The Go-Between (1970)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Joseph Losey

Writers:

Harold Pinter (screenplay)
L.P. Hartley (novel)

Release Date:

December 1970 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Tale of torrid and forbidden love between Christie and Bates in the English countryside.

Plot Keywords:

1900s | Go Between | Class Divisions | East Anglia | Flashback

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 8 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Julie Christie	...	Marian - Lady Trimingham
Alan Bates	...	Ted Burgess
Margaret Leighton	...	Mrs. Maudsley
Michael Redgrave	...	Leo Colston - adult
Dominic Guard	...	Leo Colston - boy
Michael Gough	...	Mr. Maudsley
Edward Fox	...	Hugh Trimingham
Richard Gibson	...	Marcus Maudsley
Simon Hume-Kendall	...	Denys
Roger Lloyd-Pack	...	Charles (as Roger Lloyd Pack)
Amaryllis Garnett	...	Kate (as Amaryllis Garnet)
Keith Buckley
John Rees
Gordon Richardson

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | UK:AA (original rating) | UK:PG (re-rating) (1989) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:11 | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Elstree Film and TV Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

EMI Films

Trivia:

Gary F. Warren was interviewed for the role of Marcus.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "thirtysomething: The Go Between (#3.23)" (1990)

Soundtrack:

Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes

Evocative record of a very hot (and stately) Norfolk summer

I agree with the previous reviewer that the time-shifts seem unnecessary and serve only to complicate the film. There's also an unlikely implication that the events of the Norfolk summer which Leo experienced 40 years ago were so traumatic that he had become psychologically incapable of getting married.

But for me, although there's not much that happens in the plot, this film is heavy with nostalgia. It was the first school film I saw on arriving at a Northamptonshire boarding school. Like Leo, I was 13 and didn't understand everything that was going on.

Would I recommend it to today's youth? Well yes, but I wouldn't expect a large proportion of them to sit the entire way through it. It just doesn't have anything like the pace of today's blockbusters or teen movies. The enjoyment of this film is now largely an intellectual one -- it's about the laughable views of the upper class, and about book-to-film transfers.

Incidentally, to my knowledge, this film has never been available for sale on DVD. And yet in March 2006, it was given away as a freebie DVD with the UK's Sunday Telegraph. The film industry is seriously undervaluing its back-catalogue. Who knows what next -- Lindsay Anderson's brilliant 'IF' in a packet of cereal??