Persuasion

I finally found a version of Persuasion that I like! Anne doesn't look like a scullery maid in this version, just a very thin, aging, pretty woman, quite like she's described in the book. Captain Wentworth doesn't look like he's 50, nor does he look perpetually angry but rather, as he's described in the book, he hasn't aged as much as Anne and is quite handsome. And they play their parts with such conviction and realism...that's what acting is all about. They were believable. They created real characters, and it was like the characters in the book came to life. If you haven't seen this version, I urge you to find it, order it or request it from either a bookstore, or a library if you must. It's worth the price and worth the wait.

I watched the 1995 version, and the 2007 version and this one towers over the other two. Why it isn't rated higher is beyond my comprehension. The book conveys the tenderness of their relationship and this movie makes the book come to life.

When it comes to most movies made about classic novels, most people complain that it wasn't true to the novel. You can't say that about this. That's the one (and only) good point about this movie. I couldn't stand the woman who played Anne. I know she was supposed to be older, but not THAT old! She looked like she was 40! Anne's only supposed to be 27 or something like that. And I could NOT stand how she did her hair. Captain Wentworth was ok, but no where near as dashing as you imagine him when you read the book, and Captain Benwick was just plain frightening. I thought the girl who played Louisa Musgrove was really good, the same with the woman who played Mary. I don't remember having any specific complaints with any of the other characters, so I suppose they did well enough. The script was very close, sometimes word for word, with the book. However, this did make the movie rather boring. I thoroughly enjoyed the book...every time i read it. I never was bored at all throughout the entire novel, so I'm blaming my boredom on the movie's direction and acting. The character of Anne was supposed to be calm, not completely dull...which is what this actress was. Overall I must say i was disappointed with this movie. Compared to the newer version I preferred the newer one, mainly because of the actress who played Anne. This movies wasn't completely terrible, but it wasn't any good either.

As a big Jane Austen fan, I found this Persuasion very interesting. I still consider the 1995 version the best version mainly because I find the character development richer, but this version is much better than the dull and passionless 2007 ITV version. It is not perfect, the hairstyles and costumes and both un-authentic and distracting, unflattering even in some cases. However, it is handsomely filmed, even with some stiffness and the scenery is absolutely beautiful. The music is nice and simple, not over-bearing. The story and atmosphere are not as rich as 1995, and I'd say the same with the characters, but for anybody fussy about faithfulness to the book this version is slightly truer. I didn't mind the length or the pacing, the story isn't as lengthy as Mansfield Park for instance but needs a fair length and a leisurely pace to do justice to the story and characters as well as the class distinctions, which this version mostly did, especially in regard to Lady Russell and Elizabeth, both of whom are the closest-written to their novelistic counterparts than the other versions. The acting is good, Ann Firbank is I agree too old, but she more than makes up for it for her expressive face and her suitably introverted acting. Bryan Marshall is excellent as Wentworth, humorous, teasing yet also handsome and subtly bitter. The chemistry between Anne and Wentworth didn't admittedly move me as much as the 1995 version, but I did still feel there was one, unlike the 2007 version. The supporting cast are just as good, Valerie Gearon and Marion Spencer make the most of their characters, Rowland Davies is suitably buoyant and Richard Vernon and Michael Culver are also solid. All in all, a very interesting adaptation if not my favourite version. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This is one of the earlier extant BBC period adaptations. The production value is very low. However, what is great about these adaptations is that their mission was to make thorough and faithful screen versions of the novels. Creative licence is very rarely made and frowned upon. So it is very slow and clunky but if faithful is what you are after then this is the best version of Persuasion that there is so far. It runs at 3 hours and 40 mins in total with a couple minutes of credits. The acting was actually pretty decent, it felt very much like watching a theatre performance. Indeed this is how television of this time was made. It was pretty much recorded theatre in a television studio. The casting perhaps is what lets this one down. Anne is way too old and some of the family members are too similar looking so you have to keep reminding yourself who is who. Overall 6/10.

How unfortunate for this 70's effort that it's been eclipsed by the superior 1995 Roger Michell film. So OK, this TV dramatisation was made nearly 40 years ago (practically TVs infancy in the grand scheme of things). That duly said, really, the sheer murky brown 1970's-ness of it seriously detracts from the drama. "Persuasion" was the autumn of Jane Austen's sadly short writing career. Both the book and its central character, Anne Eliot, are her most mature, thoughtful and wise, in poignant contrast to the vivacity and spirit of her early work "Pride & Prejudice". This dramatisation certainly echoes that more sedate pace, but they failed to understand in 1971 that pace is everything, even in a story as gentle as this.

A motherless, unloved Anne Eliot, unmarried at 27, is forced into renewed acquaintance with the man she rejected at 18, on the advice, the 'persuasion,' of her older family friend. Her lasting affection is tried to the utmost as she must watch him court the attention of younger, prettier girls, while she herself has lost her bloom. Then, an accident shifts the balance of the drama.

This 1971 BBC TV drama takes its ample – perhaps too ample – time to tell the story. This allows for the characters to be very true to the original, but paler, less rich in tone than the 1995 film, which made considerable, but intelligent, time cuts. Despite suitably lavish sets, the costumes are a fright: each unfortunate lady is enveloped in typically high 70s sludge-coloured over-patterned vileness (highlights have to be Mrs Clay in a green velvet and slimy GOLD dress, I ask you! – and Anne Eliot's Jackson Pollock of a green, brown and yellow curtain or whatever sofa it was ripped from). This may sound trivial but with such understated fare as this, the look of the piece is important. Don't get me started on the mad towering bouffant hairdos. Of course each age loves to revile the taste of the previous, but emerging from that dark decade myself, I'm quite sure that the 70's will continue to linger on in people's minds as a benchmark for the very, very bad.

Still, Anne Firbank's somewhat too old Anne Eliot is subtle and elegant, and her slightly haughty ripostes are very much in keeping with her station - this I've never seen before, and I think Austen would approve. Emma Thompson was too old to play Elinor Dashwood in Ang Lee's "Sense & Sensibility", but her extraordinary ability to portray pathos overcame that single defect, while Firbank isn't quite as good as that. But Louisa Musgrove is a triumph of hammy overacting; and Mr Eliot is utterly unlikeable. The leads generated no chemistry whatever – quite unlike Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root in the 1995 film.

One for the Austen fans only, who won't mind any of the above in the sheer pleasure of hearing those wonderful lines again and again.