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Fellwanderer
Reviews
BBC Play of the Month: The Wild Duck (1971)
Perfection
I can only echo the words of the previous reviewer.
The performance of Jenny Agutter is simply superb, touching innocence can never have been better portrayed - unless it was her own performance in The Snow Goose.
I first saw this on a B/W television while at university back in 1971 and never forgot it. For years I have searched for it and only a chance comment allowed me to eventually track it down.
Finally, today, I was able to watch it in colour as part of the Henrik Ibsen Collection.
What a shame the BBC don't make it available in the UK, either as part of a set or actually televise it once more!
The Snow Goose (1971)
Quite simply - the perfect film
Having been brought up just a few minutes from the Essex sea marshes, this film has always had a special poignancy for me.
I first saw The Snow Goose during the Christmas holidays in 1971 and it has remained the most moving film I have ever been privileged enough to watch. Everything about the film is as near perfection as it is possible to get. Richard Harris gives a masterful performance as Philip Rhayader and the young and incredibly beautiful (then and now) Jenny Agutter matches him scene for scene with a maturity beyond her years. I have a lump in my throat every time I watch it and I watch it at least once a month.
It is criminal that this film is not commercially available for generations yet unborn to revere as do all those who were fortunate enough to see it. If ever a film deserved a ten plus, this is it.
Postscript: In October 2007, almost 36 years after first watching it, I had the most memorable moment of my film viewing career when I saw a perfect version of The Snow Goose at the BFI, London, while sitting next to my friend Jenny Agutter. Tears were running down my face at the end.