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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Peter Kosminsky's 1992 adaptation of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights goes to the extreme of casting Sinéad O'Connor in a brief bit as Brontë herself, but the film still doesn't approach the accomplishment of William Wyler's classic 1939 production (with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon) or subsequent versions by Luis Buñuel and Robert Fuest. That doesn't make it unwatchable, however: it still offers The English Patient costars Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche as doomed lovers Heathcliff and Cathy. Binoche is a bit washed-out, but Fiennes makes a strong impression as the rejected laborer who makes his fortune and exacts a vengeance. Unlike Wyler's film, this one covers all the chapters of Brontë's book, but it is sodden with misery and lacks all grace. --Tom Keogh
Product Description
The haunting Gothic tale of love, loss, and redemption on the windswept English moors becomes a stirring drama featuring Ralph Fiennes as the brooding Heathcliff and Juliette Binoche as both the love of his life, Catherine, and her daughter. Janet McTeer, Simon Shepherd, Sophie Ward also star. 106 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Surround; Subtitles: English.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
237 of 241 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was amazed when I read that this British production was not well received upon its release in 1992. The highly talented pair of Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes play the doomed Cathy and Heathcliff, supported by the equally fine Janet McTeer as Ellen Dean. The performances are exemplary--Fiennes' performance is said to have inspired Steven Spielberg to cast him as the Nazi commandant in "Schindler's List." And a diabolical Heathcliff he is, indeed--Fiennes plays this intense role faithful to Emily Bronte's original character. He is tormented, sadistic, manipulative, ruthless and brutal--and nonetheless hypnotically sexual and alluring. This is the genuine Heathcliff, with all apologies to the brilliant Laurence Olivier, who portrayed Heathcliff as a much more sympathetic character. Juliette Binoche plays both Cathy and Cathy's daughter by the ineffectual Edgar Linton, and brings great depth and appeal to both roles. The scenes of the bleak Yorkshire moors, and the haunting, shadowy quality of the Wuthering Heights house, lend this film a truly Gothic atmosphere. A jarring note is the casting of Sinead O'Connor (in a wig) as Emily Bronte, but this is a minor flaw. I found this version every bit as good as the original 1939 classic, to which this film has been unfairly compared. It is much more faithful to the brooding, doomed quality of the book. The scenes acted by Fiennes as the grief-stricken Heathcliff just after Cathy's death are alone worth the price of the film. For the many fans of these two brilliant actors, and of Bronte's novel, this film is well worth seeing. END
61 of 62 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape|Amazon Verified Purchase
Every once in a while, I encounter an actor who, although playing a familiar character, seems to re-invent it and show details of it that have never before been displayed. Such is Ralph Fiennes portrayal of Heathcliff in this film. I was not at all surprised that Spielberg chose him for "Schindler's List" after watching this film--Fiennes' Heathcliff is almost wholly unsympathetic (he is a wife---and child-- abuser) but Fiennes lets us know the inner heartbreak that drives Heathcliff to such meanness. Previous Heathcliffs have been more stock romantic leads--the original Moody Guys a' la' James Dean.
I can't really understand the extreme negativity of the "official" reviews--it appears that the movie, as is the novel, its characters, the author, and her entire family is a little off-center and out of the mainstream. The Brontes were a bunch of weird and wild kids in a weird and wild part of the world, and "Wuthering Heights" is a weird and wild book--not a proper Victorian romance, as other reviewers have suggested. Comparing Emily Bronte to Jane Austen is like comparing William Faulkner to John Grisham because they are both from Mississippi. None of Austen's characters could survive in Bronte's Yorkshire, and the Brontes would probably be unwelcome in Austen's stately Hampshire homes.
I,too, liked this book as a teenager, and now have the opportunity to teach it to high schoolers,and I must say my students generally prefer this novel and this film treatment to most others in British Literature. The film does have its flaws--but not enough to make it unwatchable, and having spent a wild, rainy weekend in the Bronte's hometown of Haworth, Yorkshire, I do believe the film aptly captures the mood of that forbidding place.
