Product Details

• Actors: Laurence Olivier, Richard Attenborough, Edith Evans, Cyril Cusack, Robin Phillips
• Directors: Delbert Mann
• Format: Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Studio: Digiview Productions
• DVD Release Date: April 4, 2004
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0006JJNXK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #98,103 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reminiscenses of David Copperfield - a moving reflection of a well known story, March 5, 2008

By 

Timothy B. Holt "Go into the western sea" (Santa Cruz and World Surfing Capital) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: David Copperfield (DVD)

I think this works for me because I have read David Copperfield several times and have seen several screen versions. True, because it is not a mini-series and is setup as reflections on the past from a present author confronted by his old friend on a visit by the seaside of Yarmouth and scene of much sadness and regret as well as joy, the story is broken, and the great stars of English cinema have only limited time to shine. But, the style and the acting and the filming locations and even the rather old fashioned music drew me into a well remembered world and reminded me that chosing life in the here and now and taking the good from the past and going on is always an option. This needs a restoration badly (the print has much "snow" specs) but somehow, I do not mind too much. The chosen scenes from the Novel and the speeches are amoung the best. So, if you already know the book well, this little series of scenes from it with great actors from the past is rather moving (just be ready to ignore the poor transfer).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor Adaptation, Misses the Point, April 28, 2009

By 

Nibs - See all my reviews

This review is from: David Copperfield (DVD)

I found Delbert Mann's David Copperfield available for online viewing after a random search, and sat down to watch it with little expectations, as most of the reviews I had heard were quite negative. As I watched it I was thinking, "Hey, this is pretty good, why does everyone dislike it?" As I continued watching, I though, "That was a strange choice in screenwriting, I wonder why they did that?" By the end I turned it off. Fox's David Copperfield is sketchily edited, with poor performances from main characters, inaccurate editing, and costumes and settings more fit for a Sherlock Holmes film than a Dickensian adaptation.

The writers opted for the flashback style used in some other versions, memories coming to David as he walks mournfully along the seashore immediately at his return to England from Switzerland. But when David did flashback, he did so disjointedly, making it difficult for people to follow unless you are thoroughly informed on what is happening. And if you ARE informed, then you'll have a problem with the content of the flashbacks - the scenes that were kept (which were few) were switched up and blended together (a.k.a Steerforth meets Uriah Heep), and so short there was no character development. The whole film was like watching a bunch of things happen to people you don't care for. I don't mind it when a director adapts the story - it's to be expected in a film of two hours that must encompass a novel of 700+ pages. Naturally scenes will be spliced or combined or deleted entirely. But this film focuses SO MUCH on David walking across the Yarmouth beach and the voices in his head. We see David brooding, ignoring fans of his books, saying rude things to an agonizingly air-headed Agnes. We see him hanging out with Steerforth who seems to be as much a main character as David himself. We don't see much of Betsey Trotwood, scarcely any Murdstones or Peggotty, no childhood interaction with David at the Wickfields. Uriah Heep is even more horrible than Agnes: spastic and irritating, and spitting out the word "umble" at intervals. It got to the point that it was hard to watch.


This film actually had some nice acting with the Peggottys and Mr. Micawber and especially young David and Steerforth at all ages. But the choices in storyline effectively negated the brighter aspects of this movie. Unless you are simply trying to see all the versions of David Copperfield, I see no reason to watch this film when there are so many better choices.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, well paced version of Copperfield, October 23, 2005

By 

LF "Keep your feedback to yourself, these are... (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: David Copperfield (DVD)

I will often find it difficult to sit through an entire movie at home, and will stop it after 30-45 minutes, then return to it later. But with this film, to my surprise, the first time I looked at the time expired, it was already over an hour, and I was happy to stay with it longer. The film is two hours, and it held my interest from start to finish.

It concisely gave us the story, with all its memorable characters. There's the mean stepfather Murdstone, loquacious Micawber, the willing Barkis and the Peggoty family, kind Aunt Betsey and her dimwitted Mr. Dick, Steerforth and Traddles, Copperfield's sweethearts silly Dora and wise Agnes, eely Uriah Heep, sweet Emily, and the rest of the wonderful Dickens characters.

It seems odd to me that Australia is seen as the great escape, the land to start fresh, and that all your problems are solved once you board that boat to Down Under. It seems like a condemnation of Britain, and I don't see why you can assume that things will work out well in Australia. It seems that you have a whole new movie about the emigrants trying to make a new life there.

When I was a child I read this book and it seemed very heavy, very oppressive. In the movie, the nastiness involved with Murdstone and Heep went by quickly enough, which I was glad of.

There is a life lesson at the end, an answer to the eternal question "why are we here?". The answer is that it is not good enough to be happy and loving. We must pass through the fire and become strong. I suppose there's something to that, though the intensity and type of fire we must pass through varies from one person to another.

This version of David Copperfield gets a thumbs up from me, and is well worth the dollar you have to pay for it at the supermarket. But I noticed that these dollar DVDs are disappearing from the supermarkets, and you have to pay a lot more for their DVDs, so why not order it from Amazon. It's cheap enough, and a good movie.