Product Description: Winona Ryder (in an Oscar-nominated role) and Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon (1995 Best Actress Dead Man Walking) star in this "affectionate superbly acted" (Los Angeles Times) family favorite.With her husband off at war Marmee (Sarandon) is left alone to raise their four daughters her "little women." There is the spirited Jo (Winona Ryder) conservative Meg (Trini Alvarado - Paulie) fragile Beth (Claire Danes - William Shakespeare s Romeo & Juliet) and romantic Amy (played at different ages by Kirsten Dunst [Wag The Dog] and Samantha Mathis [Broken Arrow]).As the years pass the sisters share some of the most cherished and painful memories of self-discovery as Marmee and Aunt March (Mary Wickes - The Man Who Came To Dinner) guide them through issues of independence romance and virtue.Gabriel Byrne (End Of Days) Eric Stoltz (TV s Chicago Hope) and Christian Bale (The Portrait Of A Lady) co-star in this "handcrafted valentine" (Newsweek) of a film.System Requirements:Starring: Winona Ryder John Neville Mary Wickes Claire Danes Susan Sarandon Kirsten Dunst Gabriel Byrne Trini Alvarado Samantha Mathis Christian Bale and Eric Stoltz. Directed By: Gillian Armstrong. Running Time: 118 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 Columbia TriStar Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG UPC: 043396050440 Manufacturer No: 05044
Amazon.com essential video: The flaws are easily forgiven in this beautiful version of Louisa May Alcott's novel. A stirring look at life in New England during the Civil War, Little Women is a triumph for all involved. We follow one family as they split into the world, ending up with the most independent, the outspoken Jo (Winona Ryder). This time around, the dramatics and conclusions fall into place a little too well, instead of finding life's little accidents along the way. Everyone now looks a bit too cute and oh, so nice. As the matron, Marmee, Susan Sarandon kicks the film into a modern tone, creating a movie alive with a great feminine sprit. Kirsten Dunst (Interview with the Vampire) has another showy role. The young ensemble cast cannot be faulted, with Ryder beginning the movie in a role akin to light comedy and crescendoing to a triumphant end worthy of an Oscar. --Doug Thomas
A good movie, as long as you don't expect it to be like the book... I'd really like to give this movie 3.5 stars because it was flawed yet I did enjoy it. The scenery and costumes were gorgeous and the movie is definitely loaded with plenty of emotion and heartfelt family moments. On top of this, the soundtrack is beautiful and entirely appropriate for the unfolding events.
I will admit that I didn't like this movie much the first time I watched it, and it was definitely something that grew on me. I think this is because the movie was not really an accurate depiction of the book. Other than the overly feministy nature of the movie, I also felt like some of the casting just didn't seem to be quite right. I think the character of Meg was okay because she was physically pretty and was accurately depicted as being somewhat vain (although she could have been more so), and the character of Beth was also accurately depicted as being shy and sickly, however I don't think Claire Danes was physically dainty/fragile enough for the role. As for the other two sisters, I felt like Amy was depicted very well by Kirsten and also by the other actress; she was selfish and wanted to be pampered. The character of Jo is the one I'm most unsure of. While Winona's Jo did have a temper and was a little fiesty, I felt that she could have been fiestier and more tomboy-ish. She also seemed to be a bit too reserved at times as well.
Also, I was a little disappointed with the way character growth was portrayed in this movie; it felt rushed and sporadic, not like character growth should be. For example, Amy starts out as a selfish little girl but becomes a better person as she gets older and we see none of this transition in the movie. One day she's one way, and the next day she's a completely different person. Maybe they should have made the movie longer to do this better and maybe a longer movie would have prevented the omission of certain critical scenes in the book that were left out of the movie (like the first conversation the sisters have which really emphasizes the differences in their personalities).
So overall, I would say this is a good movie if you don't compare or expect it to be too much like the book. Accept that it's different and you just might grow to like it like I did.
Very Accurate Version It's not the A&E Pride and Prejudice version when it comes to accuracy, but the care the screenwriters went to in order to make this true to the book (yet interesting to a film audience in ways that a straight book-film version would not have allowed) is what makes this movie such a masterpiece. The most important and memorable scenes are made dutifully true to Alcott's original, and the actors are almost always believable (older Laurie seems a little forced at times, and that is honestly my only acting complaint).
