Pride and Prejudice Mini Series and Movies

The movies and film adaptations of the classic novel by Jane Austin has been remade several times over the years with the most well known being the BBC mini series starring Colin Firth as Mr Darcy.  The mini series was produced in 1995 and has become the most loved version yet. It is the most true to the novel and takes part over six episodes, each an hour long.  It has been remastered and has now also been released on blu ray.

Other adaptations have been made over the years including the 2005 feature film starring Keira Knightly as Ms Elizabeth Bennett. Although the film isn’t the worst version, due to it being a film rather than a miniseries, I thought there was too much cut out of the movie to fit a feature length film so the movie did not tell the story well. I am not a fan of Keira but I think she portrayed Elisabeth pretty well. Other characters where not very well developed..

Another somewhat unique take on the classic is “Lost in Austen” a mini series that tells the story of a woman named Amanda Price who is a woman living in modern London.  Dissatisfied with her somewhat mundane life she chooses to spend much of her time reading her favorite book Pride and Prejudice until one day she encounters Elisabeth Bennett in her bathroom. She discovers a doorway between her world and the fictional world of Austen’s novel.  She trades places with Elizabeth and finds herself “Lost in Austen” trying to make the novel stay true to the plot and failing miserably.   Austen puritans may find that particular adaptation not to their liking ,however the story is well done and is an interesting twist on a well loved classic.

This is the early BBC mini series of Pride and Prejudice and is one of my favorites. It is different to the later mini-series starring Colin Firth and many believe that this is the most true to Austen's novel. Personally I think they are both good, in different ways. It is harder to warm to Mr Darcy played by David Rintoul whereas in the later adaptation we saw more of Mr Darcy. Elizabeth Garvie plays  the part of Ms Elizabeth Bennet very well and is believable in the role

Many people consider this adaptation of Pride and Prejudice as the original and it is one of the best in my opinion. Laurence Olivier portrays a stuffy Mr Darcy extremely well and Greer Garson is a lovable Lizzy. Although I personally think that a movie could never do justice to the novel, mostly due to the limited length of time they have to tell the story (compared to the 1995 six hour mini series) it is still a pretty good attempt at capturing the story as it was meant to be told.

The actors are ok, it's just the rest of the film. I just couldn't bring myself to like it. Watch it if you are an Austen fan, just be aware it might not be to your taste.

Pride and Prejudice meets Bollywood. I have heard good things about this movie, however I have not had a chance to see it yet. Because it has many good reviews it's worth adding to this list and should be an entertaining twist on the classic

Watch clips of Mr Darcy’s first Proposal in a few of the different versions of P&P