Sunday, June 21, 2009
More Wuthering Heights
What a tedious book! I'm glad that someone saw the value in the some of the ideas and characters here and made it into better films. The story is clunky and is told largely in flashbacks by the maid, Nelly Dean. So often I feel like yelling out loud to Emily Bronte, "Just get out of the way and tell the darn story!" And unlikeable characters? Let me tell you! Hindley is mean and small-hearted. Heathcliff is a cruel and evil. Cathy is selfish and uncaring. Linton is whiny and self-absorbed. Nelly Dean is tolerable, and only young Cathy is somewhat sympathetic. It would be a hard task to rewrite this into a screenplay of characters that one can have any feelings for. I'm currently watching the older Masterpiece Theatre version (1998) with Orla Brady (looks like Amy Grant), Robert Cavanah (playing the meanest Heathcliff so far) and Crispin Bonham Carter as Edgar. I've also been watching installments of the Olivier classic on YouTube. Will rank all five films when I'm done watching these two.
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2 comments:
I'm sad you didn't like it! I remember enjoying the story and the setting very much when I read it; I suppose you're right about the lack of sympathetic characters. I guess I enjoyed the fact that, hateful though they may be, they are all fairly interesting. But, it's been years since I read the book. Maybe I'd agree with you if I read it again.
I liked the new Masterpiece Theatre version of the story except for the end. What was up with that? Did we need to end with a view of the horse-drawn U-Haul vehicle carting away sundry household items? As cliched as it would have been, I would have preferred to see the shadowy figures of Heathcliff and Cathy wandering the moors.
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