Jane Eyre

Rating:
Summary: Poor, Poor Pitiful Jane
Review:
I was excited to find this "Jane Eyre," as I had fond memories of this 1971 version being my first encounter with the Jane Eyre story. What story? It's abbreviated to the point of being nearly unrecognizable. (Read the book first. I've yet to see ANY production translate some of the beautiful moments in the text to the screen.) This is either a DVD of a very bad print -- with cuts so huge one wonders if parts of the film were lost and some genius decided to sell it "as is" -- or simply a terrible television adaptation. This is surprising because the credits of those involved are estimable: Jack Pulman (who adapted "I Claudius" for the television!) did the teleplay; John Williams wrote the score (and revamped it into the score for "Dracula" some 8 years later); George C. Scott plays Rochester (good casting) and Suzanna York, as good an actress as she may be, is completely miscast in the role. Not only is she too "mature," but far too pretty. Don't waste your time or energy on this. What a disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: An awful treatment of a great story
Review: I bought the DVD version of this movie on the recommendation of my wife who loved the version she saw aired in television. But the version put to DVD was a disaster.

The lighting was poor to non-existent; the film quality was terrible. Reminding me of a VHS tape that had been copied one too many generations.

Entire scenes were simply excised. In one instance Adele is being put to bed, and we immediately cut to another scene - coming in in mid-sentence - where it's the next night. This happens often throughout the film.

Characters such as Grace Poole and Mason are never even properly introduced, leaving one to wonder if they'd dozed off for a few minutes during the movie.

The DVD we saw was produced by Platinum Disc Corp and they ought to be ashamed! Even at $6.32 it was a gyp.

Be careful which version of this movie you buy! We're sending this one back.

Rating:
Summary: Great film - Bad DVD!
Review: I was so excited to see that this wonderful made-for-tv movie had been released on DVD. What a horrible shock it was to see that the print the DVD was created from was in terrible condition. Whole scenes are missing. The dialog jumps around. The screen goes completely black in the middle of a scene for a good three seconds. There are scratch lines throughout the film.
The "original" film itself I give 5 stars (from memory). The DVD -- doesn't deserve a single star. Shame on the production company for not remastering this brilliant film.
If you love Jane Eyre, these performances in this are well worth watching, but find a different copy.

Rating:
Summary: Great film - Bad DVD!
Review: I was so excited to see that this wonderful made-for-tv movie had been released on DVD. What a horrible shock it was to see that the print the DVD was created from was in terrible condition. Whole scenes are missing. The dialog jumps around. The screen goes completely black in the middle of a scene for a good three seconds. There are scratch lines throughout the film.
The "original" film itself I give 5 stars (from memory). The DVD -- doesn't deserve a single star. Shame on the production company for not remastering this brilliant film.
If you love Jane Eyre, these performances in this are well worth watching, but find a different copy.

Rating:
Summary: Close to the book
Review: I was surprised that this movie was pretty close to the book. With most books that become movies, they are NOTHING like what the author had in mind, but this one is.

Another reviewer commented on the quality of the DVD: I have had no problems with mine.

Rating:
Summary: Close to the book
Review: I was surprised that this movie was pretty close to the book. With most books that become movies, they are NOTHING like what the author had in mind, but this one is.

Another reviewer commented on the quality of the DVD: I have had no problems with mine.