WUTHERING HEIGHTS - MY FAVORITE VERSION SO FAR
Wait until you see Timothy Dalton!!! He is just amazing with his portrayal of Heathcliff. I've watched the Olivier/Oberon version off and on all my life but always felt it was lacking in that Olivier seemed too old for the part (although he was great to look at) and Oberon was so pinched and snobbish it was hard to believe he could love her. In this version that is not the case even though the leading lady who plays Cathy (Anna Calder-Marshall) is not very attractive in my opinion. Dalton carries this film with his intense performance and even makes the young lady seem more attractive as the film progresses. This has never been one of my favorite "classics" but this Dalton version has definitely found it's place on my top 10 list. I would highly recommend this film to anyone who enjoys period pictures. If you get nothing out of it other than the Dalton performance and the Michel Legrand score (absolutely beautiful music) you will agree this film is more than worth it's price.
atmospheric, haunting, well acted!!!!!!
Okay, the story is well known and this naturally will run comparisons to Lord Larry and Merle Oberon's 1939 version. But this is a gentle, atmospheric retelling that is well acted.
Excellently cast, Caulder-Marshall is super as the willful Cathy that loves Heathcliff, but must face choices in her life to save them both, which ultimately drives them apart, changes them, but cannot alter the deep love that drives them - even if it drives them to destroy each other. Dalton is properly Welsh, dark and brooding, very adapt at showing his younger vunerability, and later the darker, sensual side. The gorgeous Ian Ogilvy is a perfect contrast to Dalton's dark, the fair haired beautiful husband that cannot touch her soul.
An interesting note: in this movie Ogilvy's sister is played by the same woman that played his wife in the excellent Witchfinder General with Vincent Price.
Well worth the viewing again and again.
Not totally true to the book, but still good.
I saw this movie when it first came out and I was very young and impressionable. As someone else said in their review, the young should see it because it really will touch them in a unique, once in a lifetime way. I read a review complaining that it's not like the book. I hadn't read the book yet when I first saw it. Since then I've read the book many times and it is one of my favorites. I don't care that this movie takes license and makes it's own story. I think it still tells a great love story. And the music is beautiful and haunting, as it should be. I'm thrilled it's now on DVD because my old VHS copy is getting worn out! :)
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