However, much of the dialogue is very soft, and while I don't remember having this issue the first time I saw the movie (about six years ago), I recently watched it again and found that I was looking at the subtitles a lot since I couldn't hear the full sentence. I am not quite 20, so I think it is less of a problem of my own hearing as it is the fault of track editing.
When I first watched this movie, I was moved to reread the book, and found it much more enjoyable than the first time I read it. After again seeing the movie, I hope to be able to read the book yet again - it just has that effect!
Over the mysteries of female life there is drawn a veil best left undisturbed Little Women is based on the 1868 book by Louisa May Alcott, that was in turn based on her own family and sisters. Alcott was a daughter of noted Transcendentalist Amos Bronson Alcott and Abigail May Alcott. She had three sisters: one elder (Anna Alcott Pratt) and two younger (Elizabeth Sewall Alcott and Abigail May Alcott Nieriker). The family moved to Boston in 1834 or 1835 where her father established an experimental school and joined the Transcendental Club with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture, and philosophy that emerged in New England in the early to middle 19th century. Transcendentalism began as a protest against the general state of culture and society at the time. Among transcendentalists' core beliefs was an ideal spiritual state that 'transcends' the physical and empirical and is only realized through the individual's intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions. The best known work coming out of this movement was Thoreau's Walden; or Life in the Woods. Walden Pond itself is shown in Little Women in a scene where young Amy (Kirsten Dunst) is ice skating and falls in it. Talk about your skating on thin ice...
Jo March (Winona Ryder) is the second oldest sister, and she is clearly the one modeled after Louisa May Alcott herself. She is an aspiring writer who writes stories and plays that the sisters act out. This is a perfect vehicle for Winona Ryder, whose own unconventional upbringing and alternative views on private property are mirrored by the March family:
Josephine 'Jo' March: If lack of attention to personal finances is a mark of refinement, then I say the Marches must be the most elegant family in Concord!
Amy March is played by two actresses, as in the first part she is just a child (a young Kirsten Dunst), but later she grows up to be a painter (Samantha Mathis). The young Amy is quite a scene stealer, and like Sheridan's Mrs. Malaprop, she sometimes makes up or misuses words, to comic effect:
Younger Amy March: We've been expectorating you for hours!
Meanwhile, scion of the prosperous Laurence family, and therefore known as Laurie (Christian Bale), wonders aloud to his tutor (Eric Stolz) what exactly transpires within the neighbors' cloistered household:
John Brooke: Over the mysteries of female life there is drawn a veil best left undisturbed.
But young Laurie can't really leave the veil undisturbed, try as he might:
Jo: [as Jo and Laurie dance awkwardly at Belle Gardner's ball] I'm sorry! Meg always makes me take the gentleman's part at home! It's a shame you don't know the lady's part!
At one point, there is an epidemic of scarlet fever, and Amy is sent away to live with relatives to escape exposure:
Amy: I don't wanna die. I've never even been kissed. I've waited my whole to be kissed, and what if I miss it? Laurie: I tell you what. I promise to kiss you before you die.
Though he becomes very close to them all, he is in love with Jo. But it is complicated, as she has him firmly ensconsed in the friend bag.
Laurie: I have loved you since the moment I clamped eyes on you. What could be more reasonable than to marry you? Jo March: We'd kill each other. Laurie: Nonsense! Jo March: Neither of us can keep our temper-... Laurie: I can, unless provoked. Jo March: We're both stupidly stubborn, especially you. We'd only quarrel! Laurie: I wouldn't! Jo March: You can't even propose without quarreling.
He isn't going to take that without a fight, or a quarrel, more like it:
Laurie: Someday you'll find a man, a good man, and you'll love him, and marry him, and live and die for him. And I'll be hanged if I stand by and watch.
Jo is unsatisfied with her life and so Marmee March (Susan Sarandon) (and who better to play such a role?), marvelous matriarch of the March menangerie, sends her off:
Marmee March: Oh, Jo. Jo, you have so many extraordinary gifts; how can you expect to lead an ordinary life? You're ready to go out and - and find a good use for your talent. Tho' I don't know what I shall do without my Jo. Go, and embrace your liberty. And see what wonderful things come of it.
