Footsteps

Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson – 1981)

“Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket and are counted as the small dust in the balance.
All nations before Him are as nothing.
They are counted to Him as less than nothing and vanity.

He bringeth princes to nothing. He maketh the judges of the earth as a vanity.
Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth fainth not, nor is weary?

He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no strength, He increaseth might.
But they who wait upon, the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.”

From Isaiah, Chapter 40

Great Expectations (David Lean – 1946)

This pattern has repeated itself several times. Usually, everything starts with some images of an old movie that I have seen in my childhood popping up in my mind for no reason and then I become curious to go and see how those images present themselves to me now. This time, these images were from a censored version of David Lean’s Great Expectations that I had seen on the Iranian TV in the first decade of the Islamic revolution.

By now, there are many directors who were once very dear to me but gradually I have lost touch with their works. Whether it is me who has changed or it is those movies that failed to pass the test of time, I can’t really say and it is probably something from both but David Lean for sure is not one of those directors. Dr. Zhivago and Oliver Twist are still among those movies that I can pick for a quite and lonely evening; perhaps the highest score of approval that I can give to a movie. So is the case with Great Expecations. This is not because these movies are adapted from some of the most cherished works in literature. It is something about their cinematography as well that intrigues me. Comparing a modern adaptation of Great Expectations by Alfonso Cuaron and David Lean’s adaptation would say a lot about the superiority of the latter to the former. Many scenes and characters in Lean’s adaptation are so well developed that they easily become memorable. The opening scene of the movie when Pip meets the fugitive, Magwitch, in the cemetery is by now very classic in the history of cinema. Although a capable actor such as Robert De Niro has the role of Magwitch in the modern version of the movie, it is still the Magwitch character in Lean’s movie who is scarier when he should be scary and is more vulnerable when he should be vulnerable. Miss Havisham in Lean’s movie is a lot more entrapped in her world than Miss Havisham in Curan’s movie. Mr. Jaggers, the lawyer, is almost non-existent in Curan’s movie while he certainly adds one more motif to the story of Pip in Lean’s adaptation. Joe, Pip’s brother-in-law, is very appealing in Lean’s movie whether when he is comfortable in the familiar perimeter of his own house or when he is lost in London.

But perhaps most importantly, while they are both almost forgotten in Curan’s movie, Lean’s movie touches upon two main eternal themes of Great Expectations: social classes and isolation. In Lean’s movie, it is all well shown how Pip is raised to a higher social class, becomes too indulged in his new life and then finally finds his roots again and redeems himself. In Lean’s movie, Estella and Miss Havisham also quickly become the examples of those who have let the darkness of this world hurt or control them so much that they isolate themselves emotionally and physically from the world and eventually become incapable of establishing any meaningful relationship. This is perhaps why Lean’s movie has passed the test of time since these issues, if not more important, are still as important as the time of creation of the novel and Lean’s movie.