MovieChat Forums > Sylvia (2003) Discussion > portrayal of ted hughes

portrayal of ted hughes


I don't know if it has been mentioned on this board before, but the portrayal of Ted Hughes was sooo wrong in this movie. It really put him down and that Daniel Craig was the worst choice to play him. Very bad.

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i agree. hughes was definitely not fairly portrayed.

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thanx. therefore the whole film lost its meaning and imagine what those viewers thought who never read about or from Ted. I would have hated him from this film if I didnt know who he was! Hughes was a huge man (both physically and mentally),modest(hated publicity, Sylvia didnt)and in a lot of ways fed Plath's poetry. He had presence. Daniel Craig played a silly small man who was aggressive and abusive. And didnt even look like him (even the american Bill Pullman would have been better, - with an english accent - at least he looks a little bit like him) Doubters, read Birthday Letters.

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birthday letters definitely... particularly 'fulbright scholars' and 'your paris'. "the minotaur' is also good for looking at their relationship.

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I totally agree. Even in the little epilogue at the end it made no reference that Hughes went on to become Poet Laureate, winning the Whitbread prize in two consecutive years, it made no reference to his further tragedy
( the murder suicide of Assia and Shura) and it made light of the grief the seperation caused him to be away from Nick and Frieda ( at the time of the seperation he was incredibly close with Frieda). Although characters in the film comment on the power of his voice, anyone who has listened to his reading of "Tales from Ovid" would agree that Daniel Craig had no such vocal authority and although he is muscular was totally miscast in portraying someone as physically overpowering as Hughes. I think Daniel Craig tried hard and did as good a job as he could, he is a good actor, he was simply miscast. A young Bill Pullman does bear something of a resemblance (particularly when you look at the photo of Hughes on the "Crow" dust jacket ) in the face but when you look at the photos of Hughes in the Diane Middlebrook book 'Her Husband' , Hughes really was quite an attractive young man. As you have noted he was also huge. Well over six foot tall and broad shouldered. Its a shame such a great man was treated so poorly, both in his life and in the film.

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As I see it, the biggest myth about Ted Hughes is that he was "private", a man who couldn't care less about laurels, who hated attention and avoided publicity.
A chronology of his life, such as the one compiled by (Ann Skea) creates the impression of a pretty 'public' man to me:

http://www.zeta.org.au/~annskea/timeline.htm


I'm not suggesting that having been an active and enthusiastic participant in the promotion of his own artistic achievements was at all "bad". But people try to contrast Plath and Hughes, she being depicted as tackily ambitious in her quest for fame, whereas he's depicted as just a simple, quiet man who went fishing, wrote poetry, every once in a while condescending to publish. For pete sakes, Hughes the "recluse" who "hated" publicity once fretted in a letter "I shall be blackballed for ever from a knighthood" !
JD Salinger or Janet Frame the man was NOT.
(Sorry ~ none of this is about the movie. I just get sick of reading that Hughes hated fame and attention. People say he "deplored" public interest in Sylvia Plath's life, death and work because he thought it was painful to their children. Didn't he think that sanctioning a biography as nasty and unflattering as Anne Stevenson's "Bitter Fame" might be painful for his children too? Ugh! Sorry. Okay. I'll calm down.)

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Though Bill Pullman DOES resemble him a bit, he would have been horrible in a film like this. Daniel Craig definitely carries more vocal power and dramatic acting capabilities than Pullman does and while he may not have been the most perfect match for Hughes, I honestly can't think of anyone who could have done it any better. As someone said before, I believe he did the best he could have done.

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After looking at some of the pictures of Ted Hughes, Adrian Brody does resemble Ted Hughes a bit. With some make-overs Adrian Brody might pull the role off.

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[deleted]

I absolutely agree. I saw Daniel Craig and thought...this is not the man who wrote Crow. You want a tall (possibly stooped) broad-shouldered man with a booming Northern voice (what was it with Craig's variable accent?)and iron-like personality and will. Daniel Craig's Hughes was...mean. Just mean. The only bit that felt right was when he was doing the poetry reading - that worked for me.

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because of his "huge" loyalty to love, i guess. and he lived a calm live after those death for so many years! Can't you see that?

In my opinion he was just a handsome and successful man who failed to resist the tempetation of the wonderful life. and In my opinion Daniel Craig understood him very well in that respect.

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okay, two of his wives killed themselves. Don't you think that points to there being a problem?

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[deleted]


Holly, that's a very powerful point there which lots of folks seem determined to ignore! lol

Either he really WAS a problem himself, or he had a fatal attraction to mentally ill, suicidal women. Because statistically, that is seriously weird.

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I've thought of this. Quite worrying, isn't it?

What's interesting is if you read his work, the maturity really rings through - his early poems were rather...innocent, natural, flowing, and as he got older, they because more and more cryptic and difficult to read and interpret (think Crow vs Hawk in the Rain). Just as speculation, I think that shows the troubles he'd gone through.

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Daniel Craig was physically wrong choice for Hughes, bu I thought he did a rather good job. I can't possibly see Bill Pullman as Hughes (ugh!!), and though I like Adrien Brody, he would be seriously miscast. It's really hard to think of an actor who would have the right look, charisma and talent to play a man like Hughes!



better sorry than safe

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Either he really WAS a problem himself, or he had a fatal attraction to mentally ill, suicidal women. Because statistically, that is seriously weird.

It might be a combination of both, but there is a third possible reason I've always thought as the most likely, given the fact that Assia Wevill chose the exact same way to commit suicide as Sylvia had, copied her in a way. The recently published diary of Assia Wevill, or rather the parts I've read in this very long article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/09/nhughes109.xml suggest it as well: Assia felt haunted by (metaphorical) 'ghost' of Sylvia, as was Ted. She took Sylvia's place (even as stepmother to her children), but became obsessed with the feeling that Sylvia had, with her death and her poems, 'grown' in importance, and she felt that she could never be Sylvia's match either in terms of talent or the importance she had for Hughes.




better sorry than safe

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I just read that Hugh Jackman had been up for the role of Ted Hughes but was passed over in favor of Craig. Now there's a tall, broad-shouldered type brimming with charisma. Too bad he didn't get it. I don't see Craig as Bond either, but maybe that's just me. Blue-eyed Bond? Don't think so.

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i think whoever says daniel craig was not fit to play the part is WRONG
i feel he understood the role completely and that he did it with great style and realism.
no one truly knows the real ted hughes
daniel craig was merely going off what research and facts had said
he is a brilliant actor and deserves all the credit he can get
and he is gorgeous too!!
i personally am a big fan of daniel craig and i am very glad he got the part of ted
as i have been a fan of sylvias for years and for him to play ted hughes was a suprise and treat!
and i love him in the new bond
phwoarrrr

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[deleted]

Having read a biography of Ted, this portrayal was very unfair/inaccurate.

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Perhaps you are right. I don't know that much about Ted, and I was hoping to learn through this film. If anybody is to blame it is the Director. Actors simply follow direction and bring their own talents to the role. Blame the Director.

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