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Lady Jane

Lady Jane

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $11.99
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: have to love this movie
Review: I really have always like history based movies, especially tragedies like this one. Lady Jane is a beautifully portrayed film of the sad tale of the Nine-Day Queen, with good acting, nice costume, and a superb story line. I've been very interested in her, since I saw this film, and I've even been to the Tower of London since then. Plus it has a great cast...Cary Elwes and Helena Bonham Carter! But, if you're overly sensitive like me and cry for days over movies like this AND DON'T LIKE DOING SO....a warning to you! Otherwise, WATCH IT! ^_^

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This movie is great.
Review: I just saw "Lady Jane" on the Romance Channel the other night,and it still had me crying long after it was over.It is beautifuly acted,Cary Elwes and Helen Bonahm Carter do a great job in portraying the charactors of Lady Jane and Guilford.

I am just getting into the history of the monarchs in europe in the 16th century,and this movie seems to be pretty historically accurate."Lady Jane" takes the viewer to an emotional high and then an emotional low in about the span of 3 seconds.That is the only movie I have ever seen that has accompliches that task so very well.

All in all,"Lady Jane" is written and acted in such a beautiful way,I do not see how anyone could not appreciate this movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A True 'Crown Jewel'
Review: What is so compelling about a movie taken from history is that no matter how much we hope and pray, we cannot change the ending of the movie. And Lady Jane is one of these. We feel for the two young lovers so that we would do anything to prevent the inevitable. Just knowing the fate of Lady Jane almost reduced me to tears.

The acting was superb, the scenery stunning, and the costumes both lavish and breath-taking.

And if *that* doesn't tempt you enough, then I have two words to add. Cary Elwes. You may remember him from The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Not only is he a terrific actor, but he gets the job done looking *incredible*. He alone is reason enough to make this purchase.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I saw this movie for the first time as a teenager and I still love it. This movie was one of the first stepping stones for me in becoming fascinated by history, especially English history. Films like these make history interesting and real for so many people. It is a beautiful story about a queen so rarely spoken of!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A bit off the mark
Review: Such attention as the film gave to the genuine historical points, and to Jane's religious convictions (which were great) makes this well-acted drama enjoyable. Unfortunately, the far-from-true presentation of a "love story" as the main focus makes the essence disappear all too often. Jane having a great romantic passion for Dudley, and this influencing her actions to a great degree, is far off the mark.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great movie!
Review: I loved this movie when was originally released, and I still love it now. A few months or so before the movie was released, I had read Mary Luke's non-fictional The Nine Days Queen, and I was excited to see a film adaptation of this remarkable story of noble ideals and being true to them, no matter the consequence. Although romance is added to the film, I really don't expect for films to be 100% historically accurate. It still makes a wonderfully tragic story of political conspiracy, and the romance just embellishes history a bit for entertainment purposes;) This is a great film for anyone who loves romance and/or historical drama. Although I found myself very involved with the story, I could imagine that major action-lovers would find it a bit slow. It is a rewarding movie to watch; it is beautifully filmed, the costumes are great, it is well-acted, and at the end, you will feel moved.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Aaaaggghhhh!
Review: No, no and again no; I simply cannot agree that this is a good film. While I accept that when some, if not most, historical facts are either embellished or plain ignored in films it is sometimes less unnecessary than others the complete re-writing and re-structuring of this film based upon the life, "reign" and death of Henry VIII's great niece Lady Jane Grey (later Lady Jane Dudley) is proposterous. Plucked at a tender young age was fresh-faced Helena Bonham-Carter to play this role and while she shows promise as the wily, naive and confused young royal there comes a point when her constant wining gets tedious and irritating.

The web of treachory spun by the manipulative, ruthless and really rather nasty adults in this film who abused their power over her and her young husband Guilford Dudley for their own means is certainly apparent enough and certainly makes you hate them but somehow it all seems a bit to Dynasty-like and therefore not totally believable.

And what with all the pious and over the top "we have the chance to make a better world" attitude by the young protagonists? Did this even exist? I highly doubt it; while I am sure they were nice enough people they were also young and rich and probably didn't give much thought to the less fortunate among them at a grass-roots level.

But one thing it possibly did get right was the love affair between Jane and Guilford; although I don't know it has a fact I have good reason to believe that although the marriage was arranged by their conniving parents they did eventually fall in love once hitched and this was very clear in the film.

Interestingly enough Guilford's brother Robert was a favourite of Jane's cousin-once-removed Elizabeth; yep the very same Queen Elizabeth I and he didn't have the most squeaky clean of reputations either.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lady Jane
Review: For Historical Dramas, Hal Wallis is superb. Mary, Queen of Scots and Anne of The Thousand Days were both excellent movies. Lady Jane could have received Five Stars except for the historical misrepresentation of her head over heels love for Guildford Dudley, whom she at best tolerated. Lady Jane was a victim of parents who were cowards, especially her mother Lady Frances Brandon who "waived" her right to the Throne of England as well as the death by beheading sure to follow an unsuccessful usurpation of the Crown. Lady Frances had the Tudor ruthlessness as well as a streak of cruelty towards her daughter absent in other members of the Tudor Royal Family. Jane's mother was first cousin to English Queens MARY and ELIZABETH as well as King EDWARD VI and JAMES V of Scotland but this was barely touched on in the movie. John Wood's performance as Northumberland is superb as is Jean Laportaire as MARY TUDOR. It is ironic that MARY's mother Catherine of Aragon's marriage was conditional on the beheading of the last male Plantagenet, demanded by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain of HENRY VII while their granddaughter MARY was forced to execute another royal claimant of Tudor and Plantagenet blood as a condition to marry Archduke Philip, Prince of Spain - and as with her mother resulted in a wretched life and miserable sad death for both mother and daughter whom many claimed at the time were cursed as a result of shedding innocent blood for their marriages. Lady Jane's mother Frances, Duchess of Suffolk married very quickly after the death of her daughter and husband as she was pregnant by her horse master Adrian Stokes. The baby died and so did the scheming duchess whom history doesn't record as having plead to her cousin Queen Mary for her daughter's life. The duchess should have been the one beheaded, not her daughter the innocent pawn Lady Jane. As a historical note the Queen Mother of England is descended from Lady Jane's sister Katherine Grey, while Cary Elwes who played Guildford Dudley is actually descended from Guildford Dudley's elder brother Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick. Another irony is the last male Plantagenget who was executed by HENRY VII was also styled Earl of Warwick. Lady Jane and Guildford Dudley were also distantly related by being descended from England's King EDWARD I, the king made infamous by the movie BRAVEHEART which was entertaining but historically almost worthless as a work of non fiction.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the soul takes flight...
Review: Having seen the film when it first hit cable I have watched Carter and Elwes' careers ever since. Truly a moving story of love and standing firm for ones' beliefs. I long ago wore out my taped copy and wish I could afford it.. Does anyone know how to get the soundtrack?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Story of Faith and Hope
Review: I count this as one of the most powerful movies I have ever seen (I've watched it at least twenty times, and will continue to). Although the producers embellished the historical accounts, the majority of the story remains true. Jane's testimony is accurate, sometimes almost word-for-word from the accounts in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Her story is one of faith, love, strength, and hope that "the strong can be good." If you have any interest in British history or martyrs of Christianity, you must see this. "If men believe things strongly, they should be willing to die for them." (Jane) As Jesus Christ died for us . . . because He loved and believed in us.


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