Florence Nightingale

Whilst I found the film interesting it is a pity that Jaclyn Smith did not take the trouble to perfect her English accent as very often her pronunciation of vowels was American rather than English. Especially for somebody like Florence Nightingale who would have had a very English accent! Movie makers spend so much money on these productions and very often ignore details like this which are very important. Meryl Streep is the only American actress who can perfect any accent according to the role she is playing.

Although I might not have thought of former Charley's Angel Jaclyn Smith as my choice for Florence Nightingale, Smith does a nice job in the role. She joins Kay Francis and Anna Neagle who had gone before her playing The Lady with a lamp.

Florence Nightingale quite early on was determined that she would not lead the life of a Jane Austen type Victorian woman. Learn needlepoint and wait for a good match for a husband. And make the best of it if the match ain't so good.

She wanted a life of service and she went to Germany to learn nursing. She went to work in the Crimean War resisted by the military establishment, partly because it was foreign ideas she was espousing and mostly because she was a woman.

Nevertheless she persisted and her ideas on hospital care and nursing care are so standard today they seem obvious. Still a battle had to be fought and won.

In the male cast members to Timothys stand out. Timothy Dalton plays her fiance Richard Milnes whom she painfully rejects for her nursing mission. The other is Timothy West playing William Russell of the London Times whose reporting from the Crimea made her a national heroine. His is a life that a movie could be made from.

Jaclyn Smith joins Kay Francis and Anna Neagle in portraying Florence Nightingale beautifully and well.

This movie created a lot of stir during the filming of the movie, with Jaclyn Smith playing the legendary British nurse and Anthony Richmond (Smith's husband-then) producing the film. But all in all, this is an outstanding production. From costume, cinematography, dialogues, setting and acting by all the cast.

Jaclyn Smith, I reckon, delivers a very moving performance and she's wonderful in a period costume. Her on camera scenes with Timothy Dalton are absolutely exquisite (it's a pity, producers of the miniseries' "Scarlett" probably missed this film and didnt cast the two instead.)

The life of Florence Nightingale--one of the great intellectual titans this world has ever known--is fascinating and dramatic, and one fraught with sacrifice, courage, and great sadness.

As someone who spent two years with the subject through research and by writing and completing a full-length spec script on Nightingale (written and registered before NBC's TV movie was available on DVD), I viewed this film more as series of missed opportunities and plodding digressions, distinguished more by what the left out or glossed over or ill- advisedly reinvented than by what they left in.

Overall, the teleplay was fine for what is was up until the point Florence arrives in the Crimea. Once in Turkey, however, the biopic simply falls flat on it face, finding little drama and even less resolution. While I completely understand that not every nuance of history can be examined and budgetary constraints determined structure and style, the teleplay failed to capture even the essence of any real tension vs. resolution. Everything just neatly fell into place while real life and real history is far messier.

For instance, watching the movie, one is left with the feeling that while FN's mother may have had some disagreement with her choice in career, she was generally okay with it. In fact, their arguments were frequent and very loud--a veritable boxing match that was constant and damaging. Florence rather despised her mother and the matronly traditions she stood for.

Florence herself did not make a connection between the sickness of her men and the "sickness" of Barracks Hospital. In fact, Florence, or the British Army, did not understand (or believe) that airborne or water-borne diseases existed, hence no alarm was made by the decaying carcasses contaminating the water supply.

While the teleplay did mention that God was her inspiration and that he "spoke" to her, the film leads you to believe He did this on this one time. In fact, her writings reveal a deep and unbridled relationship with God and many incidents of "conversation", the most dramatic one being on her 30th birthday after a particularly mystical trip to Egypt and Greece. Florence's struggle with the meaning and message of her belief in the Divine mandate is one of the key--some would say flaw, others would say divinely sacrificial--aspects of her character that is the hardest to digest and/or dramatize.

In the 20 years since the teleplay, there have been several major works published on her life and times, and these have aided immeasurably in our understanding of the complex nature of Florence Nightingale. And I don't want to mistakenly fault the teleplay for not having the benefit of future research. History changes as events reveal themselves over the blanket of time.

Yet, the drama failed to exploit the information it had on hand at the moment to any large degree, taking a middle of the road stance based more on mythology than real life. It did further injustice by embellishing the myth even more with Hollywood half-truths.

And it could be that the complexity of her life is too difficult for any one film to examine. Many are mystified by her, as she both mesmerized and infuriated people all at the same time--perhaps herself most of all. She is both scion and Saint, linguist and mathematician, prolific researcher and writer, a mystic, a healer, and beacon of hope to generations, a national heroine.

When you are all that, where is there room for the "real" you?

Jaclyn Smith may not be the Cate Blanchet of her generation but definitely talented as compared to most of her contemporary.

This is also one of the best TV movie drama in the 80's. Sad to say, Hollywood don't make this kind of movies anymore.

Excellent performances from the entire cast. Jaclyn Smith is acting here with sincerity. You can't avoid watching her face ( beautiful in every angle) gracefully on the screen, but she's shown emotions over and above expectation.

Smith is not the "ïndie film star" of sort --a.k.a critics ravers. But if you want to sit down and enjoy a two to three hour TV production in the comfy of your own home then this one excellent production is for you.

Highly recommended....