Waterland (1992)

Pittsburgh, 1974: A high school history teacher slowly losing it tells his class about his experiences as teenager in England during WWII incl. curious 16 y.o. Mary.

Director:

Stephen Gyllenhaal

Writers:

Graham Swift (novel), Peter Prince (screenplay)

Stars:

Jeremy Irons, Sinéad Cusack, Ethan Hawke

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jeremy Irons	...	Tom Crick
Sinéad Cusack	...	Mary Crick
Grant Warnock	...	Young Tom
Lena Headey	...	Young Mary
Callum Dixon	...	Freddie Parr
Sean Maguire	...	Peter (as Sean McGuire)
Ross McCall	...	Terry
Camilla Hebditch	...	Shirley
David Morrissey	...	Dick Crick
John Heard	...	Lewis Scott
Maggie Gyllenhaal	...	Maggie Ruth
Ethan Hawke	...	Matthew Price
Cara Buono	...	Judy Dobson
Pete Postlethwaite	...	Henry Crick (as Peter Postlethwaite)
Stewart Richman	...	Ernest Atkinson

Storyline

Tom Crick, a high school history teacher, is having trouble connecting - with his class, with his wife. He ventures into telling his class stories about his young adulthood in the Fens district in England. The emotional wounds from his younger life wash over him in present day, affecting his work and his relationships with his students and his wife.

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Plot Keywords:

death of wife | king | laundry drying on a clothesline | class | teacher | 

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexuality and language, and for an abortion scene

Did You Know?

Trivia

Maggie Gyllenhaal's motion picture debut

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Quotes

[first lines]
Tom Crick: Once upon a time, children, there was a history teacher who came home one day, after giving a class on the French Revolution, to find that his wife, the woman he loved since they were children, had herself committed a revolutionary, a miraculous act.

User Reviews

Good, but far inferior to the book

As a huge fan of Graham Swift's novels, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well this complex and detailed work was compressed into film form. While I think Jeremy Irons, David Morrissey and Sinead Cusack are all outstanding in this film, I really feel that the transplanting of the frame from England to America diminishes the story. Surely Price's nihilism is not merely a standard adolescent world-weariness, but a form of the punk sensibility contemporary with the book's appearance. Still, the film does a good job of capturing the sense of place in its English scenes, and handles the poignancy of the story effectively. The film is good, but the book is immense.

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 October 1992 (USA)

Also Known As:

Waterland

Filming Locations:

East Anglia, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$1,100,218

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,100,218

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Screen Productions, Channel Four Films, Palace Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1