Some women would try to deny it, but truth be told Pride and Prejudice, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, is the stereotypical woman's holy grail of films. The flowery speech, the witty conservation and the dreamy Colin Firth constitute the 5 hour and 23 minute filmed version of Jane Austen's romantic classic. Men, if you couldn't figure out how Colin Firth was so popular after starring in mediocre [read: crappy] chick flicks like Bridget Jones's Diary then you missed the boat. Firth has ridden the brooding manliness he established with Pride & Prejudice ever since. It's not your fault if you never understood the allure of Mr. Firth if you've never seen Pride & Prejudice. Well, actually the average woman would say it's your fault for not having seen the greatest story ever told on film - but they're somewhat biased on that account. For those of us less swayed by a timeless tale of romance, look at it this way: if you were looking for an argument to upgrade that entertainment center to Blu-ray - this might just be the ticket.
Elizabeth Bennet (Jennifer Ehle), the second oldest of the five Bennet daughters, wants nothing to do with the popular conventions of marrying for money. Elizabeth holds a higher ideal for choosing that special someone: love or - if love is busy - an incredibly dry wit. Most women balk at what they perceive to be her ridiculously high standards. Those around Elizabeth, however, know that the issue has nothing to do with standards and more to do with self-respect. Thwarting the advances of her cousin (I don't care how many times removed a cousin is, it always sounds weird) Mr. Collins (David Bamber) and encouraging the blossoming romance of her sister Jane (Susannah Harker) with the noble Mr. Bingley (Crispin Bonham-Carter), Elizabeth fails to recognize the apparent love staring her stubbornly in the face. Even had Elizabeth seen the romantic opportunity she was destined for, the politics of the socialite world conspire against her forcing her and those she loves into a series of embarrassing events.
Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth), the shrewd and plainspoken friend of Mr. Bingley, seems comfortable handing down criticisms and playing off the advances of empty-headed nymphs until he meets Elizabeth. The permanent scorn of the former clashes with the spitefully idealistic outlook of the latter - the two begin circling each other through a series of balls and galas. Just as the rest of the Bennet family comes under fire at hands of social politics, so does the would-be relationship of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.
Most of the women out there openly profess their love for this series - and that's fair. It is a well-crafted story (Jane Austen, I mean come on) and the lead performers excel in every way. My only complaint about the acting has to do with Mrs. Bennet (Alison Steadman) and Lydia (Julia Sawalha) whose overly-theatrical styles clashed with everyone else in the series. I'd like to think that you'd notice everyone else around is playing their parts low-key and that you'd adjust to fit the style of the production - but maybe not. Alison Steadman's less than stellar performance only looks worse when she's in the same room as Benjamin Whitrow as Mr. Bennet.
Audio & Video
Of prime importance to this review is video quality. Instead of going back to the same less-than-perfect print of the DVD versions, the Blu-ray release went all the way back to the original negative for a crisp high-definition transfer. There's even an "Uncovering the Technical Restoration Process" featurette detailing the procedure. The bottom line though is that what I had thought would be just another lousy transfer from DVD to Blu-ray with little or no improvement is anything but. The picture jumps in quality tenfold. The colors jump out of the frame with a vibrancy that makes the DVD and VHS versions look catastrophically and unbearably dull in comparison. I want to attribute the necessity to have the 6 part mini-series broken up onto two Blu-ray discs to the newfound video quality, but I'm not sure that would be legitimate - possibly though. The one issue I noticed with video stem from the negatives themselves. Brief flashes of ruined frames can be caught here and there most likely due to unfortunate preservation of the 1995 original copy. With that said, only the eagle eyes among us will notice them, so for the average Joe, the transfer is a dream come true. The audio blasts forth with a triumphant crispness - A&E and the BBC put together a brilliant mini-series all those years ago and this easily qualifies as the best presentation it's ever received.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
With the aforementioned featurette on the restoration process for the Blu-ray version of Pride and Prejudice, there are three other pieces of varying lengths. "Lasting Impressions", clocking in at just under an hour, represents the most comprehensive of the features on the discs. With retrospective interviews from the cast and crew, those who fell in love with P&P and Mr. Darcy all those years ago will find this documentary piece quite interesting; the rest of the general populace will likely stick around for ten minutes and then head back to the main menu. If you didn't stick around for the longer piece you'll either find the shorter featurettes more palatable or just as much outside your realm of interest; either way, "An Impromptu Walkabout with Adrian Lukis and Lucy Briers", a brief interview tell-all style feature with the actors who played Wickham and Mary Bennet (respectively) entertains the most devoted while struggling to keep the interest of the casual viewer; finally, "Turning Point" talks about the writing and casting leading up to the filming of the series. The featurettes are all interesting in their own right - to the right fan.
The video transfer of Pride and Prejudice onto Blu-ray makes this release an occasion. Throwing away the faded and dreary colors of its DVD and VHS predecessors, P&P on Blu-ray marks a bold new chapter for the beloved series. Women, it's the same series you've loved since its 1995 debut - do it justice by seeing it in its most beautiful format to date. Men, if you were looking for a good argument for updating that home entertainment system, this is it. Throw Pride and Prejudice on Blu-ray in the cart along with the Blu-ray player and HDMI cables - then hide the fist pump when she notices your first selection. Once that's set in, go back to the Blu-ray aisle and pick out something like the Die Hard Quadrilogy to balance it all out.
Â
"Pride and Prejudice" is on sale April 14, 2009 and is not rated. Drama, Romance, Television. Directed by Simon Langton. Written by Jane Austen (novel), Andrew Davies (screenplay). Starring Adrian Lukis, Alison Steadman, Benjamin Whitrow, Colin Firth, Crispin Bonham Carter, David Bamber, Jennifer Ehle, Julia Sawalha, Susannah Harker.
