Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Movie: Ivanhoe


My rating on a 1-10 scale: 8.5
Main characters: Ivanhoe, Rowena, Rebecca, Brian Du Bois-Guilbert
Genre: Adventure, historical fiction movie. :)
Primary actors: Steven Waddington, Ralph Brown, Susan Lynch, Victoria Smurfit (yes, that's really her last name)
Length: 4 1/2 hours!
Based on: Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Time period: 1100's
Exciting events: Many!
Year it came out: 1997
My overall opinion: I enjoyed this movie a lot! What I did was read the book (or at least attempt to), then watch the movie. I think that's a good way...the book is a hard one to read. The movie is helpful to understanding it. This version follows the book quite closely. I recommend it!

Rowena.


I know the above is a terrible picture...I'm sorry. But it's hard to find pictures.


Rebecca. Like I said...hard to find good ones. :(

5 comments:

Miss Laurie said...

I watched this film recently for the first time. I enjoyed it but there was more fighting and blood than I thought it would and that surprised me a bit for a TV series. I really like the character of Rebecca and her father Isaac, they are so nice. Rowena was lovely too.

~Miss Laurie
Old-Fashioned Charm

Jujube said...

The Ivanhoe movie version I've watched was the one with Elizabeth Taylor. This one looks good, though. The book is really hard to read. I tried starting it but never finished.

Charity U said...

Miss Laurie: it has been a little while since I've seen it. :) Yes, Rebecca and Rowena are nice...though I always kinda wish Ivanhoe could have gone for Rebecca. She was much stronger than Rowena...I don't know.

Jemimah, YES! The book is SO hard to read! I know my first time through it a few years ago I went into a reading mode that I haven't before. I was reading but not following at all or even trying too. :P Seeing the movie really helped...though I recently re-read the book and it was still hard to read. Not for the faint of heart, that's for sure!

Alexandra said...

I've only seen the 1982 version with Anthony Andrews, Olivia Hussey and James Mason...I agree, it's quite a difficult book to read!

And I *so* agree on Ivanhoe and Rebecca...of course, it may help that the actress playing Rowena was *not* a great actress and the actress playing Rebecca is one of my favorites. :-) But I agree...Rebecca was much stronger, self-sacrificing, honorable...yeah, could go on. :-)

English Lady said...

I have seen the version with Elizabeth Taylor, the 1982 version and this one, and it is my favorite. In the former, Ivanhoe is back on his feet way too quickly after getting wounded I think.

What a love about the 1997 mini series version is some of the touches of realism (the semi darkness of Cedric's hall) and Ralph Brown's playing of Prince John who is normally just cast an a gullible twit.
That also and the the relationships between male and female characters.
Rowena and Rebecca are strong, but they are not like 21st century militant feminists who insist they are better than men and have to fight alongside them with swords. I think it is more in keeping with the period

That said, the references to paganism don't really seem to fit in with the time period (12th century Saxons talking about the 'gods?') and some less than flattering depictions of Christians.