Rating: 
Summary: Someone release the 1926 version!
Review: To all those who wish they could "award" this movie no stars: I heartily agree with you. Here in Japan, the 1926 version with Lillian Gish and Lars Hanson is available on VHS, and it outclasses this film in every possible way (granted, that's not hard to do, but..)If the 1926 version is ever shown on television, don't miss it. The performances by Gish and Hanson (a silent film star from Sweden) are riveting, especially in the scene where Hanson defies the Puritan elders and baptizes baby Pearl. Their clarity of expression makes the agonizing message clear: Hanson may never have another chance to hold his own child. There are plenty of good comedy bits, too - - Gish follows Hanson along a path early in the film, trying to get him to talk to her. Every so often, he stops to look at her, but frightened of his own feelings, he immediately dives back into reading the Bible, as if it's a life preserver in the middle of the sea. The 1926 version also deviates from the book, but unlike Demi and Gary's movie, it always stays true to Hawthorne's original message. Please, someone release it on video or DVD!!
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Average
Review: I have to give this one mixed reviews. Gary Oldman was great. Demi was OK. I'm not sure how I felt about Robert Duval's performance. He brought an intensity to the role, but his accent just didn't quite make it. Photography was beautiful. They really aren't kidding when they say loosely adapted, so if you're looking for something that follows that high school required reading, this isn't it.
Rating:
Summary: This deserves no stars at all
Review: I cannot describe my rancor directed towards this movie in mere words, but I will try. This is the absolute worst movie of all time. I have never seen something that could go more against itself in every way. My description of the Count of Monte Cristo movie pales in comparison to what I feel about this one. In one word, it is vile. The entire focus of the book, however much I did not like it, was shifted to a Hollywood action movie filled with stupidity. The main character in the book is absolutely nothing like the one in the movie. The despair that the book projected is not even visible in the movie, which just happens to be one of its best parts. I mean, for God sakes, the man is saved by the arrow of an Indian from a hanging! WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? Anyway, to say more would only be rambling, so I leave with a suggestion: never see this movie, EVER!
Rating:
Summary: A ravaged work of art
Review: After watching this movie, I am appalled to say the least; there is no other way to put it. The only reason I gave this movie 1 star is because there was no option for zero. The Scarlet Letter has been a favorite book of mine for a good while, and I watched this movie under the impression that it might be good as well. I figured there might be some poetic licensing involved, but not to the extent this movie has taken it. I barely recognized the story line at all being that the whole plot was changed along with the struggles and emotions that made the book so powerful in the first place. I almost forgot I was watching anything even remotely related to Nathanael Hawthorne's novel. They have taken a book about solitude, strength, the victory of kindness over a whole towns hatred for free thought and turned it into a sappy (incredibly so) love story, replacing the internal struggles of three characters with what was probably assumed to be a profitable story line. One should be able to tell this movie will be unimpressive by the mere fact that the first half of the movie was a complete fabrication by the writers and the second half was a ravaged form of what was once an awe-inspiring story. This is the most tasteless rendition of a formally great novel I could have ever even imaged. If you like the book, by all means, don't go into this movie with even mediocre expectations because this movie doesn't even earn the right to bear its title.
Rating:
Summary: consider the source
Review: Anyone who would award this movie five stars is unlikely to possess the intellect necessary to read Hawthorne.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth anyone's time
Review: This movie is an awful adaptation of the book if you could even call it an adaptation. Important events and characters are switched around. Hester Prynne is never accused of heresy. Hibbins was supposed to be a bad woman, not Hester Prynne's friend and she does not have a trial in the book. The movie does not display the depth of Pearl's character. It also has an Indian attack the book does not have. Reverend Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne, and Pearl do not live happily ever after. Hester Prynne is supposed to have a strong moral character. The movie goes so far as to add another character, a black slave named Mituba. This shows that the movie is also historically inaccurate because slavery was not very widespread at this time, especially in the Northeastern United States. There are a lot more discrepancies between the movie and the book but there are just too many to list. So if you have to read the book for school but decide to watch the movie instead, don't bother, it would be too obvious that you didn't read it. The movie dulls in comparison to the book. It has a much simpler plotline that insults everyone's intelligence. As a movie by itself it is still awful. It horribly demeans women. It is a dreadful love story. It has way too much sex and violence that makes it all the more appalling. It is just a bad movie that is not worth anyone's time.
Rating:
Summary: So pathetic!
Review: "free adaptation" is not the right term for this movie. "Piece of (garbage)" would be much closer. At every turn, it forsakes even the key points of the book's plot to add gratuitous love scenes, and some scenes that are pure nonsense, ranging from silly to appalling, such as the skinny dipping scene.
Rating:
Summary: A BETRAYAL OF HAWTHORNE'S VISION
Review: Vapid pseudo-adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's timeless novel of guilt, conscience, and the darker side of religion. Inverts the original novel's themes of prejudice and redemption into a New Age libertine manifesto. The atrocious script has some of the worst dialogue ever and plays like a deranged parody of Hawthorne's magnificent prose. Great cast of Demi Moore, Gary Oldman and Robert Duvall is totally wasted. For a much better film treatment of many of the same themes see "The Crucible," but avoid this travesty at all costs.
Rating:
Summary: This is one CONFUSED movie !!
Review: Hawthorne's moving tale of tragedy and tolerance has been so twisted as to be nearly unrecognisible. In it's place is a confused action flic which culminates in a macbre game of musical chairs at the scaffold. First it's "hang the witches", then it's "hang Hester Pryne", then finally let's "hang the minister !" In the end, no one hangs due to a convenient and bloody Indian Uprising. That none of these things were present in Hawthorne's masterpiece is apparently of no consequence. This is a good movie to lend to a kid who is too lazy to read the book, and who you have a grudge against.
Rating: 
Summary: Sensual
Review: And an outstanding love story. This is definitely worth purchasing. Demi Moore explodes with passion and courage. I highly recommend this movie.
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