The Pickwick Papers
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DVD details
Actor: Alan Parnaby, Clive Swift, Nigel Stock, Patrick MalihideBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 350 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-08-15
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: E2623
Studio: BBC Worldwide
Product features:
- Mr. Samuel Pickwick, a retired businessman is determined that after a quiet life of enterprise the time has come to set off on an unforgettable excursion accompanied by his three friends - Nathaniel Winkle, who fancies himself as a sportsman, Augustus Snodgrass a passionately natured poet and Tracy Tupman, a plump bachelor who is quite fond of the ladies. The four ramblers travel through the Engli
DVD Reviews of The Pickwick Papers
DVD Review: good color and sets
Summary: 3 Stars
The Pickwick Papers is a superb story, filled with comic situations and building to a climax and satisfying conclusion. Everyone should see a movie version of Pickwick. The question is which version, the 1985 BBC version or the 1952 version.
The 1985 version is a little over 5 hours long or 300+ minutes. There is also a 30 minute reading attached (Simon Callow posing as Dickens, if you can stomach that). The 1952 version is two hours long or 110 minutes.
It never helps a comedy, still less a farce, to adopt a slow pace. And to stop the show every 25 minutes to show titles and credits and to have some idiot tell you what you have just seen and what you are going to see next--this is detrimental to a comedy. The pace of the 1985 is about three times slower than the 1952 version, which moves at a rapid pace.
The result of this pacing is that there is very little in the longer version that is not also in the shorter version, the Christmas celebration at Wartles and a few other touches, like the (unseen) cricket match, the political campaign, and the hunting scenes.
But the most serious problem with the 1985 version is the casting/acting. None of the cast have particularly comic features, and all of them play their parts straight instead of playing them with that touch of the comic that makes such characters amusing. The exception is Sam Weller, who is played better in the 1985 version than in the 1952 version. The actor who played Pickwick was tolerable and sometimes bordered on the comic, but mostly his version of the character ranged from foolish to irritating.
The 1985 version tries to show you a character who exhibits good will. The 1952 version makes you feel good will. (And incidentally, some of the best one-liners in the 1952 version are not even in the book! For those who've read the book, I'll leave it to you to find them. You'll be surprised.)
The problem is that the 1952 version is only on VHS and LP speed at that. Send dunning letters to the copyright owners to put this version on DVD.
Description of The Pickwick Papers
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