Product Details

• Actors: Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle, Alison Steadman, Benjamin Whitrow, Susannah Harker
• Directors: Simon Langton
• Format: Box set, Collector's Edition, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 6
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• VHS Release Date: December 23, 1996
• Run Time: 300 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1,623 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303921248
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #479 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video
Jane Austen's classic novel of 1813, Pride and Prejudice, still wins the hearts of countless schoolgirls with its romantic story of Elizabeth Bennet and her Mr. Darcy. Now, the 1996 BBC miniseries is winning over adults, with its faithful adaptation, gorgeous scenery, and superb acting. The essence of the story is the antagonism between Mr. Darcy, a wealthy single man who believes Elizabeth to be beneath him, and Elizabeth, who upon being insulted at a dance by the aloof Darcy refuses to associate with him in any manner. Austen evokes incredible tension with the wit and flirtation of the two characters, and director Simon Langton (who also directed Upstairs Downstairs) successfully translates the repartee and conflict in this six-hour miniseries. Dialogue, for the most part, is painstakingly replicated, except when fleshing out and smoothing for modern sensibilities was necessary. Darcy, for instance, is drawn out, giving his personality significantly more depth. The acting sweeps you away to Regency England: Jennifer Ehle (of Wilde) is convincing as the obstinate Elizabeth, who, despite her mother's attempts to marry her off, spurs the attentions of Darcy. And Colin Firth (of The English Patient) will have women everywhere longing for a Mr. Darcy of their own.

For those who enjoy excellent Austen adaptations such as Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion--this miniseries will round out the ultimate Austen library. For those new to these romantic period pieces, this version of Pride and Prejudice will have you hooked and longing for more. One caveat, however: plan to watch it in an entire day, because very few have the self-control to not watch all six hours in a single sitting. --Jenny Brown

On the DVD
There's a lot to love (and a lot lacking) on the 10th anniversary limited edition. It comes in a tall, embossed green case that's out of place on a DVD shelf but blends right into a library of volumes. The three discs fit snugly in a sleeve, accompanied by a 120-page deluxe companion book. The main attraction, a retrospective documentary, features interviews with key cast members with the sad exceptions of Jennifer Ehle (who played Elizabeth) and Colin Firth (Mr. Darcy), which is bound to disappoint fans. Nonetheless, there are some amusing anecdotes from Mr. and Mrs. Bennet (played by Benjamin Withrow and Alison Steadman), Mary Bennet (Lucy Briers), Mr. Collins (David Bamber), Mr. Bingley (Crispin Bonham-Carter) and Mr. Wickham (Adrian Lukis), who all look drastically different--and younger--without their period costumes and hairstyles. One producer recalls that casting Colin Firth in the role with which his name is now synonymous was not an easy feat: he auditioned having gained weight and dyed his hair blond for another role, looking like "an unmade bed." Even Firth's own brother doubted his ability to pull off the dashing Darcy: "Isn't he supposed to be sexy?"

The special features also include a walking tour of the shooting locations with Lukis and Briers and an A&E Biography episode on Jane Austen that focuses largely on the onslaught of mid-1990s film adaptations of her novels. If it's your first time purchasing Pride & Prejudice, this collector's edition is a nice one to own. But if you already own the movie, you're not missing out on anything here. --Ellen A. Kim

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Product Description
Hailed as "the best Austen of all" by The New York Times and deemed "one of the best things ever done for television anywhere" by Sneak Previews, this brilliant adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel is A&E’s most popular title ever. Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth (Shakespeare in Love) star in this Emmy-winning production.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

135 of 137 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a high quality DVD..., June 12, 2000

By	Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Pride and Prejudice (A&E, 1996) (DVD)

"Pride and Prejudice" is one of the top 10 novels ever written. The BBC miniseries with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle is the finest adaptation to date. The actors are superb. The screen play is accurate, comprehensive, parsimonious, and entertaining. The dialogue is beautiful and preserves much of Jane Austin's witty and wry commentary. The cinematography is superb. The film was shot in authentic locations all over Britain.

I thought the film adaptation by the BBC and A&E was so fine, I bought the VCR tapes when they were released, then I bought the lazer disk version, and then I bought the DVD version. The DVD version is a big fat disappointment. The quality of the DVD transfer is NOT good.

