Jude (1996)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Michael Winterbottom

Writers:

Hossein Amini (screenplay)
Thomas Hardy (novel)

Release Date:

18 October 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

His World Could Never Change... Until She Became His World.

Plot:

A stonemason steadfastly pursues a cousin he loves. However their love is troubled as he is married...

Plot Keywords:

Love | Cousin | Stonemason | Loss Of Child | Dead Children

Awards:

4 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Christopher Eccleston	...	Jude Fawley
Kate Winslet	...	Sue Bridehead
Liam Cunningham	...	Phillotson
Rachel Griffiths	...	Arabella
June Whitfield	...	Aunt Drusilla
Ross Colvin Turnbull	...	Little Jude
James Daley	...	Jude as a Boy
Berwick Kaler	...	Farmer Troutham
Sean McKenzie	...	1st Stone Mason
Richard Albrecht	...	2nd Stone Mason
Caitlin Bossley	...	Anny
Emma Turner	...	Sarah
Lorraine Hilton	...	Shopkeeper
James Nesbitt	...	Uncle Joe
Mark Lambert	...	Tinker Taylor

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexuality and intense depictions of death and birth.

Runtime:

123 min | Germany:118 min (TV version)

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Latin

Color:

Color | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:R21 | Japan:R-15 | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Iceland:14 | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:12 (bw) | Hong Kong:IIB | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | Canada:AA (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Beamish Open Air Museum, Beamish, County Durham, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

Christopher Eccleston (Jude Fawley) and David Tennant (Drunk Undergraduate) both later portrayed the Doctor in "Doctor Who" (2005). The former played the Ninth Doctor in 2005 while the latter since played the Tenth Doctor since 2005.

Quotes:

Sue Bridehead: It's right that I suffer.

Movie Connections:

Version of "Jude the Obscure" (1971)

Our friends in the west

There are three common errors made by directors of historical films that Michael Winterbottom neatly avoids in 'Jude', his adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel. Firstly, he creates a picture of a livable past, not some shallow collage of country houses and Dickensian squalor but a world in which a normality, of sorts, might reign. Secondly, he sets out to explore that normality, instead of simply judging the past by present values. Finally, he is working with a script that is neither archaic and stiff nor laced with modern anachronisms. Add to this strong direction and casting (Christopher Ecclestone is excellent in the title role, and a young Kate Winslett fetchingly appealing as Sue), and the result is a good film; but it lacks something of a dramatic punch.

I haven't read the book, but one senses from the film that it may represent a fierce attack on then-contemporary values, particularly those involving marriage, values which drive the characters to their ultimate misfortune. One senses this, but in the movie this theme is played down, so the story seems merely to tell of the ups and downs of Jude's life, presented as fairly accidental happenings. A terrible tragedy eventually occurs; and, because of what has happened in the past, a second, avoidable, tragedy then follows. The problem, dramatically speaking, is that the second tragedy appears smaller than the first, thus the end of the film serves as an anti-climax. Without a unifying sense of accusation, we, instead of a powerful polemic, are left with only the tale of an unfortunate.

'Jude' is one of the better, and the least sentimental, of historical films. But something of the point has been lost in translation.