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VHS : The Mayor of CasterbridgeGet all your favorite discounted items here in VHS and The Mayor of Casterbridge!  EAN: 5014503446123 Format: PAL Number Of Discs: 1 Theatrical Release Date: September 03, 1978 Sales Rank: 130129 Related Items:
Editorial Review: Amazon.com: Alan Bates gives a fierce, uncompromising performance in The Mayor of Casterbridge, a skillful miniseries adapted from Thomas Hardy's classic novel. The arrogant Michael Henchard (Bates), in a foul drunken mood, sells his long-suffering wife Susan (Anne Stallybrass) and infant daughter Elizabeth-Jane to a sailor at a country fair. Henchard awakens the next morning stricken with remorse; he vows not to drink again for 21 years. Eighteen years later, Susan returns to find him, with Elizabeth-Jane (Janet Maw) in tow; Henchard receives her joyously, eager to lay the rash acts of his youth behind him, but just as eager to avoid the shame that his past might bring to his current life as mayor of the town of Casterbridge. Thus begins a complex and compelling tragedy of secrets, betrayals, and unexpected turns. In the hands of Dickens, this melodramatic story would have been a romp. Hardy has a sadder but also more intensely emotional bent; he takes his characters' feelings--both their loss and their desire--deeply seriously, and the result is as passionate as it is woeful. The Mayor of Casterbridge starts sluggishly, but becomes increasingly gripping over the course of seven episodes, as the excellent cast makes the characters vivid and sympathetic. Bates and Anna Massey, as a former love of Henchard's who seeks to renew their relationship, are particularly superb. Some critics view Henchard's fall from grace as the result of pride; but this production, written with nuance and care by Dennis Potter (The Singing Detective, Pennies from Heaven), makes clear his emotional clumsiness and how it sabotages his fumbling after happiness. --Bret Fetzer Average Rating:
 Rating:  - surprisingly low budget filmI love period peices but...this film takes on characteristics of a low budget, poorly done film....I am still amused when I think of how bad the acting was in this movie... Rating:  - Thomas Hardy's slowly played Greek tragedy in CasterbridgeI have an affinity for Greek tragedies and Thomas Hardy's "The Mayor of Casterbridge," presented here in the BBC's 1978 mini-series, is decidedly in that tradition. I know that Hardy was interested in writing a novel that would combine his love of history with his love of Dorsetshire, but I find it hard to believe that he did not know something about the elements of classical Greek tragedy given everything that happens in this novel. You have "hubris" (excessive pride), you have "harmartia" (tragic ... Read More Rating:  - How could the BBC produce this?The Mayor of Casterbridge is an enormous dissapointment. My wife and I have enjoyed more than a dozen BBC dramas on DVD which have distinguished themselves through brilliant acting and quality cinema production. This film is painfully slow and seemingly amateur in execution. We wouldn't recommend it. Rating:  - Excellent Period DramaI really enjoyed the Mayor of Casterbridge. I hadn't read the novel, or watched other movies, but boy was I surprised! What a delight! Alan Bates stars as the 'mayor' a hard-working man with a dark secret! (Once in a drunken rage he 'sold' his wife at auction). Now, the mayor is an upstanding member of the community and receives a heart-wrenching surprise when his estranged wife and daughter show up in town. I think selfishness and the unhappiness that it brings are the themes of this movie. ... Read More Rating: - Recommended with reservations.I remember well reading what is, in my opinion, one of Thomas Hardy's greatest novels, The Mayor of Casterbridge. Viewers who start first with the novel are apt to be a bit disappointed in the transformation to film. What seems to be inevitable in the novel is less so in the movie. Alan Bates, in one of his better roles as the drunken and penniless Michael Henchard, under the influence of too much rum, sells his wife and daughter at auction at a country fair to a sailor. This terrible act seems ... Read More Browse for similar items by category: 
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