AmateurMovieReviews.com

Recently in our homeschool curriculum, my two middle-school aged daughters were assigned the classic Charles Dickens novel, Great Expectations. The novel turned out to be a bit harder than they expected, so I decided to read it aloud to them. When I found the book difficult to read aloud, we acquired the book on CD, completely unabridged. It was a treat to listen and by the end of the story, we had all fallen in love with dear Pip, his friendly pal, Herbert, and many of the other characters in the book. Just before we finished, I promised my daughters that when we finished the book, we would watch the movie. True to my word, I searched online, in libraries, and in book stores for the movie version of Great Expectations, and I was surprised to find many different versions of the movie made over the past sixty years. Finally, I settled upon the oldest version I could find, as I was not looking to put a modern spin on the story. I found a 1945 version of "Great Expectations, " the movie, directed by Academy Award winner, David Lean.

When we sat down to watch the movie, we were delighted to find that the characters had been cast so well. The hero, Pip, is played by a quiet John Mills, who, while a bit boring, seems to really capture the quietness and wonder of Pip. Jean Simmons is delightful as the icy Estella, who captures Pip's heart but cares little for him. Martita Hunt is exactly how my daughters and I pictured the odd and eccentric Miss Havisham, who lives like a hermit in her broken down old house. Bernard Miles is the beloved Joe, and Eileen Erskine, the housekeeper, and ultimately Joe's wife, Biddy. Also were Francis L. Sullivan as the mysterious Mr. Jaggers, and Ivor Barnard as the unusual and hilarious Mr. Wemmick. Yet, perhaps our favorite character of all, and a complete surprise, because we did not recognize him, was a young, sprightly Alec Guiness as Pip's dear friend, Herbert Pocket. We all remembered an old, bearded Sir Alec Guiness as the soft spoken Obi wan Kenobi of Star Wars fame. Yet, this young Herbert is quite a different Alec Guiness. The only part of him we unmistakably recognized were his soft, kind eyes. He was delightful to watch.

The story is about young, orphaned Pip who lives in England with his sister and her husband, Joe, a blacksmith. Pip's sister is unmercifully mean to him, but by a series of unexpected events, Pip is given a fortune to become a gentleman in London. He leaves kind Joe and his cruel sister behind to live in the city, dress formally, and all that went with this type of arrangement in late 19th century England. In the process of his good fortune, Pip must learn the value of friendship and relationship, regardless of education or socio-economic background. Pip associates the lower class with his cruel sister and the ignorance of her husband Joe, and this prejudice is solidified when he meets the kind Herbert and his family, who are of the upper class. Yet in the course of the story, Pip learns that the wealthy and elite are often heartless and careless with their treasures, while the poor and downtrodden will give the shirts off their backs. This is a hard pill for Pip to swallow, and in the end, he is a much humbler young gentleman than he was when he first went to London. He begins the movie with a kind heart and ends it with an enormously kind and compassionate heart.

Although the movie leaves out much of the details that were in the book, it does not divert from the original story. Due to time constraints, many scenes are shortened considerably, and others are left out all together, but the idea still comes through loud and clear. We have not yet seen any other versions of this movie, and at this point, we do not want to. The characters on the screen are exactly the way we imagined them while reading the book; and if that is not good movie making, I do not know what is.