Wuthering Heights

[EvilCat Breath]

I've read the book and seen only the 1939 adaptation finding all the others worthless. My Heathcliff gold standard is Laurence Olivier. This was not an adaptation. This was an interpretation of an adaptation. I liked it. Jacob Elordi is the breakout star. Even if, in some shots he looks really young. In some shots Margot Robbie looks quite a bit older. He's the one that dominates the entire movie.

A terrible casting choice for Edgar Linton is the very dark Arab. He is so unbelievable as the weak and effeminate Edgar as to make a joke of the part. More forgivable is the Chinese Nelly. The only possible explanation for these unpalatable casting choices is the Oscar rules.

The film gives Heathcliff and Cathy something missing, the satisfaction of their passions. Although, the point Emily Bronte was trying to make was the evil and destructive power of the classist culture. This movie misses the point entirely. Even so, I enjoyed it. It is definitely a woman's movie.

The movie ends with Cathy's death thereby avoiding Heathcliff's total descent into madness. Olivier's portrayal was filled with rage and fury. Elordi whispered over her corpse. I still prefer Olivier's performance.

 

[Flopper]

I've read the book and seen only the 1939 adaptation finding all the others worthless. My Heathcliff gold standard is Laurence Olivier. This was not an adaptation. This was an interpretation of an adaptation. I liked it. Jacob Elordi is the breakout star. Even if, in some shots he looks really young. In some shots Margot Robbie looks quite a bit older. He's the one that dominates the entire movie.

A terrible casting choice for Edgar Linton is the very dark Arab. He is so unbelievable as the weak and effeminate Edgar as to make a joke of the part. More forgivable is the Chinese Nelly. The only possible explanation for these unpalatable casting choices is the Oscar rules.

The film gives Heathcliff and Cathy something missing, the satisfaction of their passions. Although, the point Emily Bronte was trying to make was the evil and destructive power of the classist culture. This movie misses the point entirely. Even so, I enjoyed it. It is definitely a woman's movie.

The movie ends with Cathy's death thereby avoiding Heathcliff's total descent into madness. Olivier's portrayal was filled with rage and fury. Elordi whispered over her corpse. I still prefer Olivier's performance.

This film does not due justice to the great novel but what movie does. When Olivier did this movie in 1939, movie studios bought scripts or rights to great novels in order to get the book title. What the studio wanted was a trailer showing the great book being finally brought to screen. The trailer sold the movie and studio didn't care how well the movie brought the novel to screen as long as it wasn't a total disaster.

It wasn't uncommon to have a movie bare no resemblance to the novel, for example, Ernest Hemingway's To Have and Have Not.