In New York she meets a lot of interesting people foremost of whom is a handsome professor from Germany, Friedrich Bhaer (Gabriel Byrne). He takes her to see Georges Bizet's opera The Pearl Fishers, and while sitting in their vantage point perched high in the rafters backstage he translates for her:
Friedrich: Your heart understood mine. In the depth of the fragrant night, I listened with ravished soul to your beloved voice. Your heart understood mine.
Of course though he is merely translating the opera, the words are also meant for Jo as well. He is a professor of philosophy, and he encourages her writing, but he feels like she is capable of more. When shown some of her work intended for a commercial audience he tells her so:
Friedrich: [having read Jo's latest book] There is *nothing* in this of the woman I am privileged to know.
He may be on to something. Jo is quite bursting with inspiration:
Jo: Late At night my mind would come alive with voices and stories and friends as dear to me as any in the real world. I gave myself up to it, longing for transformation.
More professorial advice:
Friedrich Bhaer: You must write from the depths of your soul!
Meanwhile Amy goes off to Europe with Aunt March to study painting. Laurie is also there, studying music, and the two meet:
Amy: Have you heard from Jo? She has befriended a German professor. Laurie: I envy her happiness. I envy his happiness. I envy John Brooke for marrying Meg. I hate Fred Vaughn. And if Beth had a lover I would despise him too. Just as you have always known that you would never marry a pauper, I have always known that I belong to the March family. Amy: I will not be loved for my family...
It is complictated, isn't it? As Professor Bhaer tells Jo while watching the opera:
Jo: What's going to happen? Friedrich: The inevitable.
I thought I wasn't going to be able to enjoy this movie as it is intended for children, and female ones at that, but it was very entertaining. I wondered if some of the political issues had been shoehorned in by Winona and Sarandon, but looking into the background of author Alcott, those elements would have been there in the original book if Alcott had the freedoms we enjoy today. It is a prime example of where a story works on two levels simultaneously, with something for the kids, but also something for adults to ponder. Great period costumes and lush cinematography, especially the winter New England tableau. Interesting to see a young Kirsten Dunst, before Spiderman, as well as Christian Bale before he donned the Batman cape and cowl. As an interesting aside, there is a movie of the next book in the March family saga, Little Men. Here the character of Friedrich Bhaer was played by Christopher Sarandon, who divorced Susan but she kept his last name since then.
The Alcott family reminded me a bit of The Brontë sisters, who used to write their own little books and dramas, and then went on to produce such classic works of fiction as Charlotte Brontë's Jane Ayre and Emily Brontë's superb Wuthering Heights.
The film is dedicated to two persons, one of whom is Polly Klaas, the 12-year-old girl who was kidnapped from her Petaluma, California, home in 1993 and later found murdered. Winona Ryder, much of whose youth was spent in Petaluma, joined in the highly publicized search effort and made a number of emotional appeals for the child's safe return. Little Women was Polly's favorite book.
Films of Susan Sarandon
Dead Man Walking (1995) .... Sister Helen Prejean Thelma & Louise (1991) .... Louise Pretty Baby (1978) .... Hattie The Rocky Horror Picture Show (25th Anniversary Edition) (1975) .... Janet Weiss
Equilibrium (2002) .... John Preston Velvet Goldmine (1998) .... Arthur Stuart Swing Kids (1993) .... Thomas Berger
Friedrich Bhaer: You must write from the depths of your soul!
Best Adaptation of Classic Story Winona Ryder was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of Jo March and after you watch it, you can fully appreciate the intensity and vulnerability of her performance. While Jo is the heart of the story, this is an ensemble movie with some of the best actors alive. Kirsten Dunst simply shines as Amy, so much so that it is a disappointment when the second act roles around and she is replaced by the far less competent Samantha Manthis, who does not look like an older Kirsten Dunset at all. But Gabriel Byrne, the always-fascinating Christian Bale, Claire Danes, and Susan Sarandon more than make up for it. I was only slightly disappointed by the director's commentary. Most of what she had to say was interesting and I truly enjoy the process of film-making, but she seemed to drag in some places, along with her commentary on the two deleted scenes and why they were deleted. But the film itself captures the spirit of the novel in every way-- its music, its costuming, its art direction. It makes one long for the time when the English language was written and spoken as it is in Little Women.
A family movie you must own! I've loved this movie since I was a kid. Great performances by some great Actors. If you're up for seeing a young love-tortured Christian Bale, you will not be disappointed!!
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