Great Expectations: The Untold Story

The Aussie Version. This movie tells of Abel Magwitch's exploits in Australia, It is not another tv rendition of Great Expectations or a 'lost chapter' of the book. Tim Burstall the Screenplay Writer had the 'good sense' to capitalise on the 'feel-good-factor' or the entertainment value from 'Great Expectations', and create an extension or a 'spin-off' to the story by writing this 1987 TV Movie about Abel Magwitch - an escaped, recaptured & convicted character in the story Great Expectations.

For those who don't know - history has it that, a long time ago, rather than keep some convicts in gaols/prisons or hang them, 'The Brits' would send some of their long term 'lifers' - I guess the stronger ones - 'lifers' would be sent to Australia to do hard labour, in order to cultivate the land. Keeping It Real, Charles Dickens added this great historical event to his Novel 'Great Expectations'.

However, the rarity of this movie speaks for itself: - (1) As movies go, it's not much good as a 'stand-alone' movie & rather sells itself through the 'Great Expectations' franchise or title; (2) It is only akin to Australian audiences; (3) It's a 'tongue-in-cheek' movie that hasn't been categorised or classified as an 'adaptation' or 'loosely based' on Great Expectations; (4) Snobbery within the industry - ie: the BBC, the BFI & Hollywood of all pulled Rank not to popularise it or its been 'banned' for whatever reason & season. (5) It's just simply 'dated'. You'd be hard pressed to buy a copy of the original 1917 Silent Drama Film of Great Expectations. Likewise, the same can be said here.

Either way, watch it & judge for yourself.

This $6,000,000 collaboration between Tim and Tom Burstall (father and son), and the ABC, extends the classic Charles Dickens story of the young orphan who helps an escaped convict and is later rewarded by a mysterious benefactor. The story imaginatively explores the central character of Abel Magwitch and his Australian adventures. The main characters are well played, with John Stanton (Phar Lap) creating a very believable and humane Magwitch, who manages a very credible transformation from the rough convict who initially terrifies Pip at his parents' graveside, to ultimately become his generous benefactor.

The themes of class and prejudice; justice, punishment, transportation and penal colonies; fortune and coincidence, destiny and fate; morality and kindness rewarded are all covered. The story encompasses Magwitch's transportation to Australia, his imprisonment there and eventual service to a landowner where he is reunited with his old adversary Compeyson from 'the old country'. We are shown how Magwitch came by his own lucky fortune and accumulation of wealth, and his subsequent determination to benefit his young helper on the Kent marshes. The ending is more upbeat than Dickens, who always depicts life with more sorrow than joy, mirroring his own experiences.

It is interesting to see an Australian production based on an English story and, if some of the characterisations seemed a little quirky to me I am probably unfairly comparing them to British productions. We should remember that Dickens wrote about odd people at a time when eccentricities were more marked and tolerated, despite the accompanying social ills, than today where modern life attempts to iron out abnormalities in the name of progress.

It seems a shame to me that the film version, edited by Hemdale Distributors out of the original ABC series, omits the adult Estella's story, as there are too few opportunities to see performances by the wonderful Anne Louise Lambert (Picnic at Hanging Rock). The brief glimpse of Estella dancing with Pip illustrates a classical beauty to rival any other portrayal I have seen.

I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in Great Expectations, to broaden their perspective on the story.