Posted by Robert Thompson on June 29, 2007 at 16:07:56 from 80.177.174.120 user robert.
In Reply to: SA Video posted by Ed Kiser on June 29, 2007 at 15:19:10:
...other liberties taken with the events we have come to know and love from the book...
Hmm, a trifle strong, Ed, as surely liberties have to be taken for the film not to end up as a four-hour marathon! Film and television are quite different art forms compared with literature, and, as I'm sure you realise, very few films end up being "better than" the books on which they are based. In fact I'd go further and suggest that there is not much point comparing the two!What we can do as Ransomites is skillfully and gently to persuade youngsters to approach the S&A stories by reading the books rather than through the film, excellent though it is in its own right.
I do agree about the late Ronald Fraser, who didn't quite have the anger/contrition necessary for Captain Flint. It's always easy with hindsight, but I've often thought that the actor Timothy West would have made a good Flint.
The music does, I believe, deserve a more supportive point of view - I don't find Wilfred Joseph 's score that infantile and admire the way in which he has mixed the diffent motifs.