuring a rising star, Michael York, as the adult Pip. Miss Havisham is played by the late great British actress, Margaret Leighton. Sarah Miles played Estella in this film. I loved Leighton's performance as Miss Havisham, the mysterious woman who lived in a mansion in a small English village with Estella, her adopted daughter. The first rate cast features plenty of great actors and actresses mostly British such as Joss Ackland, James Mason, Anthony Quayle, Heather Sears, Rachel Roberts, and even Tom Owen has a scene in there as taunting adult Pip. The quality is decent and the film was done in Elstree Studios long before East-Enders in Bedfordshire, England.

Robert J. Maxwell This made-for-television production obviously doesn't follow the book too closely. The novel brims with sub plots and details of the period. I know this not because I've ever read it but because I once saw it in a library, took the book down, and hefted it in my hands before deciding I wasn't up to tackling it. I was just recovering from a traumatic experience with "War and Peace." But the movie is nothing to be ashamed of. Oh, it's not as taut and dramatic as David Lean's earlier version, which is compact and superb, but it has its virtues.One of them is Sarah Miles -- not so much her performance as the bitchy Estella, but the fact that in her first scenes she passes adequately for a post-pubescent teen ager. This is remarkable because she was a post-pubescent teen ager ten or fifteen years earlier in both "Term of Trial" and "The Servant." She's mean enough, but doesn't quite project the same genuine haughtiness of Jean Simmons in David Lean's film.Michael York is adequate as the blacksmith's apprentice turned snob turned Mensh. The Oxford-educated York seems to handle the accent well. Joss Ackland is a proud, benign presence. He had yet to develop the jowls he displays and wobbles so threateningly in later villainous roles, like the Commisar in "Citizen X." James Mason -- this is quite a cast, isn't it? -- James Mason is the rude and murderous Magwitch and handles the part surprisingly well, given that his criminal persona is usually so suave and ironic. Anthony Quayle, a great Shakespearean, is lawyer Jaggers and Peter Bull appears in a small role. Margaret Leighton is fine as the tragic Miss Havisham.It all ends happily or, at least, justly. In the final scene York manages to convince Miles that she should give up the notion of re-living Miss Havisham's life and marry him instead, and he prints on her soft cheek a lover's kiss.Yet it's all a little depressing. Dickens is almost always a little depressing. What are the themes he deals with so relentlessly, after all? Poverty, wealth, inheritance, greed, pride, social class, power, parentage. No one was more graphic about being poor and to see it in living color on the screen isn't exactly uplifting. Dickens himself was born poor and knows whereof he speaks. During a visit to the United States he had a chat with Edgar Allan Poe. One can only wonder what in God's name they had to talk about.