We’ve gone a bit of a different route after wrapping up our reading of Pride and Prejudice. As with our last book, we decided to watch an adaptation, but there are so many out there for P&P that we actually chose four of those adaptations to watch and write about. Over four arduous days, we watched two movies, a mini-series and a musical production based on Pride and Prejudice to bring you our thoughts on them. There will be spoilers, so if you want to watch any of these adaptations before reading, pause here. 

Pride and Prejudice (1940)

R: The first movie we watched was the 1940 production with Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy and Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennet. This adaptation was just under two hours long, so there were a great many plot elements that were left out. Among other things, Bingley only had one sister – Caroline, and several events were condensed, such as some of the balls and what happened at them being rolled together. I really enjoyed Edmund Gwenn, who also played Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street, as Mr. Bennet. The story was more of a straight comedy, which was enjoyable, but did take out all the subtle wittiness that makes Jane Austen’s novels so good. 

One of the humorous elements I really liked was at the end when Lady Catherine shows up to yell at Elizabeth about her supposed engagement to Mr. Darcy. When Lady Catherine leaves, we see that Darcy was waiting in the carriage and had sent his aunt in to see how Elizabeth really felt about him. The first time I saw the movie, I wasn’t a fan of this part, but it grew on me and fit the tone of the rest of the movie. One element I didn’t care for was that the story was shifted to a later time period, not for any good reason, but so they could reuse costumes from Gone with the Wind. I much prefer the simpler lines of Georgian clothing.

Overall, it’s a fun adaptation and definitely worth watching.

S: I was pleasantly surprised by this happy-go-lucky, comedic adaptation set in the 1800s. Remembering that this was produced at the beginning of World War II, some of the choices made in this version make a lot of sense. There is little drama, and what drama there is is always followed by comedy. One very intriguing thing this movie does is make the Bennet family extremely close: the viewer sees that Mr. Bennet adores his wife and children, Mrs. Bennet is full of confidence, and the Bennet girls love both their parents equally. In the end, there is hope for all of the girls to marry well, and even Lady de Burgh is likeable. (Fun fact, the screenplay was written by Aldous Huxley.)

Pride and Prejudice television mini series (1995)

R: Next, we watched the 1995 mini-series produced by the BBC and A&E with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle as Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. Coming in at about five hours, it does an impressive job of including nearly every important plot point. 

I’ve seen this mini-series so many times; it’s one of my go-to happy watches, and I cannot actually tell you anything they missed from the plot. It does such a good job of maintaining the integrity of the story that it’s difficult to tell what’s missing. There are a few, a very few, added elements like the opening scene with Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy looking down at Netherfield before actually renting it. Another addition is the famous Darcy-coming-out-of-the-pond scene, which most certainly is not in the book but is a delightfully awkward moment. I also love how they incorporated the well-known first line of the book into the dialogue by having Elizabeth say it in a sarcastic tone near the beginning of the first episode when Mrs. Bennet is informing the rest of the family of Mr. Bingley’s arrival.

The hardest part of this one for me to watch is when the Bennet family is at the Netherfield ball and each member of the family, except for Jane and Elizabeth, manages to act so inappropriately, including Mr. Bennet. It’s almost physically painful to watch each successive embarrassing moment.

S: The tone of the series is dramatic, but also has perfect comedic timing. I was struck by how bright the cinematography is; most scenes are filmed in sunshine and most of the main character’s clothing is in a bright colour palette. I very much enjoyed Mr. Bennet’s character in this adaptation.

Pride & Prejudice (2005)

R: Adaptation number three was the Keira Knightley version produced in 2005. To me, this movie does not feel like Pride and Prejudice. It was as if they just scattered some of Jane Austen’s dialogue into a completely unrelated movie. While the pacing of this version was better than the 1940 one, there ended up being huge gaps in the plot, though they weren’t obvious until near the end. We never see or hear about Aunt Gardiner’s letter explaining what Darcy did for Lydia, but Elizabeth seems to know all about it. Also, when Lady Catherine shows up in the middle of the night (which is ridiculous), all of the Bennets know who she is without introduction. The most egregious plot hole is that we don’t see any of Darcy’s growing admiration for Elizabeth before he’s suddenly declaring himself with a proposal. There is also hair down in mixed company and touching, which would have been highly inappropriate for the times. Along with this, it absolutely murders Austen’s wit by taking itself entirely too seriously.

On the positive side, Mr. Darcy is certainly handsome and I love his voice. The actual settings were well-done, crowded and not perfectly clean, actually looking like they are lived in. I did also enjoy the music and soundtrack. That said, this is probably my least favorite adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

S: This adaptation places the story in the 1700s, makes it a more Gothic romance (the cinematography is a darker palette), and moves very quickly. There is one scene in particular that I think was very well done: When Mr. Bennet chastises Mary for playing the piano too long at one of the parties and she runs off, he immediately goes to look for her and the viewer sees him a couple of moments later giving her a hug and comforting her. (It must be noted that having Dame Judy Dench as Lady de Burgh is fun to watch!) The music for this movie is very well done.

Pride and Prejudice: A New Musical (2020)

R: Finally, we watched Pride and Prejudice: A New Musical put out by Amazon in 2020. We had no idea what to expect from this adaptation, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. 

Obviously, it was condensed for time and had to leave out a number of plot points, but it was humorous right from the start, narrated by Elizabeth. While they inserted a few anachronistic feminist ideas, it wasn’t as bad as I had expected. Unfortunately, the costumes seemed to be a mixed bag of different periods. 

The music was pretty, and the songs were mostly fun and catchy. I particularly enjoyed Darcy’s song ‘Bravado,’ which he sang when he realized he liked Elizabeth. It was hilarious and the actor did a phenomenal job. 

I also really enjoyed the portrayal of Caroline Bingley as bored and haughty. This really came through a unique element of the play. There are a lot of letters written in Pride and Prejudice and each character recited the content of letters they had written throughout the story. It was a novel and interesting way of conveying necessary information to the audience. I would recommend checking out this adaptation; it was just a lot of fun. 

S: The sets of this musical stage play were simple but effective and the songs are quite a bit of fun, making us laugh out loud a few times. The Bennet family’s interactions with each other is reminiscent of the 1940s version and the story itself was much less dramatic, with almost equal stage time for most of the characters. I enjoyed the side comments to the audience and the way one of the characters (Mary, I believe) let the audience know during the scene changes the location of the scene. 

R: If you only have a chance to watch one of these adaptations, I would highly recommend the mini-series. You get the whole story, with Jane Austen’s intent intact, along with wonderful acting, and beautiful costumes and scenery. I had a great time watching and discussing all of these adaptations of my favorite book!

S: Agreed! It was a lot of fun to see these adaptations so soon after finishing the book and so quickly one after the other. After finally reading Austen’s masterpiece, I am still convinced that, at least out of these four, the mini series is the adaptation that most closely follows the characters, the plot, and the world during the period in which the story is set and is also my favourite adaptation. 

After a hiatus, we aren’t sure how long of one, the next book we’ll be reading is Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. For the foreseeable future, we’ll also be going back to the once a month conversation due to increasingly busy schedules.