[.ca] Jane Eyre

From Amazon.com:
Jane Eyre--the mother of all gothic romances--gets abundant passion in this 11-episode BBC miniseries. Young Sian Pattenden is wonderfully willful and impetuous; viewers will immediately identify with the child Jane as she fights against ill-treatment at the home of her aunt and at boarding school. It's a shame to see her grow up into Zelah Clarke--until Clarke asserts her own quiet yet fierce spirit. The plot really starts rolling when Jane takes a position as governess at Thornfield, a handsome estate owned by the imperious and tortured Mr. Rochester (Timothy Dalton, a few years before he became James Bond). From there, this 1983 adaptation rips through the perilous highs and devastating lows of Charlotte Bronte's powerful novel, in which the courtship of these two prickly personalities gets twists and turns galore. Though the visual style is a bit pedestrian, the well-crafted script and skillful performances grow more gripping with every episode. The necessary feverishness springs from simple yet effective means, like macabre laughter floating down the halls of Thornfield. The scenes between Clarke and Dalton crackle with chemistry; Bronte fans will not be disappointed. --Bret Fetzer

my favourite:
im a big fan of bronte and i would say this adaptation is by far the best. i've seen the recent version with anna paquin/william hurt and was very disappointed with it. i haven't seen the other two versions with hinds/morton and york/scott but im truly satisfied with this one.

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!:
When I first started watching I thought I had the wrong DVD. The interior scenes are filmed like a stage play and I hadn't expected it. But the moment Jane Eyre meets Mr. Rochester you cannot wait to see them on the screen together. Timothy Dalton is absolutely perfect as the moody Mr. Rochester! THERE IS NO OTHER MR. ROCHESTER! Zelah Clarke is not Hollywood beautiful and you don't realize how much Hollywood has tainted our view of what a heroine should look like. Zelah did a wonderful job of portraying a woman who is beautiful as she blooms under the rays of love after living in "shadow" of oppression and inferiority for so long. You love to see her dimple come out as she reaches beneath Mr. Rochester's gruff, saracastic exterior and gets to the man seeking "reformation" underneath. Prepare your heart and head for a gamut of emotions! The plot has many twists and turns and is VERY well written - bravo Charlotte Bronte for writing such an intriguing story! Had this been made into an epic release by a big Hollwyood motion picture production many years ago, it could easily have been considered as great a story as Gone with the Wind and the likes. This love story with it's happy ending is absolutely beautiful. When the last credits roll up - you will find yourself saying, "Now THAT is true love!"

Low budget , though accurate adaptation of the book:
If you are looking the most accurate adaptation of "Jane Eyre," this is it. It's got everything from the book that the screenwriters could pack into four hours. However, like all of the BBC productions that I've seen, this looks like it was filmed with a video camera. I absolutely love the book, but part of me also loves film and this is so low budget that there's not really much action or even movement during certain scenes. People stand or sit in one spot for long periods of time spouting words -- beautifully exact words, mind you -- but it does get quite visually boring sometimes. Speaking of visuals: Timothy Dalton is skinnier and taller than Rochester is supposed to be. Zelah Clarke is short, but way too filled out and her character is too perky; she is supposed to be outwardly suppressed, though inwardly intense. And these leads are supposed to be 20 years apart -- Dalton and Clark look to be about the same age. That being said, there is some great chemnistry between them; the passion between Jane and Rochester -- the focal point of the story -- is absolutely palbable in this adaptation. No other "Jane Eyre" film will give you so much accurate dialogue, straight out of the book and no other adaptation has the Rochester-as-gypsy scene or an accurate portrayal of the River's family and Jane's relationships with them. It's definitely worth adding to your adaptation collection.

My favourite film version:
I love this version of Jane Eyre. I would go to the library and borrow the VHS version at least once or twice a year. Now it's on DVD, huzzah! Oh, and Timothy Dalton just may have the most perfect English voice in the world.

I've seen better versions:
I thought that the portrayal of the story was drawn out and slow at times. I preferred A & E's version of jane eyre much more than this one.