DVD review: Martin Chuzzlewit

As far as I can remember, the first full book I read as a child was 'Oliver Twist'. It turned me into a life-long Dickens fan. Everyone knows that story, I guess, and David Copperfield, but he wrote a lot of others that were much better, IMHO. My absolute favorites are Bleak House, and Great Expectations.

It took me decades to find the rare things, like 'Sketches by Boz', or the accounting of his Italian sojourn. Regarding the latter, I was in Genoa, once, and hired a taxi for a day as a birthday present for my friend. I asked the man if he knew where Dickens had stayed way back when, and he knew the villa and drove there. I'd been certain it would have been destroyed in the one World War or the other, but it was there. He had written that there were frescoes by Michaelangelo in it, and so I had hoped it would be open to the public, but it is seemingly run by Opus Dei, so no visitors need apply. It was interesting.....

Whatever, I recently got a BBC film of his novel Martin Chuzzlewit. It was his fifth novel, if I remember correctly... Yesterday, I watched the first half of it. Paul Scofield is admirable.... The book is considered flawed by critics. But what has struck me so far is how timeless the theme is, especially now. It is about greed, selfishness, and hypocrisy above all else. Am still waiting for the part where the main character goes to America to make his fortune and crashes and burns, nearly. Dickens had just visited America for the first time, and was scathing. Am wondering if that will come across in the second half, or if they chickened out.

So this is just a half-time assessment. It is beautifully done, everyone is as you pictured them if you have read it. I had forgotten about Sarah Gamp and her imaginary 'colleague' Mrs. Harris, who only had compliments for her. The nurse of your worst nightmares.... Pecksniff, the epitome of hypocrisy, is portrayed without the caricature. Hard to watch at times, I could throw a brick at the tv screen.... So far, well worth watching. And am baffled by how nothing has changed much since 1843-44. They only got worse.
Update

Watched the second half last night. Just as I feared. They left out all but one of the America scenes, and focused more on the villains in England. That threw the entire film off balance, and ruins it, unfortunately. Which means the main character disappears for a long part of the film. One is supposed to see Martin's selfishness gradually turn to self-recognition and his change to a caring human being. Instead, that just gets turned in to a paragraph of dialogue, which doesn't make the change believable. Too bad, really. It did make me want to go back and read the novel, though. If I recall correctly, the parts they left out are more relevant than ever. What is on film is very well done, and all, but I wouldn't recommend buying a copy.