This piece of fiction is little more than an neo-Renaissance anti-Catholic vitriolic morality play diatribe thinly disguised as literature.
Although told from the viewpoint of innocent Jeremy Irons as Charles Ryder, the plot revolves around Claire Bloom as Lady Marchmain and how her disingenuous religion destroys her family and friends. Lady Marchmain was forced to marry to achieve her position and has never forgiven her God for forcing her into this carnal action to achieve what she saw as her due.
In return Lady Marchmain is punished first in the vulgar world when her husband deserts her, and then she is further punished by Providence which destroys her son and their relationship through his alcoholism.
Always taking center stage is a great personal vanity which suggests that the faith which they swear by is merely another affectation, another lordly possession found somewhere after the fox hunt and before the lobster thermidor. No mercy is granted towards those who follow the Pope; even the kindest member of the family balks at the notion that a priest might better serve God by ministering to a larger number of people rather than the four or five family members who insist on maintaining a personal chapel for their convenience.
The author and film-makers go out of their way to note that the servants of the family are Protestant, not Catholic, thus making more apparent the vanity of the personal chapel. We don't learn anything else about any servants. This is not about rich vs. poor, this is not about liberal vs. conservative, this is not about Manchester United vs. Chelsea, this is about Catholic vs. Protestant.
Lady and Lord Marchmain both spend their final days in mental torment passing to their graves unredeemed by those who should have been their loved ones. The *cough* sinister hand of Popery also reaches out to deal rude slaps to family best friend Rex and eldest daughter Julia. No Protestants are punished by heaven, and former Protestant Rex is punished only after he turns Catholic to marry into the family.
If instead of making a complex parable the curse was out in the open and instead of turning into a sot the Anthony Andrews character Sebastian Flyte turned into a vampire or werewolf, this would have been a lot more engaging. As it is, what we really have here is the closest thing to Elizabethan era anti-Catholic propaganda as you would be able so sneak into a good library or on public TV.
As a work on film, it fails to make me care about any of the characters. In fact, after finishing episode three I was hoping the Sebastian character would maybe kill himself and quit wasting any more time. When you look over the entire cast, there is no more than one good human being among them, that being Lady Marchmain's youngest daughter.
Even Charles, who is put forth as an innocent caught up in it all, is as much to blame for much of the misfortune as anyone else and demonstrates no less a failure of responsibility.
Although this story is not about class, it does not do much to flatter nobility. But that is a function of fact, and behavior is portrayed realistically. If we want to look for a proverb here, we can say the film represents that those who shout at God the loudest, are heard by him the least.
As a final insult to the gentry depicted here, none of them are ever shown to have any productive activities. They are highly wealthy aristocrats with large estates and many top notch servants, they run about the continent as they please. But not once does anyone have to run off to tend some family business or anything. There is just endless money for everything. Maybe the money is part of the religion thing. Their choice rewards them in the profane world with riches, but penalizes them in the divine world with damnation.
Whatever their economic or social standing, most families will face some crisis at some time, and often more than one. It is not likely that every different crisis would have the same root cause. Religion could cause an issue, a family member marrying out of faith could cause problems for example. But problems also are caused by gambling, infidelity, politics and other catalysts. Here every problem is caused in some way, direct or indirect, by religion.
The only thing you could add to this would be a Mother Courage type old woman in rags screaming "Bloody Papists! Bloody Papists!" Remember this principle: Never mistake effort for accomplishment.
It's a street whore in a prom dress. It is a bottle of Château Lafite de Rothschild 1879 that has turned. It has John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier but before you harrumph too much might I say, "Inchon"?
My final judgment? The opening segment showing troops in WWII is a portent. The British lost many lives fighting against the religious intolerance of the Nazis, but the author to begin with and those who made the film later seem not to have learned anything from it.
6 out of 19 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Tell Your Friends