Our Mutual Friend (Charles Dickens) (DVD)

I have been a fan of Charles Dickens since high school days when we had to read "Great Expectations" and "Tales of Two Cities". Prior to watching this video series, I was not very familiar with this particular book from Charles Dickens. I believe that this is the last book that Charles Dickens wrote prior to this death. After watching this series, I then went and read novel itself. The producers of this video series did a very good job in adapting this novel into a video format. Over the years I have had the chance to read more and more of the novels of Charles Dickens and I have really come to appreciate his work. He appears to have been a social reformer and he wanted to make people aware of the inequalities in the society of his time. Our present generation could really use another modern day version of Charles Dickens. So many of the things that he depicts in his novels are still with us, as avarice and greed, which once again seem to become highly lauded characteristics by many people today.The camera work on this video series was excellent. When the camera takes you down to the waterfront where the bottom level of society tries to eek out a living, the skies turn dark and gray and all of the building and people have a darkened color to them which symbolizes that hopelessness of the people and the society that lives here. On the other hand, when the camera takes you into the parlors and drawing rooms of the upper crust of society, the skies are blues and the colors of the buildings, clothing, etc. takes on vibrant colors.Looking back, I often wonder why my teachers choose to use "Tale of Two Cities" and "Great Expectations" in their classrooms. They may have done this due to the fact that this novels are shorter in length. I think my teachers would have done a much better job in presenting Charles Dickens if they had instead chosen "Out Mutual Friend" and "Little Dorrit. While these novels may have been much longer in their overall length, I feel that they would have presented the student with novels that had much greater interest value in them and as a result we would have been willing to read the additional pages due to the high interest value of these two stories. In "Little Dorrit" there is a character by the name of Mr. Merdle, who bilks people out of their money with his Ponzi scheme. There is a modern day counterpoint to Mr. Merdle who did pretty much the same thing. These novels may have been written during the 19th century, but they still very relevant to our present day society.Every child in high school should be reading both of these novels as part of the curriculum.

Fans of Charles Dickens, BBC productions and period films can't go wrong with Our Mutual Friend. This movie lets Dickens put us exactly where he wanted us, and were we living in his era, we would have been part of the shifts he advocated to see humans lifted out of the squalor and ignorance that engulfed English society at that time. We would have been that convince and so moved to help solve the problems they faced. What a miserable time; so many where coughing and tubercular, no one seemed to be able to figure out how to provide a sanitary atmosphere, there was no concept of what a germ was, and for most, there was no way to ever be clean. This film does a good job of getting all that across. But, the great mountains of dust and garbage?.... we still have those and people still must sort through them to earn a living in many parts of the world, including the most civilized of countries. Our own, for example. People are still enslaved by hideous poverty and filth, are confined by social boundaries and confused by morays that disallow the freedom of true expressions of love and caring. And, then there is aspect of greed and that is still alive and well and thriving gloriously, pretty much anywhere you want to look!Before settling down to watch this, recent literature about Dickens' own life swirled around in memory and the urged me to shy away from being the solid fan of his work that I once had been, and this was gearing up to put a damper on my enthusiasm for this film. But, all and all, he remains a hero. He was rotten at a bunch of stuff in his personal life, but he was devoted to exposing the misery his fellow man had created had created for each another. Dickens was a master and his work merges with our own era beautifully. He's a man of our times.In this, we can also see some of the more interesting character actors lifted from this film to land, some years later, in the Harry Potter productions. Those would be the ones with horrible teeth and wispy thinning hair.

Even though it is now a bit dated, this is one of the best adaptations to film of any Dickens story I've ever seen. The breadth of acting is incredible - each member of the cast does a phenomenal job upholding their own unique character, so that the film truly does display ever facet of human character. The story has some dark subplots, certainly, but they are justly dealt with, and make the story rise up all the higher in the end. It is not a film that you can sit back and sleepily absorb after a long day at work - it is one that will engage you, and that you have to process. And that is what makes it so great.

This is my favorite EVER Charles Dickens story and this version is by FAR the best ever presented. It is a must watch for anyone who is a Charles Dickens fan and a must watch for anyone wanting to share, with our next generations, the ideals of love, faith and belief in more than money.

Once again the Brits come through with a quality Dickens! This production is most memorable for its considerable array of character parts all ably portrayed from Britain's considerable stable of fine character actors. As the revue says 19th C London is also a character of this tale and we can positively smell the smog, feel the ooze of the Thames mud, and experience a time now long gone. One of my favourite Dickens renderings.

This is one of my favorite movies but the condition of DVD was bad. It was cracked in the center multiple times and part two would not play, it would stop and start and jitter.

If you love to lose yourself for a few hours in a great story with great acting then you can't beat this really. It's great. The Brits are the best actors in the world.