The 1980 Pride and Prejudice Movie

Featured ~ Brenda S Cox

Review by Brenda S. Cox

Here’s a bit of fluff today, for those who enjoy it. If you’d rather something more serious, please check out my blog this week on Jane Austen’s World, where I’ve told you all about the church Jane Austen attended in Chawton, with lots of photos. That’s the first instalment of posts about my wonderful trip to England this past summer!

But this holiday weekend I’ve been home sick with a cold and cough. I decided to re-watch the BBC 1980 Pride and Prejudice, starring Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul. I had only watched it once before, years ago. (It’s part of a nice set of BBC Jane Austen DVDs.) I’d heard someone praising it and wanted to give it another chance.  It’s a 5-episode miniseries, while my favorite, the 1995 BBC miniseries, is 6 episodes. 

So, I unearthed a DVD reader that would connect to my computer, and watched it. Of course I was also cross-stitching a penguin Christmas stocking for my new grandson. So I confess I didn’t give it my undivided attention.

The 1980/1985 BBC Pride and Prejudice. Produced in 1980, the DVD says 1985.

 Unfortunately, I have to say I was not impressed. But first the good aspects:

  • Much of the script was straight from the book, which is always nice.
  • The bits they added to the book were good. For example, Lady Catherine gave detailed advice to the Collinses. Then the movie showed Mr. Collins and Charlotte carrying out all of her petty instructions. I’m not sure why Mr. Collins was planting reeds by a pond in a waterproof hat, though . . .
  • The costumes were beautiful and Regency-style (to the best of my knowledge), including the bonnets. The hairstyles also were lovely. (In comparison, in the 1971 BBC Persuasion in the same DVD set, Anne Elliot’s hairstyle is odd and distracting.) Scenery also seemed appropriate.
  • Tessa Peake-Jones made a perfect Mary Bennet. She was distinct from the other sisters, with her straight hair and glasses, and she usually carried a book and gave her “wisdom” pedantically.
Tessa Peake-Jones as Mary Bennet and Clare Higgins as Kitty in the 1980 Pride and Prejudice.

Now the things I didn’t care much for:

  • I had a hard time telling the other four Bennet girls apart. They looked almost the same to me; same hairstyle in ringlets, similar pretty faces, similar patterns of speech. It was not until about episode four that I began to know which was which, other than by their lines. (To be fair, I was sewing while watching. But they did look a lot alike.)
  • David Rintoul was a good Mr. Darcy at the beginning–stiff, proud, unbending. Probably more like the Darcy of the book than Colin Firth starts out as. I was watching carefully to see the change in him after Elizabeth’s confrontation. But I felt that he wasn’t much different afterwards. A little looser and nicer, perhaps, but not radically. I could not see Elizabeth falling in love with him.
  • Wickham (Peter Settelen) didn’t seem to me nearly as charming or attractive as in other version. Wickham must have been charming, to get away with all that he did.
  • I just didn’t feel the emotional impact or intensity of the 1995 and 2007 versions. The actors and actresses said the right lines, but without much emotion, imho.
David Rintoul as a stiff-as-a-poker Mr. Darcy, and Elizabeth Garvie as Elizabeth Bennet, in the 1980 Pride and Prejudice.

Now, for a much more positive review, go to AustenProse. As LaurelAnn Nattress posits there, “Everyone has their favorite and I have this pet theory why Janeites love one version and abhor another. Everyone seems to bond with the first version that they see, so . . . [some] love the 2005 Keira Knightley version with pigs in the Longbourn kitchen and Mr. Darcy walking across a misty morning glade to find Elizabeth in her nightgown, or the 1995 version with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy taking a bath or a dip in Pemberley pond . . .”

No doubt I bonded with the 1995 version, and I know others who have bonded with the 2005 version. In 1980, I was graduating from college without ever having heard of Jane Austen. (I know, that’s very sad!) So this one didn’t bond with me. 

But give it a try, or, if you already know this movie version, tell me what you think!

Or tell me what you think of Austen adaptations in general. They do influence how we re-read a book; I know that I read Pride and Prejudice multiple times before every seeing a movie of it, but ever since I saw the 1995 version, I always picture Mr. Darcy as Colin Firth. Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing? Does it help us enter into Austen’s work better, or does it change our perception from what the author intended?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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