Customer Reviews

The Buccaneers

5 star:		(79)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

My sister and I adore this mini-series which was shown in Masterpiece Theater many years ago. Anyone who enjoys turn-of-the-century films such as The Age of Innocence, House of Mirth, The Golden Bowl, A Room With A View and Howard's End or stories of the Astors and Vanderbilts will find themselves enraptured with this tale of 4 beautiful American women who find themselves being courted by sons of the British nobility.

In the center of the story are Nan (Carla Gugino) and Virginia St. George (Alison Eliott), and their friends Conchita Closson (Mira Sorvino) and Lizzy Elmsworth (Rya Kihlstedt) - four young women living in turn-of-the-century America, when social status and wealth were the most important considerations in a woman's life (these were the days of the Astors and Vanderbilts, after all). Early in the story we find Conchita married to Lord Marable and begins her new life with the English nobility. Spurned in Newport and New York social circles because they are considered "new money," Nan, Virginia and Lizzy travel to England to visit Conchita and hopefully try their luck there. With the help of 2 enterprising older women, they soon become the toast of the town and are courted by many handsome, wealthy young men. Virginia and Lizzy vie for the attentions of Lord Seadown (Mark Tandy) who is not quite what he seems. Nan is pursued by the humble but ambitious Guy Thwaite (Greg Wise from "Sense and Sensibility") and the wealthy and reserved Julius, the Duke of Trevenick (James Frain).

The mini-series offers beautiful scenery and costumes, great acting from members of the cast (including veterans Cherie Lunghi, Jenny Agutter, Michael Kitchen and Rosemary Leach) and a thoroughly engaging story. I loved the fantastic mansions, palaces and castles in Newport and England alike and the wonderful intertwining of the American and British sensibilities in the plot. It has "one foot in America and another foot in England," as Masterpiece Theater narrator Russell Baker aptly explains. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys top-notch romance/drama!

This is a version of Edith Wharton's last unfinished novel as completed by the BBC screenwriter Maggie Wadey. It was filmed barely 2 years after the first complete version of the novel was published in 1993 (Completed by Marion Mainwaring). It chronicles a very different time (1870s) when class distinctions were clearly marked and the nouveau riche found themselves curtly excluded from the "old money" aristocracy of 19th century America. The story traces the lives of 4 girls from such families who finding themselves rejected in the land of their birth, travel to England to try their charms and new found wealth on the titled aristocracy of the old country. How they fare and the breaking of their illusions form the meat of the story. One reviewer commented on the shallowness and blandness of the characters, of not being able to tell the girls apart. Some viewers may even look at these girls as twittering airheads. This is in part Wharton's doing. Edith Wharton was no admirer of the American upper class. She belonged to it, she experienced it first hand and she despised it and made it evident in her books. Wharton constantly pointed out her society's ignorance, provincialism and prissy narrow-mindedness. None of the girls here really ends up living happily ever after. One of the reviewers here stated that in the absence of Wharton's own ending, the BBC screenwriter has let one of the girls off at the end. But I tend to disagree. Even the heroine Annabelle's running away with the man she loves (supposedly a happy ending) is tinged with the public scandal of adultery, the loss of her titles and privileges, and exile to the other side of the world (Durban, South Africa). This is definitely not what any of the girls would have wanted. Everybody just ends up making compromises and settling for second best. But then such is life.

As usual with the BBC, this is a beautiful production, with gorgeous costumes and sets, filmed at various locations in the English countryside as well as in Newport, Rhode Island which stands in for 19th century America.

The DVD transfer is a rather more questionable affair. According to IMDb, Buccaneers was shot on 16mm film. In America, most TV shows are shot on standard 35mm, 16mm film being used usually for cheaper productions, especially sitcoms and series whose future is in doubt. The BBC alas is publicly funded and doesn't have quite the deep pockets of competing American studios, so many of even its major productions are on 16mm. The critically acclaimed "Brideshead Revisited" immediately springs to mind. For a 16mm film, this actually looks pretty good with strong, vibrant colours, rich blacks and just a slight amount of graininess which imparts a certain softness to the picture, much what you would expect from a 16mm print. It actually looks better than "Brideshead" does on DVD. What is disturbing is the rather odd (1.50:1) aspect ratio presented here. (Yes, I actually popped it into the PC to measure it.) Buccaneers is, I believe, supposed to be in 1.66:1 widescreen. The 1.50:1 aspect ratio means that it has either been cropped or it has had its mattes removed. Either way, it has been modified. Because of the odd ratio it has to be letterboxed into a 4:3 frame. It may matter only to a handful of cinephiles or videophiles but I do wish video companies would take more care in transferring their shows onto discs. Sound is in 2.0 Stereo and dialogue is always clear and distinct.

