Barnes & Noble

David Lean's gorgeous distillation of Charles Dickens's massive novel Great Expectations is not only the definitive screen interpretation of the oft-filmed work, but one of the finest Dickens adaptations ever produced as well. The famous story concerns blacksmith's apprentice Pip (John Mills) who, after a childhood marked by a peculiar encounters with a bizarre spinster, Miss Havisham (Martita Hunt) and a menacing escaped convict (Finlay Currie), suddenly finds himself the possessor of a considerable fortune. Among the many notable elements in this superb, Oscar-winning film are Guy Green's expressionistic photography and John Bryan's striking art direction. There is an exquisitely nightmarish quality, for instance, in the opening passages wherein young Pip escapes from danger among misty marshes, and in the sequences set in Miss Havisham's fossilized bridal chamber. Intelligently scripted and beautifully acted by a cast that includes early performances by a young Jean Simmons and Alec Guinness, Great Expectations is one of the few adaptations of classic literature that does justice to its source material. Amy Robinson

All Movie Guide

Immediately grabbing the audience's attention with a heart-stopping opening scene in a dark graveyard, acclaimed British director David Lean realizes the cinematic potential of Charles Dickens' classic 1861 novel, and the result is considered by many to be one of the finest literary adaptations ever made as well as one of the greatest British films of all time. Crystallized into a tight 118-minute running time by Lean, Ronald Neame, and a corps of uncredited contributors, this is the story of young Pip, a lad of humble means whose training as a gentleman is bankrolled by a mysterious benefactor. Along the way, Pip falls in love with the fickle Estella, befriends the cheerfully insouciant Herbert Pocket, has memorable encounters with the escaped convict Magwitch and the lunatic dowager Miss Havisham, and almost (but not quite) forgets his modest origins as the foster son of kindhearted blacksmith Joe Gargery. The role of Pip is evenly divided between Anthony Wager as a child and John Mills as an adult; Alec Guinness makes his starring film debut as the jaunty Pocket; Jean Simmons and Valerie Hobson are costarred as the younger and older Estella; and Martita Hunt is unforgettable as the mad Miss Havisham ("It's a fine cake! A wedding cake! MINE!") Remade several times, Great Expectations resurfaced in 1989 as a TV miniseries, with Jean Simmons, originally the young Estella, tearing a passion to tatters as Miss Havisham; and in 1998 it was remade again, in a contemporary version, with Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert DeNiro, and Anne Bancroft in the Miss Havisham role. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 037429128022
• Source: CRITERION
• Region Code: 0
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Presentation: B&W
• Sound: Dolby Digital, monaural
• Subtitles: English
• Time: 1:58:00
• Sales Rank: 5,246

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

• Criterion Collection: Great Adaptations

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