Silas Marner

"Silas Marner" is another classic by Victorian novelist George Eliot. This 1985 film stars Ben Kingsley in a wonderful performance. He is a disenfranchised member of a church who is falsely accused of stealing. After protesting his innocence, he works quietly and patiently for 15 years to build up a sizable savings but with no specific plans or outlook on life. The events that unfold after that change his life and the lives of others around him.

This story is one of persecution, patience and perseverance. It's also about redemption found in love for Marner and for others, including his squire. The rest of the cast give good performances in their roles, but the core of this story is the evolution of a man who is bitter from false accusations. We see him change from an obsessive worker and loner, to a caring father, to a warm and unselfish human being.

It's another wonderful classic by Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), produced by the BBC. I highly recommend this for any serious movie library.

George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) was one of the most interesting Victorian authors with only significant credits, while "Silas Marner" is a small changeling among an impressing lot of masterpieces - but her finest story. Ben Kingsley makes one of his finest performances and brings full justice to the heart-rending character of a vulnerable man suffering from occasional catalepsy, which results in his fate. His best friend takes advantage of it to both ruin him and steal his girl by getting him implicated in a theft and banished from town. Dishonored he becomes a miser and recluse as a weaver living alone in a cottage outside a small country town. This is where the story begins, which is a revelation of humanity and tenderness in the claws of a cruel destiny of injustice involving deaths, roguery and tragedy. The film follows the book closely and gives adorable scenery of local life in the mid 1800s, but there is one important scene in the book which you miss in the film. When Eppie is becoming a young lady, he visits his old town Lantern Yard with her and finds himself at a loss completely, Everything is changed, and the old story of the theft is never cleared. Here Silas Marner is at the heart of his tragedy, unfairly implicated and doomed for life to live under the burden of a guilt never cleared. The film is only for television and perfectly apt for that purpose and, which is most important, communicates the main contents of the tale with full bearing. It is George Eliot's most human tale with almost documentary pregnancy in its convincing honesty, which the film takes well care of.

With first place going to Middlemarch. Silas Marner as a book has everything that is characteristic of George Eliot(pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans), characters with flaws and strengths, sharply insightful social commentary, themes that were relatable then and are now too and compelling storytelling. This adaptation matches those qualities exactly. As an adaptation it's very faithful, but it's its merits standing on its own that is even more impressive. It's beautifully made, the costumes, make-up and scenery show a lot of authenticity and detail and it looks great, not too opulent looking(but the colours are still rich and well-textured) and not too bleak. The photography is fluid and doesn't try to do too much but at the same time it's hardly simplistic either. The understated and unobtrusive music fits the tone of Silas Marner's story and it compliments the drama too, while the script is poetic and literate as well as faithful to Eliot's style, there isn't any irrelevant filler and it allows the story to resonate. The story is still emotional and heart-warming(the scenes with Eppie have so much heart), the themes of the book are sensitively explored and we identify with the characters(who are definitely the opposite of one-dimensional, they are very well fleshed-out). Ben Kingsley is superb, one of his best performance and he has never been more touching than here. He gives the character a lot of subtlety while literally in his scenes with little Eppie, adorably played by Elizabeth Hoyle. Patsy Kensit is much better than in Adam Bede and she is charming enough. Jenny Agutter is alluring and sympathetic, though with not as much to do, while Jonathan Coy is a nasty piece of work as Dunstan, Patrick Ryecaft is solid if a tad strident as Godfrey and the ever dependable Freddie Jones is excellent as he usually always is. Overall, the second best of the George Eliot Collection, splendid as an adaptation and in its own right. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This is the uplifting story of Silas Marner, a 19th century English working man, who seems to be greatly wronged repeatedly by people in his community. As an eligible young man, a rival framed him out of greed as well as envy, leaving Marner wrongly accused of theft, upon which he relocates in a different village.

For some 15 years, Marner lives like a hermit, hording the money he earns as a weaver. Said to be "in with the wicked one", possessing strange magic, town folk avoid contact with the mysterious man. Ben Kingsley is perfectly cast as the reclusive Marner.

Suddenly, in short succession, two events change the life of Master Marner forever, even restoring his faith in a Supreme Being and the good in his fellow man. Without revealing the surprises held by this wonderful story, I can highly recommend this film to viewers of teen age and above. Not just another tear jerker, but a strong social statement as well. An excellent film.

I am very surprised that there are no comments at all on this wonderful TV adaptation of one of George Eliot's thankfully shorter books. The plot of the book is rather melodramatic but it basically doesn't matter because the film concentrates on the strange and moving story of Silas himself, who falls into despair and becomes a recluse and miser when he is wrongly accused of a crime and is saved by the unexpected appearance in his life of a small child.

Put this way, it sounds mawkish, but Silas is wonderfully handled by Ben Kingsley. He is a great actor who quietly inhabits every part he plays. The story is also about the importance of community. It is only when Silas becomes part of the village of Raveloe and its basically welcoming people that his life begins to turn around.

I am a notorious weeper at movies and I cried a lot when I rented this, not at the sad bits but at the parts when Silas realises that he is not alone. For all those who like period movies (the late 18th century scene is well recreated) and character-driven plots.