Finally!! After many years of waiting and writing letters to PBS and the BBC to have this dvd released, it is finally coming. I am sure many others out there are breathing a sigh of relief as one of the most engaging costume dramas ever made is finally coming to dvd.

My sister and I adore this mini-series which was shown in Masterpiece Theater many years ago. Anyone who enjoys turn-of-the-century films such as The Age of Innocence, House of Mirth, A Room With A View and Howard's End or stories of the Astors and Vanderbilts will find themselves enraptured with this tale of 4 beautiful American women who find themselves being courted by sons of the British nobility.

At the center of the story are Nan (Carla Gugino) and Virginia St. George (Alison Eliott), and their friends Conchita Closson (Mira Sorvino) and Lizzy Elmsworth (Rya Kihlstedt) - four young women living in turn-of-the-century America, when social status and wealth were the most important considerations in a woman's life (these were the days of the Astors and Vanderbilts, after all). Early in the story we find Conchita married to Lord Marable (Ronan Vibert) and begins her new life with the English nobility. Spurned in Newport and New York social circles because they are considered "new money," Nan, Virginia and Lizzy travel to England to visit Conchita and hopefully try their luck there. With the help of two enterprising older women, they soon become the toast of the town and are courted by several handsome and eligible young men. Virginia and Lizzy vie for the attentions of Lord Seadown (Mark Tandy), an enigmatic nobleman who is entangled in a scandalous relationship with an older woman (Jenny Agutter). Nan is pursued by the impoverished but ambitious Guy Thwaite (Greg Wise from "Sense and Sensibility") and the wealthy and reserved Julius (James Frain from "Elizabeth"), the Duke of Trevenick. Lizzy is pursued by the common yet enterprising parliament member, Hector Robinson (Richard Huw). Courtships and marriages inevitably take place and the young ladies soon realize that British aristocratic life isn't always what it seems.

The mini-series offers beautiful scenery and costumes, great acting from members of the cast (including veterans Cherie Lunghi, Jenny Agutter, Michael Kitchen and Rosemary Leach) and a thoroughly engaging story. I loved the fantastic mansions, palaces and castles in Newport and England alike and the wonderful intertwining of the American and British sensibilities in the plot. It has "one foot in America and another foot in England," as Masterpiece Theater narrator Russell Baker aptly explains.

Along with North & South, Pride & Prejudice and Wives & Daughters (all BBC produced, incidentally), The Buccaneers is one of my favorite period dramas and holds a special place in my film library. I have watched my dvd copy so many times that it is about to wear out and I am glad that the dvd is finally coming! I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys top-notch romance/drama!

I love Edith Whartion, the Gilded Age, and BBC productions. This film should have been an ideal purchase for me. Instead it was a raving disappointment.

The first third or so of the series remained fairly close to the book, but the remainder mutated into soap opera sensationalism nonsense.

After watching this horror of a 5 hour series, I did a search online and found an interview with the screenplay authoress who admitted to tweaking the novel's plotlines to add interest and allow for the sensibilities of a modern audience.

In this particular miniseries liberties were taken with the storyline that completely affected the original intent and tone of the story.

Julius, Nan's husband, is portrayed as a bisexual, adulterer, and a marital rapist. Watching Julius's characterisation unfold was like witnessing a train wreck.

Nan and Julius's marriage was supposed to be the story of how a relationship fails when two good people, very young and not knowing themselves well, rush into marriage and discover disillusionment. Instead BBC treated its audience to Hollywoodized trite depicting Nan as a wronged wife ill-treated by a remote husband.

There was also something horribly off about the portrayal of Laura Testvalley's friendship with Nan. I love period pieces and I understand that social customs regarding intimate friendships in the past might seem TOO intimate at times to us strait-laced Americans, but the characters' scenes started creeping me out. The mood of the scenes struck me as more romantic than friendly/sisterly/intimate. In a way it was almost a relief when Julius was "outed" because I almost expected the two women to fall in love.

The one bright spot in this wreck of Wharton was Greg Wise (Guy Thwaite) who played his character with complete conviction and looked gorgeous beyond belief in white tie ensembles. It probably helped that Thwaite was one of the few characters allowed to retain the core Wharton penned him in to begin with. I felt like most of the other characters were strangers.

