Amazon.com: Alan Bates gives a fierce, uncompromising performance in The Mayor of Casterbridge, a skillful miniseries adapted from Thomas Hardy's classic novel. The arrogant Michael Henchard (Bates), in a foul drunken mood, sells his long-suffering wife Susan (Anne Stallybrass) and infant daughter Elizabeth-Jane to a sailor at a country fair. Henchard awakens the next morning stricken with remorse; he vows not to drink again for 21 years. Eighteen years later, Susan returns to find him, with Elizabeth-Jane (Janet Maw) in tow; Henchard receives her joyously, eager to lay the rash acts of his youth behind him, but just as eager to avoid the shame that his past might bring to his current life as mayor of the town of Casterbridge. Thus begins a complex and compelling tragedy of secrets, betrayals, and unexpected turns. In the hands of Dickens, this melodramatic story would have been a romp. Hardy has a sadder but also more intensely emotional bent; he takes his characters' feelings--both their loss and their desire--deeply seriously, and the result is as passionate as it is woeful. The Mayor of Casterbridge starts sluggishly, but becomes increasingly gripping over the course of seven episodes, as the excellent cast makes the characters vivid and sympathetic. Bates and Anna Massey, as a former love of Henchard's who seeks to renew their relationship, are particularly superb. Some critics view Henchard's fall from grace as the result of pride; but this production, written with nuance and care by Dennis Potter (The Singing Detective, Pennies from Heaven), makes clear his emotional clumsiness and how it sabotages his fumbling after happiness. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - surprisingly low budget film
I love period peices but...this film takes on characteristics of a low budget, poorly done film....I am still amused when I think of how bad the acting was in this movie...
Rating: - Thomas Hardy's slowly played Greek tragedy in Casterbridge
I have an affinity for Greek tragedies and Thomas Hardy's "The Mayor of Casterbridge," presented here in the BBC's 1978 mini-series, is decidedly in that tradition. I know that Hardy was interested in ... Read More
Rating: - How could the BBC produce this?
The Mayor of Casterbridge is an enormous dissapointment. My wife and I have enjoyed more than a dozen BBC dramas on DVD which have distinguished themselves through brilliant acting and quality cinema production. ... Read More
Rating: - Excellent Period Drama
I really enjoyed the Mayor of Casterbridge. I hadn't read the novel, or watched other movies, but boy was I surprised! What a delight! Alan Bates stars as the 'mayor' a hard-working man with a dark secret! (Once ... Read More
Rating: - Recommended with reservations.
I remember well reading what is, in my opinion, one of Thomas Hardy's greatest novels, The Mayor of Casterbridge. Viewers who start first with the novel are apt to be a bit disappointed in the transformation to film. ... Read More
- surprisingly low budget film
- Thomas Hardy's slowly played Greek tragedy in Casterbridge
- How could the BBC produce this?
- Excellent Period Drama