Charles Dickens turns 200 years old today. Despite his advanced age, his work continues to be read and enjoyed in today's classrooms and book clubs. Every summer, the University of California, Santa Cruz, throws a huge week long party in his honor (really more of an English Major's Summer Camp) that attracts hundreds of scholars, professors, and laymen from around the world.
What gives Dickens this universal, ever-lasting appeal? Probably his visual and color style along with intricate plots based around revenge and mystery, which also allow his stories to be so easily translated to film and stage.
In honor of England's most popular author, here's a list of the best film adaptations based on his work:
5) A Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
This could be mostly for sentimental reasons, but I have always found Jim Henson's take on Dickens's classic story to be touching and humorous. Micheal Caine plays a very serious and very good Scrooge, and the film's songs, the heart of any Muppet movie, are energetic and entertaining. It combines the story of Dickens with the irresistible characters of the Jim Henson's Muppet, a winning combo.
4) Oliver Twist (Polanski, 2005)
Roman Polanski bravely remade Oliver Twist. Unlike the novel, Polanski takes the light off Oliver and places Fagin, the wonderful Ben Kingsley, in the center of the story. While Oliver remains the ever perfect middle class hero, Fagin is more nuanced and elicits more sympathy from the audience in this version. As all of Polanski's films, Oliver Twist is shot with visual precision with what Roger Ebert notes as “performances more vivid and edgy than we might expect.”
3) A Christmas Carol (1938, Edwin Martin)
This is easily the best adaptation of the Dickens tale. Reginald Owen gives a delightful performance as Scrooge, which ends with him dancing around his bedchamber in a way no other Scrooge has since. Every few years it seems as though the English must punch out another adaptation, but all the actors who have donned Scrooge's scowl and gown (Patrick Stewart, George C. Scott) it always seem to be imitating the original.
2) Oliver! (1968, Carol Reed)
If this list where not only limited to film, the stage version of Oliver might top this list. Just the same, Reed's film version was winner of 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Although not as faithful as Polanski's newer version, Oliver is one of the most exciting and fun musicals ever. With unforgettable songs, some excellent performances (kudos Ron Moody) Oliver brings Dickens to life in a way other adaptations don't. In his time, Dickens was a master entertainer and readers would anxiously wait the months in between installments writing letters to Dickens, asking him to save this character or kill off that character. This musical restores some (if not all) of that energy and liveliness at the core of all Dickens.
1) Great Expectations (1947, David Lean)
David Lean is probably the best Dickensian there is. Both his versions of Great Expectations and Oliver Twist could have found their way on this list. From the opening graveyard scene through to its final moments, Lean is faithful to Dickens's novel and strikes all the right chords, both in tone and imagery. Chills run up my spine when he first meets Magwich and the deranged Miss Havisham, portrayed here by Marita Hunt. Lean focuses on Pip's experience in the Mansion vividly in a way many later adaptations will skip over. I enjoyed these scenes very much and find Miss Havisham to be one of Dickens most interesting and complex characters. The film was nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay, and won for Art Direction and Cinematography. Don Druker of the Chicago Reader praised the film's details as “astonishingly well assembled, and the performances are wonderful.” Easily the best adaptation.
Comments