As for the choice of Sinead O'Connor to play Emily "framing" the "frame story"-- all I can guess is that she does bear a passing resemblance to the portrait of Charlotte Bronte that hangs over my computer (great, big, intense eyes). Plus the Brontes were ethnically Irish.
Watch this film to help your English lit grade, to observe a truly artful nuanced acting performance, to enjoy some beautiful scenery, or just enjoy a weepy gothic romance. Any way you look at it, it can't possibly be a waste of time.
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
To me, Heathcliff is one of the most complex and compelling characters ever written and I had once thought that any actor would fall short in playing him in a film or miniseries. Having watched this beautiful and haunting adaptation of one of my favorite novels of all time, I have to say that Ralph Fiennes has more than succeeded in bringing the aforementioned anti-hero to life. Emily Bronte would have been proud. Everyone who has read Wuthering Heights knows about the tragic love story between Cathy and Heathcliff and how he becomes a dark, brooding, manipulative, diabolical man who takes his revenge on the people who he feels have wronged him and torn him away from Cathy, including her daughter and his own child and ward. Fiennes brings out Heathcliff's many conflicting emotions flawlessly and his performance floored me. Juliette Binoche as Cathy Linton/Catherine Earnshaw is great as well. The supporting cast is quite splendid too -- no cardboard cutout performances here! The backdrop of the moors is beautiful and gothic, just like Bronte described them in her book. I am very impressed with this adaptation. I haven't seen the 1939 film adaptation or the miniseries from Masterpiece Theater yet, but I wonder if they come close to this wonderful film. The BBC will produce an adaptation some time next year and I think that Richard Armitage (North and South) would make a wonderful Heathcliff because he too could bring many nuances to his acting. In the meantime, I shall treasure this one and watch it over and over again.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good Interpretation of a Pretty Depressing Story
I tried to read this book when I was very young, and again when I was in college, and got lost in the style of language, in the confusion of names, and in the fact that I was... Read more
Published 12 hours ago by Barbara Frederick
Do not buy!!!
I got ready to play this and the dvd is for european veiwing. My player would not play this! It has a #2 which is the zone it is formatted for. Read more
Published 1 month ago by happy!
wutheringheights
i purchesed this movie from movie mars, the movie will not work! i e-mailed movie mars---no responce! Read more
Published 3 months ago by 2boredcampers
Absolutely the best edition, hauntingly beautiful
I love this story and have seen most renditions. This is the best of them all. The acting excellent. Ralph Fiennes captures the complicated, tortured character from the book. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Carole Banks
Such a beautiful, inspiring movie.
This movie touched my heart. The story between the two lovers makes the movie more and more entertaining as you watch it unfold. I thought it wouldn't speak to me, but it did. Read more
Published 3 months ago by MimiMiles
Disappointed : (
It was my first time ordering on Amazon and I purchased the movie, Wuthering Heights, through Movie Mars. I had friends and familly over to watch it and it wouldn't work. Read more
Published 3 months ago by P L F
DVD defective, no response after returning item to seller
When I received the DVD I played it on my DVD player and there was no movie past 30 seconds of the beginning. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Hg
Miscast
This film is probably one of the few adaptations that is reasonably faithful to the text, but the casting is ridiculous so it was hard to take seriously. Read more
Published 6 months ago by M. Reader
Preferred another version
As near as I can tell, there have been at least 11 versions of this made for the screen. I have seen four, so don't know what the other 7 may hold. Read more
Published 9 months ago by D. Jester
Favorite version
I watched several movie versions of Wuthering Heights, and I like this one the best. Ralph Fiennes is the perfect Heathcliffe -- he does moody, angry, and vengeful better than... Read more
Published 10 months ago by L. Schaefer
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