Byron

Thoroughly enjoyed the performances. Hated the character Byron. I'm a Yank and was told f'all about, well, most poets. Anyhow, I enjoyed the telling and as a HUGE fan of Elementary, I definitely saw the beginnings of Miller's portrayal of Sherlock.

I did not know much about Byron before seeing this BBC production with Jonny Lee Miller as Byron. I watched it with a university professor who teaches Byron and who is quite difficult to please when it comes to such productions. We were both nailed right to the end and didn't find anything in the film either superfluous, clumsy or inaccurate. For such a short adaptation, it covered the most essential side of Byron's character without judging the man. The casting was perfect and Jonny Lee Miller's performance was marvellous. His beautiful face had the innocence and yet his diction carried the weight of Byron's all time cynicism and detachment to all things " innocent". I highly recommend everyone to see this film, because, I for one have since plunged myself into reading Byron and Shelly thanks to the compelling way in which Jonny Lee Miller portrayed Byron. This was infinitely more enjoyable and ultimately more useful for a non literary person such as myself than several documentaries I had seen of Byron previously. I only wish the film had been longer with some mention of Byron's extraordinary involvement with Armenia and Armenian language as well.

After all, the adequate way of judging such a film is by how much it influences one in instructing oneself further on the subject or how one's own preconceived views are put into question. That is precisely what this film did to me.

This BBC production on George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, isn't about the works of the renowned English poet and satirist, known widely as Lord Byron. Rather, its focus is on the life of the man. As such, it seems to do a very good job of showing a conflicted and tormented life that Byron lived. This is the story of a tortured soul who wrote about his own conflicts and failure to find fulfillment in pleasure. And it is about a witty, talented thinker and writer who could give us such classical satire as "Don Juan."

I think a passage from the Encyclopedia Britannica describes well the varying views on Byron's place in letters. "Renowned as the 'gloomy egoist' of his autobiographical poem, "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (1812-18), in the 19th century, he is now more generally esteemed for the satiric realism of "Don Juan" (1819-24)."

It was long ago that I read "Don Juan" and perhaps some small parts of other works or letters. So, I appreciated the review by Ginger Johnson (3 December 2005) who gave some information and points about the film as it depicted Byron's life.

With the reviews I've read as of the time of my writing, I am surprised that no one has commented on Byron's background and upbringing. His is a classic tale (if, indeed, one can use the term in this context) of a broken home in childhood, with an abusive, negligent and then absent father. As a boy, he and his mother were a low-income family, and then at the age of 10 he had great wealth thrust upon him by inheritance. He grew up without discipline or responsibilities. He was extremely self- centered and selfish – what we might call "spoiled" today.

Why is this worth pondering? Because, had he grown up in a healthy home with loving parents and some direction, there's a good chance that Bryon's life would not have been so tragic and short. And, we might have had the pleasure of more literary treasures today.

The film covers mostly his last few years with his adultery, heavy drinking, and constant pursuits of pleasure amidst his travels. I agree that the acting was very good by all. The direction and technical aspects were all quite good. And, while it is a good depiction of the life of Lord Byron, I can't say that I enjoyed the film as entertainment. Nor could I enjoy watching it time and again, as one reviewer says he does. As reviewer Ginger Johnson noted, because Byron's life was "ill-spent," the film isn't a joy to watch. I can watch films about tragedies, injustices and other subjects that may be edifying or educational in some sense, but that often are not enjoyable entertainment.

The life of Lord Byron was a tragedy. He died at 36, a tormented, conflicted soul, trying to help a cause he thought worthy. I think this film rightly does not celebrate Byron or his life. Rather, it laments the great loss for what might yet have been. Therein is the tragedy.

In the end how do you judge a man like George Gordon Byron? He certainly left a nice body of work to judge him as writer and poet. It might have been more had he spent a little more time at creation and less indulging every kind of vice there was. As he puts it so accurately pleasure is the only real reason we know we're alive.

This film covers the period of 1812 to 1824 from the publication of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage until his death. He's quite the toast of Regency London and he's welcome by dint of his work and title in the best of homes. He soon wears out that welcome in a series of scandalous affairs. Regency society didn't mind affairs, but just be discreet. Discreet did not exist in his vocabulary.

Byron's personal life is probably best known for his affair with Lady Caroline Lamb. But this film shows she's only one of many. Camilla Power plays her and Power is in the film long enough to show what a mad woman she was. A little too much for a lover and a husband to handle.

I can't think of anything Byron missed. He made it with any woman who showed the slightest interest, even a little incest with a sister. He indulged himself in the love that dares not speak its name with a young boy. He drank to excess, took opiates at a rate that his contemporary Coleridge might have envied. There's brief scene of him turtling down some Laudanum like it was a brewski.

I think he envied the Shelleys played here by Sally Hawkins and Oliver Dimsdale. Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley were his contemporaries and they seemed to find happiness that was unattainable for Byron.

Jonny Lee Miller plays the title role and makes Byron the last word in hedonism. He strikes just the right notes and pulls a lot of emotions from the viewer. You envy him and yet you're jealous of him. He's rich with a title which allows him to indulge. We'd all like to be him, but the business of day to day living leaves 95% of us with enough challenges for our lives.

This BBC production of Byron is both revealing and non-judgmental. It will give you a good understanding of the man who in many ways was the symbol of the romantic age.

Let me start by stating that I've read most of Byron's letters, a number of biographies as well as his poetry. The screenwriter, whose work on adapting Persuasion I liked very much, did well by the conflicted, contradictory character of the "bad, mad and dangerous to know" Byron. The script drew on the title characters own works, letting him speak what he wrote - and he was a marvelous letter writer, much better than he was a poet. This film was much more faithful to the facts than the average biopic - frighteningly so, given what it shows about Byron's scandalous character and life.

Jonny Lee Miller, although obviously older than the character he portrays, gives us the whole chameleon, the demure new star in the writing establishment, the would be politician, the society "bad boy". Witness the poet with his hair up in curlers for a new side to the Byron everyone thinks they know. My ideal actor for the part would have been the young Robert Vaughn, but Miller gives us the genuine pain in the ass quality the part needs.

What particularly interested me in this version was what got left out. Probably the most famous part of the Byron story is the summer he spent with Shelley and his menage, which resulted in the publication of "Frankenstein." It has been amply treated elsewhere, in the excellent "Bride of Frankenstein," Ken Russell's god-awful "Gothic", and the even worse "Haunted Summer". The screenwriters chose to leave it out, concentrating instead on the debacle of Byron's marriage and his final redeeming attempt to assist the cause of Greek liberation from the Turks.

In between these two was the other major part of Byron's life, the many years he spent in Italy. While the scandalous parts were shown, it might have been interesting to show something of his attempts to help liberate Italy from the Austrians, which led him ultimately to his death in Greece.

Overall, though, I found this movie an absorbing account of a life ill-spent, full of fine acting in all the minor parts. I'm not sure, however, exactly how it would work to someone without a basic knowledge of the Byron saga, in all its deplorable, lunatic, and muddled variety. The life of Byron simply doesn't lend itself to smooth storytelling with a lot of sexy bits.