The series has some nice sets and locations and costumes appear in all their Gilded Age glory. Americans can't help but loathe the British aristocracy and their mercenery desire to marry money and then refuse to support their wives since it's beneath them to work. If you're looking for a faithful or even reasonably faithful production of the novel, though, you'll only be disappointed.

If you haven't seen this miniseries yet and you are a BBC period drama fan, this one is for you!

I'm a rabid fan of such shows with Pride and Prejudice basically memorized line for line and North and South quickly becoming a new favorite.But this particular miniseries is right up there with the best because of it's lush production, great characters and oh-no-she-di'in't-oh-yes-she-did plotlines! As the VHS cover review from the London Times puts it, the girls are gorgeous, the houses are gorgeous, even the wacky aristocrats are gorgeous!

The only problem for a long time is that it's only been available through VHS, and so alot of times when I recommended it, people couldn't get hold of a copy of it.Well, problem solved come April 18th!

Carla Gugino is great as Nan, Greg Wise is a honey and a half, and all the interconnecting storylines of the four girls really are engrossing. A very compelling and bittersweet miniseries!

Based upon the glowing reviews read on this web-site I purchased the above movie and found myself wishing I had not. First of all, I have never read Edith Wharton (I just haven't gotten around to it yet), so I was not sure what to expect.
I was hoping for a great period costume drama--well, Buccaneers is definately that; the costumes (and sets) were fabulous--but I was also looking for another great romance to put on my shelf. Buccaneers was not it.
My major problems with the movie are as follows:

1. Sex, lust, adultry, infidelity: and lots of it. To an annoying degree. No character comes out unscathed whether directly or indirectly.
2. I was looking for Austen: she loves him, but doesn't know it; he's maddly in love with her, but engaged to someone else; etc. I ended up finding something quite different. Another review wrote: 'I don't think [The Buccaneers] was ever meant to be taken terribly seriously.' I disagree. Of course Edith Wharton would want her book taken seriously; from what I have read about her, she wanted to expose the underlying darkness, the faux pas, of society. The movie (and, I am assuming, the book) was a commentary on how things do not always turn out like you think they will and nothing is how it appears on the surface. Now, in general I do not mind this kind of 'hocus pocus', but in Buccaneers the underlying drama always has negative connotations. No one is truly happy and everybody is pretty miserable behind their veil of well-bred society and/or cheerfullness.
3. The ending (which I will not give away) felt strangley forced or contrived, perhaps due to the fact that Wharton died before finishing the the book (and so it was finished for her). The final scenes did not feel like a natural progression story, but only Wharton knows how it truly ended.

All in all I liked the acting, the sets, and the costumes, but I came out hating the choices all of the characters made. I kept yelling at the TV screen, "Why are you doing that!" and found no answer.
If you're looking for something 'Jane Austeny' with its sweet innocence and charm, don't buy this (purchase Wives and Daughters instead). If you like period dramas merely for their sets and costumes, then you'll like this. For me Buccaneers was too negative--a dismal out-look on life.

I thought it was time to put the North and South DVD down and watch another BBC period drama. I picked The Buccaneers because I'm a big fan of Edith Wharton and I love the novel (despite the fact that Wharton died before she could finish it). The BBC adaptation, despite being filled with more than a little Victorian melodrama, is an enjoyable adaptation and I watched all five episodes in two nights. Annabelle (also known as Nan) and Virginia St. George are two young ladies shunned by New York society because of their new money status. So they move to New England to try their luck there. Nan and Virginia, together with good friend Lizzy Elmsworth, meet a spirited Brazilian called Conchita Closson (Mira Sorvino) and have a great time smoking, drinking and passing off as English aristocrats in order to attend a ball. Nan is given an English governess, Laura Testvalley, and she becomes Nan's most trusted confidante. Unable to fit into Newport society, the girls move to England after Laura suggests a London season. There Nan and her friends experience the differences between the American and English societies, the difference between the world of trading and the monarchy, and how marriage with English aristocrats isn't the fairy tale life they'd thought it would be.

