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Great Expectations, based on the Charles Dickens novel of the same name, is about an orphan whose life is made better through a mysterious benefactor, and has been filmed many times.
A silent version made in 1917 starred Jack Pickford as "Pip," the young orphan whose legal name was Philip Pirrip.
What many consider the best version, and certainly the most popular was made in 1946 starring John Mills, Anthony Wager, Valerie Hobson, Jean Simmons, Bernard Miles, Francis L. Sullivan, Finlay Currie, Martita Hunt and Alec Guinness.
The movie was adapted by Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean, Cecil McGivern, Ronald Neame and Kay Walsh, and directed by Lean.
It won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, and was nominated for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay.
A television miniseries version was issued in 1989. It has only been released in VHS form in the U.S. and is not currently distributed.
The actors playing Young Estella, Miss Havisham, the Convict Magwitch, the Attorney Jaggers and Herbert Pocket in the 1946 version are considered superior to the actors in the 1989 version.
Jean Simmons, who played the role of the young Estella in the 1946 movie, played Miss Havisham in the 1989 version.
Other key roles include John Rhys-Davies as Joe Gargery, Ray McAnally as Jaggers, Anthony Calf as the adult Pip, Kim Thomson as both young and adult Estella, Adam Blackwood as Herbert Pocket, Anthony Hopkins as Abel Magwitch, Niven Boyd as Orlick and Susan Franklyn as Biddy.
This version was studied in any argument about the usefulness of the miniseries format in production of classical works. The format, running five hours, enabled much more of the original story to be filmed than other versions, allowed the restoration of significant characters omitted in other versions, such as Orlick and Wopsle, and the better examination of the roles of other characters, such as Biddy, Drummell, the adult Estella and Miss Havisham. The result is more understandable plot development, and the revelation of themes of the work that tend to be obscured in shorter versions, such as class striving and the values of character vs. wealth, in favor of Pip's pursuit of Estella.
This adaptation of Great Expectations starred Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow as Estella. The movie is set in modern Florida, and got generally poor reviews. Some critics thought that it stayed too close to the romantic plot and dragged on weakly although the visuals were often remarked to be beautiful.
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