Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8216 in VHS
• Released on: 1991-02-04
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: HiFi Sound, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 349 minutes

Synopsis
Eighteen years ago Michael Henchard sold his wife. Now he's the Mayor of Casterbridge and his wife and daughter have returned... Based on a novel by Thomas Hardy.

Customer Reviews

generally good
Not a lavish, expensive production like BBC's Pride and Prejudice, but nonetheless still worth watching, partly due to the quality of the acting. Fans of Hardy will appreciate the authenticity. At times a little drawn out, but there are many more excellent moments, especially the dramatic 'Skimmity Ride' scene. All the actors are excellent, but of particular note is Alan Bates, who IS the ill - fated hero, Michael Henchard.

BBC at its public service best
I keep watching this BBC masterpiece, especially on days when I begrudge paying the licence fee and need reminding why I still cough up. Alan Bates plainly cornered the market in earthy Hardy anti-heroes, but nonetheless infuses the role of Henchard with a gritty, mesmerising fatalism. He is superb. Dennis Potter's adaptation is, however, a little suspect. His Forest of Dean mummerset just doesn't ring true. Dorset people don't, for example, say "I is". They may do in Cinderford, but not in Casterbridge. For all that, this is a very, very good effort. Why hasn't Bates been knighted by now?

Conscience will remind you of everything you have done
This is a story of a man, who while he is drunk, sells his wife and daughter at a Fair. The woman, trying to make her husband remember what he is doing, and giving him the chance to cancel the sale, leaves him, ends in this way the marriage, but she never does forget him and returns back after 18 years, when her new husband is supposed to be dead. But also Michael Henchard, who is wealthy now, never did forget what he has done at the Fair and finally his guilt, as he sees it, follows him whatever he does in life and prevents him from actually living. He finally looses everything he has, when his shame is known in the town and he concentrates his hate on the man who knew his secret before anybody else did, and who is the owner of Henchards property now. Michael Henchard finally dies lonely and does everything to punish himself even after having died.