I love the backdrop of the 1870s, how the new ways of the world clash with the old ones, how fast science is advancing and how the British monarchy is slowly coming to a standstill. Those are some rather insightful parts of this mini-series. The book explores this more than the series adaptation, but they illustrate some insights without losing focus of the central storylines. The actors are all wonderful. I'd never seen any of them before except for Sorvino, but they're a talented lot. James Frain is great as the Duke of Trevenick. He showed a great deal of depth and dimensions and made the character complex and compelling. I also liked Ronan Vibert as Lord Richard. Cherie Lunghi as the governess and Carla Gugino as Nan are great as well. All of the stories centered on the girls' marriages and how they cope with the harsh realities of their callous husbands are quite touching if kind of depressing at times. Nan's marriage to the duke is especially heartwrenching and her forbidden love for up-and-coming politician Guy Thwaite (Greg Wise) is romantic in a bittersweet kind of way. The one thing I have against this series is that some scenes were a little too melodramatic and theatrical for my taste. Why does overacting seem like a prerequisite in a Victorian drama? And the ending doesn't seem like something Edith Wharton would have written. But I'm glad the ending had been written this way, for it is bittersweet rather than tragic. All in all, The Buccaneers is a beautiful production. The wardrobe is impressive. The train skirts from the 1870s are gorgeous, a real eyeful for costume drama fans. And there are some truly wonderful scenes in this series. I especially love the parts where Nan gets lost in the artwork, especially those beautiful paintings in her apartments at the Trevenick estate. This series is almost as fascinating to me as North and South and Richard Armitage (sigh), and the DVD is a great investment, the best ten bucks I've ever spent! I recommend this gem.

What a wonderfully gorgeous production! The girls' beauty, their lovely costumes (there must've been dozens of costume changes between them!), the breathtaking cinematography and the lavish lifestyle of the English aristocrats captured in such rich and vivid detail on film, are already enough to make this video a winner!

The story itself is very romantic. It traces the love lives of 3 rich American girls (and a vivacious Italian girl, Conchita played by Mira Sorvino) from their young, innocent and carefree days in America right up to their stay in England where the 3 Americans (Nan, her older sister Virginia and their friend, Lizzie) end up being married to rich/titled English fops and how the girls deal with the (totally unexpected) heartaches and demands that come with their marriage.

The heroine of the heroines is Annabelle "Nan" St George (played to perfection by Carla Gugino), a kind, naive but rather headstrong girl who marries a Duke (a sullen, uptight and boring young man who's more obsessed with the mechanics and tick-tock of clocks than he is of his young lovely bride). But Nan realizes later that she actually loves another, Guy Thwaite. Then, there're the villains - an unfaithful husband, a kept mistress but most of all, the domineering/greedy in-laws. However, over time, the girls mature and learn how to deal with and make a success of their "situation". In the end, they triumphed against all odds and emerged victorious, finding true happiness in love.

The male actors (who portrayed the husbands/lovers) are not worth commenting much on. All of them (save for Greg Wise) have an almost natural haughty air about them that is oh, so hateful, although I admit their acting is good. But why couldn't the producers have picked better-looking actors?

Overall, I enjoyed this video immensely and especially recommend it to fans of period dramas. It comes in 3 tapes, but the story actually takes up only 2 tapes. Tape No. 3 is a documentary on Edith Wharton's life but it features mostly still photographs and portraits of 19th century people and their costumes, pictures of old American houses from during her time and interviews with experts in American history and period costumes, etc.

This movie will appeal to those who enjoy Jane Austen productions like Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensability. It is set mostly in England of the late 1800's/early 1900's among the aristocracy, tracing the plight of four "noveau riche" American girls. The movie opens in America where the girls are scorned by the old money for being new money, so they head off to England for a "London Season". The hope is that after spending a few months in the esteemed society of the English nobility, the New York aristocracy would have no choice but to accept the girls and their families into NY high society. In England however, things do not go as planned.

Unlike Jane Austen's movies, where the girls always make good marriages in the end, and the bad marriages are always portrayed in a comical way, The Buccaneers portrays events in a much darker, more realistic way. The aristocracy (which at this point in history is suffering, financially) is preying on the young women for their money, and the young women, some of them, as stalking the men for their titles. Most marriages are not made for love, and even in those that are, there is a price to be paid to maintain respectability. With main characters also including a governess, a high-priced mistress, and an un-married matchmkater, this movie also explores the alternatives for women who didn't wish to marry, and the very stiff consequences facing a woman who wished to be free.

This is a beautiful, provocative movie.

Although it held my interest long enough to finish watching, I didn't care a whole lot for this movie. The characters make choices based on shallow reasons and then wonder why they are so unhappy. The characters frustrated me. I really wanted Julius and Nan to become a happy couple. How much more interesting the movie would have been if she had truly loved him and he had changed in response to that love. But no, Nan, in the writer's mind, had to be portrayed as a victim who was in love with someone else and Julius, therefore, had to be turned into a monster. In the end, the only couple who perhaps had some hope were the least appealing couple of all of them. My hopes for a rich and satisfying British drama were dashed! A final note--this is not a family movie.