Hard Times
(1975/Granada/Acorn Media)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C- Episodes: B-
Charles
Dickens’ is one of the most celebrated and adapted authors of all time, but one
of his works is one of the least adapted of all and that is because it just
might be too honest and critical. The
1975 British TV version of Hard Times
is the longest of three known to exist.
There is an older silent version way back in 1915 (if a print still
exists, we don’t know) and a more recent BBC telefilm. Acorn Media has issued the entire Granada
mini-series on 2 DVDs.
The story
involves Thomas Gradgrind (Patrick Allen) who insists that teaching pure facts
and “reason” all the time to the young, especially the poor young, will fix
many of the ills of class troubles in 19th Century industrial
England. The problems with this approach
will eventually effect him personally because facts never deal with the truth
and the machinery he builds out of facts becomes destructively militaristic on
an ideological level that contracts his intentions and reveals the societies
hypocrisy. One of them is and continues
to be the exploitation of children.
This also
dangerously parallels the actual mill run by Josiah Bounderby (Timothy West), a
cold-hearted industrialist who wants nothing but pure profit and could care
less who suffers or dies. It is strictly
business and not of his concern. With
that, you can see why corporations and Neo-Conservatives do not want to deal
with such an important work. This is a very good adaptation, though there is
some sloppiness in sound editing that makes it look bad. However, with a cast that also includes
Edward Fox as Captain James Harthouse, this is the most ambitious version to
date.
The 1.33
X 1 image is soft and color poor throughout, shot in the common combination at
the time of 16mm film for outdoors and PAL professional analog videotape on the
inside. We know some of the Granada
catalog is not in good shape, but this is one fop the poorest performers we
have seen and unless the 16mm can be unearthed for HD upgrades, this might be
the best form it survives in. Granada’s
longtime in-house cinematographers Andy Stephen and Ray Goode share lensing
chores. The original mono sound has been
slightly upgraded to Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, but the boosting is of a second
generation source with more background hiss than we usually get in Acorn DVD
releases. The only extras are text on
Dickens and of cast filmographies.
- Nicholas Sheffo
