17 November, 2005 | Leave a Comment

The newest UK screen adaptation of Pride & Prejudice has finally made its way across the Atlantic. Enjoy it, my American friends. The film stars Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet. (Excuse me while I wretch. I’m having a flashback to Gwyneth Paltrow playing Emma.) Needless to say, I haven’t seen this latest film.

It seems the Yanks are being shown a different ending to the film than the Brits. From USA Today:

“You got the more sugary one,” says Matthew MacFayden, Mr. Darcy to Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Bennet, of the version that runs 135 minutes – eight minutes longer. “The Brits hated it.”

The British and European version of the film ends with Elizabeth’s father agreeing to let Mr. Darcy marry his daughter. But American test audiences loved an alternate ending they were shown, wherein Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy smooch it up on a moonlit balcony. According to the BBC, Donald Sutherland, who plays Mr. Bennet, said it was decided that American audiences needed a “sweeter film.” And with 8 additional minutes, that must be quite a kiss.

At this point I could make lots of snide jokes about Americans and Brits, Jane Austen film adaptations, etc. But that’s not what stands out in regards to this story. What really disgusts me is the film industry’s persistent use of test audiences. How can anyone take film seriously as an art form when audiences are given the power to shape the final product, not the directors or writers? This is akin to Toni Morrison writing several alternate endings for her latest novel and then letting a panel of readers in a shopping mall somewhere in Kansas decide which one is best. I’d like to think that a film is somehow different from, I don’t know, Vanilla Coke or the new Ford Focus, but it seems they’re all just products created for mass consumption.

As for the current version of Pride & Prejudice, is it really necessary to test a film based upon a Jane Austen novel, for crying out loud? Shouldn’t the words “Jane Austen,” “Pride & Prejudice,” and the angelic face of Hollywood’s newest It-Girl Knightley on the movie poster be enough to get butts into the seats? I guess not.

1. Comments RSS

1. Anita Says:

   November 17th, 2005 at 6:14 pm

   The ending of the American version is more in line with the sweet ending of the Colin Firth version (the double wedding – double gag!)

2. Brownie Says:

   November 24th, 2005 at 9:45 am

   That McFadyen guy … oh words won’t come … I loved him in Spooks TV spy series, and as the fickle Lord Cadbury in the TV series The Way We Live Now. I would watch him in anything and 8 minutes more of anything.

3. Kate Says:

   September 24th, 2007 at 11:34 pm

   Mr. Darcy is indeed Darcylicious! I’ve watched the movie for more than 10 times just because of him…Knightly is soooo right, his ruggedness is indeed sexy!