JUDE (1996)
A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2003
People tend to romanticise past. When they think of ancient Greece, they visualise noble philosophers spending all their time in endless debates about nature of universe. When they think of Middle Ages, they imagine knights in shining armour following noble codes of chivalry. When they think of Renaissance, they instantly see pictures of Da Vinci and statues of Michelangelo. Nobody thinks of slaves, serfs and common peasants who were sweating blood in order to keep aforementioned gentlemen well-fed and able to indulge in such activities. Victorian period in England is another one among many historical periods which became some sort of long-gone Golden Age, at least when Hollywood is concerned. JUDE, 1996 British drama directed by Michael Winterbottom, is one of the films that shows the darker and more common side of that era.
Hossein Amini's script for JUDE is based on the 1895 novel by Thomas Hardy, author specialised for naturalistic depiction of the lives of British lower classes. The novel in question is one of darkest and its content proved to be too shocking for prudish Victorian readers. The protagonist of the film is Jude Fawley (played by Christopher Ecclestone), man who has one big goal in life - to become professor at Christminster University and thus fulfil childhood dream inspired by his teacher Mr. Philotson (played by Liam Cunnigham). There is one major obstacle for Jude - he is a son of stonemason, and people of such humble origin aren't supposed to rise above their social station. Jude isn't discouraged and spends all of his free reading books and thus gaining education. Another obstacle for Jude comes in the form of stormy relationship and even stormier marriage to Arabella (played by Rachel Griffiths), pig- farmer's daughter. In Christminister Jude finds his former mentor, but the more important encounter is with his cousin Sue Bridehead (played by Kate Winslet), to whom he is attracted not only physically but intellectually. The relationship with free-spirited and rebellious Sue would have indescribably tragic consequences for both of them.
Just as it was shocking for Victorians, JUDE could be shocking to contemporary viewers, at least those who had created their perception of Victorian era on the kinder and gentler films, like those of Merchant-Ivory production. Michael Winterbottom, British filmmaker who isn't stranger to depicting darker areas of contemporary life, doesn't spare audience not only from most of the tragic events depicted in the film, but also shows scenes of filth, depravity and violence that existed in the ordinary life of British lower classes at the time; beauty of Kate Winslet in her nude scenes is hardly compensation for such shock. On the other hand, Winterbottom is good enough to captivate audience's attention despite potentially repulsing scenes. The dialogue is excellent and the acting is truly great. Christopher Ecclestone was best pick for the tragic role of protagonist and Winslet confidently and very convincingly portrays character that goes through painful transformations. The ending of JUDE is somewhat disappointing though; some of the material from Hardy's novel was omitted and finale isn't cathartic enough. Despite that, JUDE is remarkable film that should serve as a powerful reminder to all those who view past through Jane Austen's novels.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
Review written on December 18th 2003
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://www.ofcs.org - Online Films Critics Society
========== X-RAMR-ID: 36580 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1230780 X-RT-TitleID: 1073272 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 7/10
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews