Brideshead Revisited
by Julian Jarrold
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DVD details
Actor: Emma Thompson, Greta Scacchi, Michael Gambon, Patrick Malahide, Sarah CrowdenDirector: Julian Jarrold
Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 133 minutes
Published: 2009-01-01
DVD Release Date: 2009-01-13
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MIRAMAX
DVD Reviews of Brideshead Revisited
DVD Review: An Abomination. A Hate Crime. Demonic Possession of a Great Work of Art.
Summary: 1 Stars
Many cinematic adaptations of famous novels fail miserably because of poor casting, bad acting, horrible scripts, or a general inability to capture the spirit of the book, all of which are true about this adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. However, I have never before seen a movie which has deliberately and maliciously perverted the core message- the very soul- of its source material, as this movie does. "Brideshead Revisited- 2009" is an abomination. It is an artistic and spiritual obscenity that deserves utter oblivion. Let it be anathema.
Evelyn Waugh, a Catholic convert, wrote a novel steeped in very Catholic ideas of sin and redemption, with its main theme being the operation of Divine Grace upon the soul. This putrid and dishonest movie has utterly discarded the central theme of the book and replaced it with a tawdry bisexual love triangle and anti-religious agitprop. This movie resembles the story we know only in outward appearance- the names of characters, certain locales and plot superficialities- but it is a gutted structure; its very heart and soul have been removed and replaced with something vile.
The scriptwriters were quite honest in their intentions. They announced that God would be the villain of the story, and religious guilt its theme. To be sure, I don't recall ever having seen a movie animated by such naked anti-Catholic hatred. Lady Marchmain, a figure of Mother Church in the novel, is portrayed here as a diabolic cult leader, a dead-eyed, heartless monster who robotically spews Church dogma and controls her family through manipulation of their religious feelings. In this movie, Julia's conscience was aroused not by grace but only because she was indoctrinated when she was young. Sebastian conducts a pantomime Eucharistic celebration with Charles. Charles' conversion isn't even acknowledged. One anti-Catholic diatribe follows another. When even Christopher Hitchens says that the movie was "motivated by the cheaper sort of malice" against Catholicism, you know that what you're witnessing is a bona fide hate crime.
To give one example of how mendaciously this movie has perverted the novel's original intent, take the dialogue between Cara and Charles about how much Lord Marchmain hates his wife - here's the book: "And how has she deserved all this hate? She has done nothing except be loved by someone who was not grown-up...She is a good and simple woman who has been loved in the wrong way. When people hate with all that energy, it is something in themselves they are hating. Alex is hating all the illusions of boyhood-innocence, God, hope. Poor Lady Marchmain has to bear all that." Now, the movie: "That woman nearly suffocated him...Just look at her children. Even when they were tiny in the nursery they must do what she want them to do, be what she want them to be, only then would she love them. It's not Lady Marchmain fault. Her God has done that to her."
The movie tells us that if not for religion, Sebastian could be a happy homosexual, Julia and Charles could enjoy their adulterous relationship and Lord Marchmain could divorce his wife. To the scriptwriters, as to their modern audience, the idea that guilt may be a natural and salutary reaction to sin is completely foreign. For we in the West live among a pullulating mass of spiritual barbarians (and I mean spiritual in the broadest sense): not so much nihilistic as just morally retarded. They are shiny, one-dimensional bipeds, mere simulacra of human beings, who never even possessed a faith that they could reject. Marinated in the shabbiest materialism and various trendy theories of self-esteem, the plastic generations of the past few decades grew up to hold one, enduring core value: narcissism. If previous generations of atheists declared that Man is the Measure of All Things, these empty, tattooed husks who fill the schools and are starting to enter into positions of power, declare that_I_Am the Measure of All Things. Even the pagans valued the cultivation of the higher sensibilities- aesthetics, ethics, philosophy- but these savages whom the West has nurtured in its bosom are unable to grasp any concept beyond that of physical comfort- never mind Truth or Beauty! Incapable of even "sinning boldly", they go about joylessly gratifying the banal impulses of consumerism. Ignorant of where they came from, unaware of where they're going and barely cognizant of where they are now, they are the audience for Brideshead Revisited-2009.
Because of that, I'm afraid the anti-religious message was probably wasted on an audience who's never known God in the first place. I could just see them watching this movie, their senses momentarily diverted by vivid scenery and semi-attractive people, but their dull minds in a state of perplexity, as if faced with the inexplicable taboos of a primitive tribe: "God? Who? Sin? What? Guilt? Huh?".
As for the rest of it, this movie fails in every respect. The "epicene beauty" Sebastian looks like an angry gnome and minces about in revoltingly queenly style. Charles resembles a gormless halibut. The "Byronic" Lord Marchmain (played by Dumbledore from Harry Potter) looks and acts like a plumber. Julia has all the grace and charm of a reality show contestant who lifts her top for the cameras. And worst of all, Evelyn Waugh's absolutely exquisite prose was replaced with the most insipid and nonsensical dialogue that the products of modern government education factories could churn out. If you possess a modicum of good taste, or intelligence, or a spark of the Divine, I warn you not to waste your time or soil yourself with this trash.
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