The Secret Garden (1993)

Director:

Agnieszka Holland

Writers (WGA):

Frances Hodgson Burnett (book)
Caroline Thompson (screenplay)

Release Date:

13 August 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Family

Tagline:

The timeless tale of a special place where magic, hope and love grow.

Plot:

A young British girl born and reared in India loses her neglectful parents in an earthquake. She is returned to England to live at her uncle's castle...

Plot Keywords:

Garden | Earthquake | England | Secret | India

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 3 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Kate Maberly	...	Mary Lennox
Heydon Prowse	...	Colin Craven
Andrew Knott	...	Dickon
Maggie Smith	...	Mrs. Medlock
Laura Crossley	...	Martha
John Lynch	...	Lord Archibald Craven
Walter Sparrow	...	Ben Weatherstaff
Irène Jacob	...	Mary's Mother / Lilias Craven (as Irene Jacob)
Frank Baker	...	Government Official
Valerie Hill	...	Cook
Andrea Pickering	...	Betty Butterworth
Peter Moreton	...	Will
Arthur Spreckley	...	John
Colin Bruce	...	Major Lennox
Parsan Singh	...	Ayah

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Netherlands:MG6 | France:U | Iceland:L | South Korea:All | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Chile:TE | Finland:S | Germany:o.Al. | Peru:PT | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | UK:U | USA:G

Filming Locations:

Allerton Park, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England, UK

Company:

American Zoetrope

Trivia:

The corridor leading to Colin's room and the interior of the room are decorated with tapestries depicting Edward VI, a sickly boy king who died young at the age of 16.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the final scene where Mary, Colin, and Lord Craven are dancing and skipping, there is a big storm cloud behind the hills, in the next scene, when Dickon and his pony ride up to the mansion, the sun is shining brightly between the trees with no storm in sight.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Mary: My name is Mary Lennox. I was born in India. It was hot, and strange, and lonely in India. I didn't like it. Nobody by my servant, my ayah, looked after me. My parents didn't want me. My mother cared only to go to parties. And my father was busy with his military duties. I was never allowed to go to the parties. I watched them from my mother's bedroom window. I was angry, but I never cried. I didn't know how to cry.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in What Love Is (2007)

Soundtrack:

Winter Light

virtually perfect

This is one of those rare films that you recognize as a classic as you are watching it. This movie is virtually perfect in almost every way, and I doubt if it will soon be displaced as the definitive version. One aspect of this film which I loved was Andrew Knott as Dickon, who ultimately sublimated his love for Mary to help Colin in the grand tradition of the English Hero - the common man. As in the Lord of the Rings, it is not a Jedi Knight, or a superman or muscleman or gun-slinging cowboy who is the hero, it is one of the common folks who rises to the occasion when greatness is demanded by the times and situation. As did Sam Gamgee, the Hero of the LOTR, so does Dickon stand out as an almost mythical personification of love and sacrifice for the good of others with no thought of recompense. This is what I love about classic English novels, how the average guy can change the world, if he loves it enough. Wonderful stuff.