Welcome to the January 2009 meeting of the Risky Regencies JANE AUSTEN MOVIE CLUB!

This is where we meet on the first Tuesday of every month to discuss adaptations of Jane Austen’s works, and other Regency-interest film and TV productions.

(For info about what we’ll discuss next, or to participate in any of our other discussions, just see the previous post!)

Today’s discussion will be on the first installment of the ITV/A&E Horatio Hornblower series, which stars Ioan Gruffudd and Robert Lindsay.

Oh, and sorry about the awkward “#1” in the title of the post — but as the first installment is called HORATIO HORNBLOWER: THE DUEL in the US, and HORNBLOWER: THE EVEN CHANCE in the UK, I was afraid that adding even half of that to the title would lead to Blogger meltdown and imminent nuclear war.

By the way, the fantastic screen captures shown here — all from this episode — are courtesy of the very neat website twoevilmonks.org. They have a useful and hilarious summary of the plot of THE DUEL/EVEN CHANCE, including these and more great pictures, which is well worth checking out.

To aid the discussion, here are some of the
major credits, with “you’ve seen him before here”
tidbits in green:

Ioan Gruffudd — Horatio Hornblower

Gruffudd starred as Wilberforce in the recent film Amazing Grace.

Robert Lindsay — Captain Sir Edward Pellew

Michael Byrne — Capt. Keene

You may recognize Byrne as Major Nairn in the Sharpe series.

Jamie Bamber — Midshipman Archie Kennedy

Before he starred in Battlestar Galactica, Bamber played Lord Tony in the Richard E. Grant-starring Scarlet Pimpernel.

Dorian Healy — Midshipman Jack Simpson

Paul Copley — Matthews

Simon Sherlock — Oldroyd

Sean Gilder — Styles

DIRECTOR: Andrew Grieve

SCREENPLAY: Russell Lewis
(Based on the C.S. Forester stories “Hornblower and the Even Chance,” “Hornblower and the Cargo of Rice,” and “Hornblower and the Man who Felt Queer.”)

So…what did you think?

Did you like this Hornblower?

What do you think of the cast?

The script?

The special effects?

If you’ve read any of Forester, what do you think of the interpretation?

If you’ve seen the film MASTER AND COMMANDER, how do you think the two differ?

All answers welcome!

(And be sure to come back
on the first Tuesday of next month,
when we’ll be discussing
the 1934 SCARLET PIMPERNEL!)

Cara
Cara King, who prefers tea to rum, and bagels to ship’s biscuit

Our next four “meetings” of the Jane Austen Movie Club will be:

February 3: THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (1934 — Leslie Howard)

March 3: THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (1982 — Anthony Andrews)

April 7: THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE

May 5: SHARPE’S RIFLES

And remember, none of our discussions ever really end…so if you missed a chance to comment on any of the adaptations we’ve already done, it’s not too late!

If you’re interested, our previous discussions were:

JANE AUSTEN ADAPTATIONS:

Pride and Prejudice (1940, 1980, 1995, 2005)
Sense & Sensibility (1995, 2008)
Northanger Abbey (1986, 2007)
Emma (1996, 1997)
Mansfield Park (1999, 2007)
Persuasion (1995, 2007)

MASTER AND COMMANDER
MISS AUSTEN REGRETS
THE DUCHESS
CLUELESS
CRANFORD
BRIDE AND PREJUDICE

(I plan to turn all the above into links, BTW…after I sleep…) 🙂

Cara

As regular Risky Regencies readers know, on the first Tuesday of every month, we discuss a film or TV adaptation of Jane Austen, or some other Regency-interest film.

We have now run through all the commonly-watched Austen adaptations (and a few less-common ones), plus a smattering of non-Austen flicks. So…what next?

I couldn’t fail to notice that as we moved from the more recent Austen adaptations to the older ones (and the non-Austen ones), the discussions lagged. (The fewest comments came in our discussion of Cranford, and the most from the 1995 Pride & Prejudice.) This makes me leery of doing, say, the 1971 Persuasion or the 1972 Emma…

So after trying to figure out what would stimulate discussion — Scarlet Pimpernel movies? Specific Sharpe or Hornblower movies? — I decided to ask you, our faithful readers.

So let’s have it: which of the following would you have seen & have something to say about, assuming you knew a month ahead of time what would be discussed? (Or are there any you’d like to suggest which aren’t on the list?)

1971 BBC Persuasion
1981 BBC Sense & Sensibility
1983 BBC Mansfield Park
1972 BBC Emma
Installments of the recent Horatio Hornblower series (with Ioan Gruffudd)
Installments of the Sharpe series
Scarlet Pimpernel (please specify which one: Leslie Howard, David Niven, Anthony Andrews, or Richard E. Grant)
Beau Brummel (1954)
Princess Caraboo (1994)
A Royal Scandal (1996 — about the Regent’s marriage)

For purposes of clarity, this is the list of what we’ve already discussed:

MASTER AND COMMANDER
MISS AUSTEN REGRETS
THE DUCHESS
CLUELESS
CRANFORD
BRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Looking forward to hearing your opinions!

Cara
Cara King, whose geek interests range from Regency to SF to movies…