Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe

We all know the story of SIlas Marner; we were assigned the story in high school and found it to be plodding and boring. Why? Because we were young, foolish, and inexperienced in the ways of the world. The story is not for high school students; only a few of us appreciated it then. The story is for older adults; the ones who have gone down that road of avarice and/or anti-social behavior. Sometimes, you need a jolt in life to get back on track; and Marner was lucky enough to get that jolt. George Eliot is a wonderful writer; and has that women's touch to the emotional center of humanism that come primarily from women. Ben Kingsley, the actor with the greatest range in cinematic history (from Gandhi to Sexy Beast) gives another great performance. Not to be missed.

George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) was one of the most interesting Victorian authors with only significant credits, while "Silas Marner" is a small changeling among an impressing lot of masterpieces - but her finest story. Ben Kingsley makes one of his finest performances and brings full justice to the heart-rending character of a vulnerable man suffering from occasional catalepsy, which results in his fate. His best friend takes advantage of it to both ruin him and steal his girl by getting him implicated in a theft and banished from town. Dishonored he becomes a miser and recluse as a weaver living alone in a cottage outside a small country town. This is where the story begins, which is a revelation of humanity and tenderness in the claws of a cruel destiny of injustice involving deaths, roguery and tragedy. The film follows the book closely and gives adorable scenery of local life in the mid 1800s, but there is one important scene in the book which you miss in the film. When Eppie is becoming a young lady, he visits his old town Lantern Yard with her and finds himself at a loss completely, Everything is changed, and the old story of the theft is never cleared. Here Silas Marner is at the heart of his tragedy, unfairly implicated and doomed for life to live under the burden of a guilt never cleared. The film is only for television and perfectly apt for that purpose and, which is most important, communicates the main contents of the tale with full bearing. It is George Eliot's most human tale with almost documentary pregnancy in its convincing honesty, which the film takes well care of.

This is the uplifting story of Silas Marner, a 19th century English working man, who seems to be greatly wronged repeatedly by people in his community. As an eligible young man, a rival framed him out of greed as well as envy, leaving Marner wrongly accused of theft, upon which he relocates in a different village.

For some 15 years, Marner lives like a hermit, hording the money he earns as a weaver. Said to be "in with the wicked one", possessing strange magic, town folk avoid contact with the mysterious man. Ben Kingsley is perfectly cast as the reclusive Marner.

Suddenly, in short succession, two events change the life of Master Marner forever, even restoring his faith in a Supreme Being and the good in his fellow man. Without revealing the surprises held by this wonderful story, I can highly recommend this film to viewers of teen age and above. Not just another tear jerker, but a strong social statement as well. An excellent film.

I am very surprised that there are no comments at all on this wonderful TV adaptation of one of George Eliot's thankfully shorter books. The plot of the book is rather melodramatic but it basically doesn't matter because the film concentrates on the strange and moving story of Silas himself, who falls into despair and becomes a recluse and miser when he is wrongly accused of a crime and is saved by the unexpected appearance in his life of a small child.

Put this way, it sounds mawkish, but Silas is wonderfully handled by Ben Kingsley. He is a great actor who quietly inhabits every part he plays. The story is also about the importance of community. It is only when Silas becomes part of the village of Raveloe and its basically welcoming people that his life begins to turn around.

I am a notorious weeper at movies and I cried a lot when I rented this, not at the sad bits but at the parts when Silas realises that he is not alone. For all those who like period movies (the late 18th century scene is well recreated) and character-driven plots.

In the great Frank Capra classic Meet John Doe, when Gary Cooper first meets up with Regis Toomey and others in the small town that he got off after fleeing the radio station after the speech, among the stories that Toomey tells is about Sourpuss Smithers. He's described as a miserly cuss that no one would bother with. But when the budding John Does investigated they found there was a reason why a person can become as mean and cynical as they are. It can happen when your faith in people is shattered.

Which is exactly what George Elliott wrote about when she created Silas Marner who starts out as a decent soul. He's accused of a theft and while nothing can be proved and there's indication he was framed, the good Calvinist people of his church blackball him and since that's what the majority of his town were, he was left isolated.

Marner leaves that town and settles near another town called Raveloe where he lives apart and alone, hoarding his money made from his weaver's trade and refusing to associate with anyone else. He's robbed of his money and this further embitters him.

But coming into his life is a young girl maybe a year or two old who is found by the weaver in the dead of winter wandering in the woods. The body of her opium addicted mother is nearby. The young girl has a lineage connected to Raveloe's most prominent family. Still Marner takes her into raise and that contact melts him. He becomes quite the caring person.

Ben Kingsley plays the title role of Silas Marner and dominates the film as the character dominates the book. Kingsley is superb in a role that calls for the individual to gradually shift in emotions over the course of the story. Angela Pleasence as the young girl's degenerate mother makes her scenes count as well as does the young lady who grows up to be Patsy Kensit.

Still you will remember Ben Kingsley's performance which will linger with you a long time after you see this Masterpiece Theater production of Silas Marner.