I must admit with this movie I did something I NEVER do... watched an interpretation before reading the original. Tsk, tsk, tsk. So. Now that I have, is it a good adaption? I sort of trusted it's being so, with A&E/BBC's good work with P&P and all...
And why haven't I heard of it before??!! It's already six years old, and I'd never heard of it before a week ago. ???
Your soul is a beautiful thing, child.The angels wept tonight.-Angel of Music
I read the book a few years ago and I think that this adaptation stayed true to the book and still came out fresh and exciting. I loved it a lot.
Lorna Doone is a good movie. I don´t know why it remain almost unknown. Maybe the marketing campaign was bad. Maybe it was because there was no big star. In some people's minds the lack of a star denotes a lack of quality. There are people who will see a film simply because a certain actor is in it. It´s a pity.
How come you only heard of it the other week?
I thought it was very tru to the book the doone village is amazingly spot on?
Ahh, thanks for your replies, guys...
Well, I heard of it from a good friend whose mother just happened to come across it in the library, and thought that my friend (who had just had her wisdome teeth out) could use a good movie, and thought they'd give this one a try.
I've learned since that another friend of mine had seen a different version... but didn't like it.
Say, do any of you know of any other--preferably busier--message boards on "Lorna Doone"?
Your soul is a beautiful thing, child.The angels wept tonight.-Angel of Music
Lorna Doone is a beloved book in Britain, not so well known in the USA. Having grown up in Europe it was required reading in grade school -- and there-in lies one of the problems with LD; in the UK it has been abridged into a "children's" classic as well as remaining a brilliant love story story. The book has been made into several BBC mini series over the years, but only one "Hollywood" movie (awful and 50 years old. My biggest issue with this adaptation is that the John Ridd character grows up to be the biggest and strongest man in the valley. The man who plays John here (from the British TV series Coupling, was brilliant there, and so here.Penguin publishing has just issued a "new" version of LD.
I keep waiting for Disney to animate it and then bring it to Broadway, but the wait may be long. At least most people here have hear of the LD cookie!
I saw it on A&E and enjoyed it very much. My only regret is that I had not taped it.
sharei absolutely love this movie, and i don't think judging a film adaption should solely rely on how closely it follows the book. what is important is that it is a good film. for example, there was a lot of argument over on the Wonka boards after the remake(or, better put, new adaptation) came out. many, many people's sole argument of why the new one was better was "read the book." people have to realize that not everything translates well from page to screen. as long as the film keeps the core of the book/story at heart, that is what's important. in some ways, "myangelnotmyangel," you are lucky that you watched the film first so you could watch it without having to compare it to the book.
~~"the quickest way to the block is to become a chip off an old one."--Judge Jeffries
It's true that even if it didn't closely follow the source material (and it's nice to hear that it does), the most important thing would still be that this is a good film. I'm very glad I saw it.
James
This adaptation has one serious flaw - it isn't even filmed in the actual places mentioned in the book - i.e. The beautiful Exmoor National Park. There's no reason why they couldn't have set it in or very near to the real locations. The Exmoor locations are such an essential part of the story, and to leave them out ruins it for me.
shareYes, I wondered why it wasn't filmed at Exmoor National Park too. Not that the Welsh countryside isn't beautiful, but it just isn't the same (you can catch Exmoor National Park in the 1995 TV adaptation of Thomas Hardy's "Return Of The Native" starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Clive Owen). They did film on location in London (and the Hampton Court Palace) for some of the later sequences.