First, the colors appear faded and with the Regency English palette of beige-greens, browns, ambers, and taupes, this is a serious defect. It makes the clothing look worn, the grass and trees look sunburned, and some places, the complexions look downright washed out. The film appears to have been shot in Arizona at high noon instead of England.

Second, for some bizarre reason, the DVD processors nipped and tucked some of the original material. The clipped portions might not bother one who has never seen the original--but I noticed. There was no need to edit this film. Four of the 50-minute sections are crammed on disk 1 (where the editing takes place) and the other two were recorded on disk 2. I guess it would have made too much sense to record three episodes on each disk? Seems like poor planning to me.

For the price of this 2-disk DVD package, more care should have been taken with the transfer process. My lazer disk version cost less, holds more, and has beautiful resolution.

1,344 of 1,422 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wait for Extra Special Edition, December 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Pride and Prejudice - The Special Edition (A&E, 1996) (DVD)

This BBC/A&E production is one of the most well made films my wife and I have ever seen - superb acting, costumes, sets and location, music, directing, editing!! Like others here, we have watched the A&E VHS edition over and over. (It is a 'chick flick', but I enjoy romantic movies, too.)

Our excitement over getting the DVD faded upon loading both the VHS tape and DVD and comparing the images and sound. The widescreen image on the DVD is definitely more clear on our 50" high res screen, and it is a pleasure to see the full images framed as the Director intended.

HOWEVER, the colors are not just washed out. The digital remastering has changed the color tone of the film as if someone used a Photoshop/Premier digital filter without knowing what they were doing. The VHS and original not only had rich color saturation, but also had a warm tone that felt 'right' with the period film. The DVD is not only washed out, but has a strong blue-white tone to it that gives a cold modern feel to the scenes.

To get the image to look close to decent on our TV, I had to turn the color saturation up as far as it would go, bring the contrast down and the brightness up. It then almost matched the VHS images except for the blue-ish rather than warm overall cast.

The sound is tinny, much of the lower frequencies that are on the VHS sound track being chopped off.

There are no subtitles at all (we frequently turn them on for other DVDs when we cannot quite make out the dialog) - much less alternative language tracks.

So, why is this edition 'Special'? The only additions, other than the abysmal digital remastering (digital destruction) are:
(1) an 8-page booklet (that mentions only 3 of the actors)
(2) some text-only biography screens, that mention only 2 of the actors
(3) a 20-some minute 'making of' feature that gives the producer most of the credit (and she did of course put the team together, but the director/editor/actors/choreographer/costumers/etc produced the art) - and which still only visits with 4 of the actors - out of this tremendously talented cast.

What was supposed to be a 'special' Christmas gift, ended up being a tremendous disappointment. We can only hope that A&E and BBC will produce an 'Extra Special' edition that gets the color and sound back to the director's intention (did he even get to review this DVD?). That, and a rebate for all of us who bought this defective edition, would make us happy enough. Adding subtitles, profiles of everyone else involved in the production, and stills of the various homes, heritage buildings and towns used would be (delicious, but optional) gravy.

193 of 202 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Convenience outweighs loss in color, October 24, 2003

By	L. Mesinger (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Pride and Prejudice - The Special Edition (A&E, 1996) (DVD)

I am a huge lover of Pride and Prejudice. I lost track of how many times I've seen the VHS version (I taped it off of A&E and then bought the tape set). It is a superb production; the acting, production, screen play and scenery are fantastic.

The problem with the VHS versions is that the one taped from A&E has a lot of the scenes cut out, and the box set keeps you switching tapes and fastforwarding through the commercials every 50 minutes. The DVD is much more convenient and even includes extra scenes (more like extra lines to a few scenes, something only a huge fan would notice).

It is true that the DVD contains no subtitles, which is a big disappointment, because there is a line or two where I never could figure out what is being said. I didn't notice the sound difficulties pointed out in other reviews, but the color is washed out. I had to adjust the "picture mode" on my television and it's still faded somehow. The DVD extras are nothing special, and I was disappointed not to find any interviews with the main characters (I wanted to see how they look "normally.")

In spite of these small problems with the DVD, I highly recommend it for all P&P lovers. The convenience of only having to get up once (and you probably don't watch the whole thing in one sitting anyway) plus the 5 minutes or so of extra footage make this DVD a must. Factor in that it is actually cheaper than the VHS set, and there's no question. Simply adjust the settings on your television before watching, and settle in to 2 hours and fifty minutes of continuous Jane Austen.