Great Expectations (1946)

B

To translate a literary work into the screen is clearly not as easy as it sounds. Despite the probability of a real plot, the biggest conondrum brought by adapting from such distinguished and popular printed works is how much should be made into the screen. Watching Harry Potter the movies isn't much different from reading Harry Potter the books; indeed watching the movie felt like reading - one could sense the beginning and ending of the book chapter. David Lean's Great Expectations clearly encountered such troubles but manages on the whole to overcome them.

From the very beginning, Lean came clean that this is a screen adaptation of a novel. The opening sequence shows a copy of the Dicken's book opened and a voice reads out the first lines of the first chapter. This narration, mostly taken from the original text, continues throughout most of the film in order to smoothen out the time lapses considering the great chronological scope of the story. A 7 year-old boy, Pip (Anthony Wager, later played by John Mills), an orphan raised by his sister and her husband, the kindly blacksmith Joe Gargery (Bernard Miles) is summoned to go to the mansion owned by the eccentric old Ms Havisham (Martita Hunt) to play. There he meets a beautiful girl named Estella (Jean Simmons, followed by Valerie Hobson) who is nothing but rude and cruel and contemptuous to him, who he cannot help but love. Realizing that being a blacksmith's apprentice is without hope for winning Estella's heart, Pip craves to be something more, a gentleman. One day, Ms Havisham's lawyer, Mr Jaggers (Francis L Sullivan) comes to visit Pip and lays out an offer - that a benefactor has hired him to take Pip under his charge in London to be raised as a gentleman. And hence Pip's great expectations was in motion, to live the gentleman's life and win Estella's love.

The plot of the movie basically follows the book except for a few minor changes to avoid meanderings, and some characters are either greatly reduced in role or erased completely. I applaud Lean's great care in doing this; he understood the essentials of the story and the nature of cinema itself. In doing so, he deftly crafted a perfect pace for the story to unfold. The dialogue itself are mostly Dicken's. Lean's challenge is to pick out the best of them or those that are most relevant to the bare essense of the plot.

From the very first scene in the graveyard where Pip had a chance encounter with Abel Magwitch (Finlay Currie), the visuals are the first thing that most like will strike the audience. Done in colour and in 2005, the scene would have been too dark and messy. Yet cinematographer Guy Green found the right pallate to serve his scenes that they look better in black and white than technicolour can ever try to match. From Ms Havisham's enormous mansion to the bustling streets of Victorian London, set decorations and photography remain first rate. This quality would later become David Lean's signature.

Alas, the only thing keeping Great Expectations from soaring is the lack of strong scenes that shatter or resonate much with the heart or mind. Instead of being a moving experience, this is fast-paced fun. This same blemish also marred the Harry Potter franchise. In being faithful to the book, the blow to the audience is nonexistent. My point is supported by the only truly memorable scene in the movie - Pip's confrontation with Estella just before the movie ends. This wasn't in the book, and it arguably is a better ending to the story. This just shows that some ingenuity goes a long way.
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