Barnes & Noble

As unpredictable as youth, and told with rare gentleness, director Gillian Armstrong's 1994 film of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (adapted by Robin Swicord) merits strong consideration in the pantheon of great literary adaptations. Armstrong's effort is the second filming of the book, following George Cukor's 1933 effort starring Katharine Hepburn. For the usual mysterious commercial reasons, Armstrong's film performed modestly at the box office, but that certainly can't be blamed on the cast, for they breathe more life into this story of the road from girlhood to womanhood than Cukor's august bunch. Susan Sarandon is Marmee March, a Massachusetts abolitionist during the Civil War raising four daughters while her husband is away with the Union army. Each of her daughters is uniquely strong and independent. Jo (Winona Ryder), the second daughter (who narrates the film), aspires to be a writer and finds a kindred spirit in neighbor Laurie Lawrence (Christian Bale, American Psycho). Her older sister Meg (Trini Alvarado) searches local society for a suitor, finding one in Laurie's tutor, John Brooke (Eric Stolz). Along with younger sisters Beth (Claire Danes) and Amy (Kirsten Dunst and later Samantha Mathis), Jo and Meg entertain themselves in an island of freedom during an age when women were second-class citizens. The bias against women -- best illustrated when Jo, as a struggling writer in New York, falls in love with Professor Friedrich Bhaer (Gabriel Byrne) -- only helps to strengthen the bonds of the four sisters and their mother. Matthew Johnson

All Movie Guide

Louisa May Alcott's classic novel about a family of women in Civil War-era New England is again brought to the screen in this adaptation. The focus is on the March sisters, four young girls raised by their mother (Susan Sarandon) after their father leaves for battle as part of the Union Army. At the center is Jo March (Winona Ryder), an idiosyncratic would-be writer said to be based on Alcott herself, but the film also focuses on the stories of her sisters -- the more conventional Meg (Trini Alvarado), the innocent Beth (Claire Danes), and the precocious Amy (Kirsten Dunst and Samantha Mathis, who represent Amy at different ages.) The film spans years, following the girls' struggles with life's challenges and illustrating how their family connection remains strong in the face of tragedies large and small. Australian director Gillian Armstrong emphasizes the story's feminist elements, particularly in Jo's journey to independence. Judd Blaise

Product Details

• UPC: 043396076983
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Editions: Special Edition, Subtitled, Dubbed, Includes book
• Time: 1:58:00
• Sales Rank: 2,441

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Hook/Little Women
• Memoirs of a Geisha / Little Women (1994)
• Memoirs of a Geisha / Little Women (1994)

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