Jane Eyre

Rating:
Summary: An oddity and an artifact
Review: I love old films and the story of Jane Eyre, so I bought this DVD thinking I couldn't miss. Wrong! This is a horrible adaptation, not at all true to the book. The characters are completely changed: Jane is described as "the pretty governess," and engages in perky verbal sparring with a dashingly handsome and charming Rochester. In both the book and all other film adaptations I've seen, Jane is rather plain and humble, and Rochester is moody and NOT supposed to be handsome. Aside from the terrible adaptation from book to script, and the bad acting, the movie print itself used to master the DVD was in poor shape, and NOT restored. The resulting DVD is of annoyingly poor quality. This particular movie version is just plain bad, both story and technical quality. Try the versions with George C. Scott or William Hurt instead; they're very good. The Ciaran Hinds version is passable, though in his version Rochester comes off as just plain mean.

Rating:
Summary: Worst version I've seen!
Review: I love old films and the story of Jane Eyre, so I bought this DVD thinking I couldn't miss. Wrong! This is a horrible adaptation, not at all true to the book. The characters are completely changed: Jane is described as "the pretty governess," and engages in perky verbal sparring with a dashingly handsome and charming Rochester. In both the book and all other film adaptations I've seen, Jane is rather plain and humble, and Rochester is moody and NOT supposed to be handsome. Aside from the terrible adaptation from book to script, and the bad acting, the movie print itself used to master the DVD was in poor shape, and NOT restored. The resulting DVD is of annoyingly poor quality. This particular movie version is just plain bad, both story and technical quality. Try the versions with George C. Scott or William Hurt instead; they're very good. The Ciaran Hinds version is passable, though in his version Rochester comes off as just plain mean.

Rating:
Summary: Not this one
Review: If you want the BEST version of Jane Eyre, get the one with Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine. It's as simple as that.

Rating:
Summary: An oddity and an artifact
Review: The company that releases this DVD claims it's the first version of Jane Eyre on film. This makes it especially interesting...but Jane Eyre fans may be disappointed at how far the film strays from the novel.

A short film, it doesn't do a bad job of condensing, it simply takes 1930s sensibilities and forces them onto the story. The Jane in this film is not only pretty (and mentioned by many characters as being "beautiful"), but she is rather silly, and sometimes mean...Things that the Jane of the novel never was. Rochester is far from being sardonic and tortured; he's actually...well...awfully sweet.

(PLOT SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH!) In addition, several important plot points have been changed, probably due to censors of the time. For example, Adele is not the child of Rochester's mistress; she's his legitimate niece. And Rochester doesn't try to marry Jane even though he's already married; he is seeking (and receives) an annulment before the ceremony. Many favorite characters are also missing, including Helen.

Nonetheless, this film is an interesting piece of history. It was directed by a woman (something Charlotte Bronte would approve of), and has the sensibilities of it's time. The quality of the film is very much in keeping with it's era, and it's condition is quite good considering it's age.