Hard Times

The bleak, depressing atmosphere of a factory town in mid-nineteenth century England is caught and conveyed in this excellent adaptation of the Charles Dickens' novel. Episodes one and two capture the drabness of the town and the how the factory owner combines with the politicians to maintain control of the situation. Far from doing anything to try to ameliorate and improve the lot of the workers, the program shows how those who do not tow the line and demonstrate any independence of thought are ridiculed, ostracized and rejected. The most dramatic and sympathetic character is Stephen Blackpool, who struggles to maintain his integrity in a corrupt environment. Having lived in a poorhouse himself, Charles Dickens was uniquely qualified to write about the abuses inherent in an economic system that systematically sought to keep people in their place and stifle anything that even remotely resembled independence of thought. What is surprising is not that the factory town was inherently a nasty place, but that anyone would go out of their way to defend it.

The best Dickens I've seen, bar none. Better than Copperfield or Bleak House or Nicholas Nickleby or the others I've seen over forty years. It seems, in this four part adaptation, more modern than the others in it's conciseness and lack of coincidences so common in his other works. The whole cast is superb. Timothy West hilarious as the pompous Bounderby (they'll be wantin' turtle soup with venison and a golden spoon) matched for comic relief by Rosale Crutchley as the inscrutable Mrs Sparsit. Patrick Allen is great as Gradgrind and Jacqueline Tong is most moving as the unfortunate Louisa. The whole cast is memorable and Arthur Hopcraft's adaptation could not have been improved upon. On Amazon Prime, it's a must see!

This is the best film adaptation of Dickens' best novel. You can't go wrong with this one.

The production is low budget, but that actually works in its favor. The film has a grittiness that is entirely appropriate.

The script is first-rate and the actors are virtuosos across the board. There is not a note in it anywhere that rings false.

If you're tired of the sentimentalism and cartoonish characters usually associated with Dickens, you will be pleasantly surprised. There is none of that here. This is a story about real people. There are no saints, except for Rachel and she's a minor character, and no devils. Even the ostensible villain, Bounderby, is humanized.

Dickens on film doesn't get better than this.

Hard Times is a novel I had not previously known and I bought the 2-DVD set primarily because of its low price. I liked it and then read the book, which I liked even more--not the ideal way to approach a piece of literature, but that's how it worked out in my case. It contains all the essential elements of the book, and is a superb dramatization of Dickens's grimy tale of industrialization, class struggle, labor unions, arranged marriage, educational philosophy, and other aspects of life in mid-nineteenth-century England (and elsewhere, even today!). The actors are all superb and entirely convincing in every aspect of their roles, and I cannot recommend it too highly. I was so absorbed by the strength and conviction of the principals and had such a visceral reaction to their characters' views that I ended up watching the entire film (really four well-defined episodes) in one sitting. Some of the scenes, especially the more intimate ones, resemble stage work more than a feature film, but this actually appealed to me. Other reviewers have pointed out the excellent work of the principals; I would add only that I found Harry Markham's portrayal of Sleary, the circus manager, one of the most moving and profound and that the understated score by composer Malcolm Arnold (adapted from a movement of his Little Suite No. 2 for Brass) added immensely to the mood. Absolutely first-rate.

At nearly four hours, this version of 'Hard Times', made by Granada TV, scores highly, moving along at a much slower pace than, say, the 1980s version made for children's television.

The novel by Charles Dickens is not one of his best known; however, in the tale of the mills of Coketown, the pompous self-made mill-owner Bounderby, and the miserable Gradgrind children, worn down by their father's insistence that facts are the only things one needs in life, he portrays an interesting set of characters that lend themselves well to film adaptation.

As Gradgrind and Bounderby, Patrick Allen and Timothy West are both excellent. Jacqueline Tong is a feisty Louisa, who handles most of her scenes well, while Edward Fox is an oily Harthouse. Alan Dobie completes the main players as mill-hand Stephen Blackpool, a man confined and crushed by fate.

Long unavailable on home video, this adaptation deserves to be seen by a new generation and it is a pity that Dickens' collections on DVD have generally included the later version which is much shorter and has much less depth.