Mansfield Park (1999 version)

[Julie]

I didn't much care for this movie. One of the amazing things about Jane Austen is how romantic her books are without the overt sexuality we are used to. This movie had plenty of kissing and a really disgusting viewing of illustrations in a book. I prefer the gorgeous movies Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Predjudice. The BBC movies of her books are also well done with the exception of the ugly main characters. I am looking forward to seeing the Masterpiece theater version of her novels.

[Anna]

I personally really enjoyed this film. I thought it perhaps had more the sex side of things, because there is more in the actually text. Not to say that Austen wrote a sex scene, but the Crawfords were very loose morally. Also, the illustrations weren't meant to be salacious, but rather to show the horrors of the slavery.

[Julie]

You are right about the illustrations. And of course the kissing wasn't a big deal. I guess I just wasn't expecting this portrayal. I am used to what I had previously seen.

[Stacy]

I'm a fan of Jane Austen but haven't read Mansfield Park. When I saw the movie in 99, a friend of mine who was a Austenophile said little to none of the "salacious" material was in the actual book.

[Anna]

I've read Mansfield Park and the only part I thought that wasn't true to the book per se was the slavery link. While it was explict that Sir Thomas had plantations over seas that he was going to check on, how those plantations were run was never an issue.

The seduction and infidelity as well as the putting on of Lover's Vows and all that entailed were all in the book.

[Gail]

Yes the suduction was in the book but fanny did not find them in bed together. She heard about it vagely from a newspaper report and then later from the family. If you exclude that sean and the sketch book the story follws quite well. I did not like the newest pbs verson so much but still it was well done and with out the above mentiond seans being ecplicit. ( the sketch book not in it at all)