MovieChat Forums > Swallows and Amazons Discussion > Quite a good adaption, but now a bit dat...

Quite a good adaption, but now a bit dated

posted 15 years ago by tea-35
8 replies | jump to latest

I recently found a copy of this in my local charity shop and looked at it again after many years!
It's a fairly faithful adaption of the novel, with some great background scenery. Some of the acting from the children is pretty poor in places and their accents will sound out-of-this-world to most modern children!

The best child actor is probably Suzanna Hamilton (later appearing in the film 1984, and TV series like Wish Me Luck), who fits the character of Susan well. And Sophie Neville as the character Titty is suitably air-headed! Ronald Fraser as Captain Flint doesn't really fit the part for me - a bit of a let down.

For today's children I expect that the cut-glass accents will be a struggle, but may the strange idea (for nowadays) that children would be let out on their own for days on end without any parental interference might be fantastical enough to compete with Harry Potter!

I see that the BBC is planning to film (more than 1?) of the Swallows and Amazons series of novels in a year or so (I've seen it mentioned on the Arthur Ransome forum at www.tarboard.net). It will be interesting to see how they get on!

[–] nephihaha 15 years ago

Very dated.

I liked this as a child, but I can't get over all the class and empire references which are lurking behind the whole thing. The "natives" seems only to be there to nick the captain's things or to oblige the children. The stuff about savages and missionaries wouldn't go down well either. They'd probably make one of the children black in a modern adaptation (completely inaccurate, but very pc) to set the record straight.

Ronald Fraser was miscast, but check him out in "The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer", he plays a character who is a hilarious parody of Harold MacMillan and Ted Heath.

[–] Unicorn-9 9 years ago

That seems an odd reason to call the movie 'dated'. It was historical fiction even when it was made, let alone forty years later.

I read the book years ago, but didn't even realize there was a movie until recently, when I bought the DVD. What did feel dated to me was the cinematography, which seemed very much 1970s kids' TV in places, nowhere near as good as some similar movies of the era, like 'The Railway Children'. But I'd guess it probably didn't have much more of a budget than the kids' TV of that era, and less than those other movies.

And, yes, I'm sure a modern BBC adaption would make one of the kids black, and obviously one of the girls would have to be in charge of the boat. And they'd probably be asylum seekers sent to the Lake District because racists in London didn't want them there.

Hmm. Actually, that could make an interesting movie, if done right.

[–] nephihaha 9 years ago

Oddly enough the girls seem to run the show in this film, so perhaps not the main issue.

--
It's not "Sci-Fi", it's SF!

"Calvinism is a very liberal religious ethos." - Truekiwijoker

[–] dasyk1 8 years ago

Something I noticed across the whole series of books,

The swallows have 3 girls to 2 boys (although they have a boy as captain)
The Amazons are all boys
The Ds (Scarabs) have 1 boy 1 girl. So out of the main characters there are 6 girls and only 3 boys.

The only groups of children that have more boys than girls is the coot club
(4 boys and 2 girls plus minor chars who all seem to be boys)

compare to Enid Blytons writing which always seems to have equal numbers.

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

the Amazons are both girls.

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

the Amazons are both girls. i don't know where you come from, but in the UK Nancy and Peggy are girls names.

[–] SrEditor 8 years ago

The Amazons are all boys

Not "all" (for only two) but "both" Amazons are girls.

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

I think it's a charming film. Don't suppose many modern children would like it, but even at the time it was made it was probably aimed more at nostalgic adults. The accents are correct for the class and era.