Persuasion 1971 Movie Review
It's important to remember that this was done back in 1971 and was done very much as a "set period piece" as if it was done on a theater stage. I found myself spending a lot of time thinking about this issue. I have seen MANY theater pieces that were full of passion and power, so it's not just that it's "theater" that made it ... "emotionless". I also realize that English nobility at the time was supposed to have a stiff upper lip and hide feelings, to project a specific image. However, there should have been bubbling passion BENEATH that facade that slipped out at times, especially during certain personal, emotional scenes. It just did not.Also, very oddly, the staging was done so that there were a LOT of backs being shown to the camera, deliberately! I imagine it was to try to "shake up" traditional notions by doing that, but it ended up feeling annoying. It's not much fun looking at the back of peoples' heads.
OK, onto the movie. I saw this after the 2008 version and after reading the book, so I was comparing it to both of them. Also, this is a *long* version (225 minutes) so I was really hoping this would be the most complete one, being able to explore all aspects of the characters and situations.
The pace is very slow, with lots of talking, both with dialogue from the book and added in. Lady Russell complains to Anne that her sister Elizabeth won't listen to her orders, implying that Elizabeth is "above persuasion" (a key message in the book) and that this is bad. When Anne pines about having not married Captain Wentworth (by following Lady Russell's persuasion that he was not good enough for her), Lady Russell responds that thousands of women have made her mistake, i.e. missing out at their one chance of happiness. I found this rather poignant considering that Jane Austen was writing this both for her own lost love and for her friends who had ended up in that situation. Lady Russell makes it clear that she did want Anne to marry Charles, to settle for him. Anne says the only reason she didn't marry Wentworth in the end was for HIS sake - that she didn't want to hold back his career, and that she knows he never married at all.
This is just one scene of the story but it really shows how much more information they packed into here than in other movies, and also how they clarified aspects of the book. They made Anne's character more believable, and they have her be much more "accepting" of the pain she's going through. It's not just a "Oh how stupid I was! I will be in angst for decades!" It was mainly her own choice, she feels, for a very noble, love filled reason.
Next, there is not a lot of trauma involved in Wentworth's other loves. In the other movie, there is a lot of worry about Wentworth actively going after other women. However, here Henrietta does rejoin Charles pretty much immediately when they walk out to his house. There is the Louisa romance, but again pretty much the instant she is hurt, that is ended.
Wentworth's real "emotional change" in this one seems to be when Anne is noticed by Mr. Elliot at the beach, which bothered me. He's supposed to fall in love with her again because of her calm, mature, life-saving demeanour at the accident scene. Instead, he is just piqued into jealousy because another man has noticed her. Speaking of which, the falling scene is VERY very silly. Jeez Louise, if I was hurt I wouldn't want any of these people around me when I was injured. "Fetch the smelling salts"???
There were several key things missing here. They are missing the "you are ANNE Elliot?" line when she is introduced to Wentworth's friends, which implied many long discussions by Wentworth to his friends about her. Also, did I somehow miss it, or did they pull out the entire hurt child scene with Mary's son? Then when Louisa is hurt they all come trouping downstairs and nobody even stays with her? Anne finally says she will but then only sits with her for about 0.2 seconds before coming back down again. It was very odd.
Wentworth is gone during the next "Anne is more useful" scene, which feld odd, he really should have been a person to hear that exchange. Similarly, during the speech later on where Anne's father is going on and on about poor widows, Mrs. Gray is there listening to it (which is good) but then the rebuttal by Anne - that Mrs. Gray is in that exact same situation - is never given. I really think that's a powerful thing to have brought to her father's attention. It's like they're deliberately avoiding any actual conflict of emotion-bringing situations.
A letter comes, Louisa is marrying the sailor, not Wentworth. Again, the tension is gone very quickly. She even talks with the Admiral about luring Wentworth in to Bath. When he shows up in the rain, he says hi and then runs off again, dissipating the tension very quickly. Yes, he comes back with an umbrella, and Mr. Elliot comes and takes her away. Then at the club he's glib almost, there is no sense of burning passion, that he wants to be with her again. The leaving scene is equally odd, he sort of says bye and runs off. He makes it seem like he doesn't want to be with her - not that he desperately wants her and feels his chance is lost.
They babble along with Charles when they're about to finally face each other - again, no sense at all that this is a moment they've waited 8 years for. It's just a happy conversation and while they are trying to nudge him away, you don't get any feeling that they really want to be with each other. I do admit they created one nicely tender moment in the park, but it was a tiny reward for such a long movie.
In a nearly final scene, Anne comments "I'm not a girl now, you know" to explain that she won't be persuaded again. I do like that touch - that she has matured a lot and come into her own. It's far more convincing then Anne's being flighty and pushed around the entire movie in the 2008 version, where to be honest I couldn't tell if she WOULD be pushed around again. Far from having proven herself mature during the movie she'd been giving in left and right and center to people the entire time. I'd have liked her to say something more solid, like Anne did here.
All in all, I just didn't feel the passion. Anne was much more book-true here - mature, settled, rational. But she was TOO settled - there wasn't the underlying pain and power that the book had. Wentworth equally was a walking stick with no emotion. He was supposed to be handsome and charismatic and actively drawing in women. I couldn't see that at all in him.
Random notes:
Both this and 2008 version has statues of black people with gold kilts as decor everywhere :)
"You were very attractive" says Russell :). No hope for women over 25 to BE attractive??
There is a LOT of dialogue about Mary "imagining herself ill" and "boys are poorly behaved"
Starring: Anne Firbank, Bryan Marshall
Persuasion Main Review Page
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