Unhinged Thoughts on Pride and Prejudice 1995

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but in all of my ranting and raving about book to movie adaptations there has been one subject matter that I have avoided. I have avoided it for many reasons, feeling like I’m not smart enough to address it, not wanting to add to the endless noise that already exists on the internet about this subject matter, having avoided watching one of the films in the debate, not feeling like I am a true fan of the original work, and my fear of being banned by all Jane Austen fan clubs across the world. 

But you know what, I’m not going to talk down about myself and my knowledge when it comes to this debate any longer. So these past two weeks were devoted to re-reading the original work. Then when I was sick this past week I sat down, dedicated 6 hours of my life to the 1995 Pride and Prejudice. 
    
I have talked a little bit about Pride and Prejudice on the blog, but always with much caution. You see, when I first read the novel I really didn’t like or understand it. I eventually fell in love with the 2005 film adaptation starring Keira Knightly (I mean, who doesn’t love her?) but I always could sense people looking down on me for loving it so much. And I am genuinely not exaggerating. When I told a friend of mine who I was spending a few nights with that my alarm song was “Dawn” from the 2005 film, she gave me a look and began telling me why 1995 was so much better.
    
​After much nagging from friends online, coworkers, in person friends, and my own conscience I decided that I would watch it. And while I watched it I took detailed notes and thought, why not share this with the girlies (what I often refer to my readers as). So here we are. Before we get into the meat of this conversation, I want to say that I am not picking any fights. I love Jane Austen and the original source material is what I will always come back to. As I have said with my Little Women series, I really don’t believe that there is a right or a wrong when it comes to movie adaptations (specifically in that and this case). I think that there are good parts and bad parts and I also believe that people are allowed to like whatever they like. If this disclaimer seems over the top to you, then lucky you you haven’t seen how crazy Jane Austen fans can get. This is just for fun, I am even including some of my very unhinged thoughts.

I also want to say that this isn’t a comparison between 1995 and 2005. I’ll come right out and say that Pride and Prejudice 2005 is one of my favorite movies of all time. This review is simply my slightly unhinged thoughts and opinions. Most of the comparisons I’ll be making will be to the novel and the time period, not to Joe Wright’s film. 
    So without further ado, let’s talk Pride and Prejudice 1995. 
    The 1995 Pride and Prejudice is a BBC mini-series starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. It was written by Andrew Davies and directed by Simon Langton. The story is broken down into 6 one hour episodes making it a dedication to watch. 
    Let’s break down the series

​Book Accuracy and Plot

The plot very closely follows that of the original novel (I re-read it about three days before watching the series). If any scenes are left out, I didn’t notice them. It hits all the beats of the original story. There actually were some added scenes though. People often tell me that this adaptation is an exact adaptation of the book, and really this isn’t true. Character lines are moved around, the point of view in some scenes is changed, and we will talk about the added Whickham scenes and the added Darcy scenes in a few moments. I think this adaptation did the book justice, but I wouldn’t say it’s perfect.

Here is your spoiler warning for the remainder of this post, because I am unable to not spoil things when I review them.

The Cast and Characters

I found the cast of this adaptation to be a very mixed bag. Some characters I adored, and some couldn’t be off of the screen soon enough.

    We’ll start with the main protagonist Elizabeth Bennet. Elizabeth (or Eliza, or Lizzie), is the second daughter of the Bennet family. She is outspoken, and thinks that she is a good judge of character. Jennifer Ehle played Lizzie in this adaptation, and though I was skeptical to trade my beloved Keira Knightly for her, I soon found myself obsessed with her portrayal. Seriously Jennifer Ehle plays the humorous side of Lizzie so well, her little gestures and moments of eye contact. The way she smirks when something amuses her, and the passion with which she speaks is perfect. Also she’s so incredibly beautiful, I literally couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Every time she wasn’t on screen I desperately wanted her to be. As I wrote in my notes app, “I love looking at Jennifer Ehle honestly shes amazing I love her.”

Jane Bennet is the eldest Bennet sister, she’s sweet and pretty and falls quickly in love with the new man in the neighborhood, Mr. Bingley. This Jane was a mixed bag for me. I loved how she was portrayed, but I cringed whenever people remarked how pretty she was. I felt like she was way overshadowed by Lizzie. 

Mary Bennet is the middle sister, she’s smart and bookish and not really known for her social skills. I think Mary was portrayed very well. I think shy and awkward people are very hard to adapt to film. This Mary was just out of touch enough for me to believe her. Also it’s apparent she cares nothing for how she looks. 

Kitty Bennet, the second youngest sister who is always in the shadow of her younger sister Lydia. I really liked this portrayal of Kitty, she seemed to have her own place and her own voice. There was nothing really remarkable about her, she is just Kitty after all and doesn’t play a big part in the plot.

Lydia Bennet, the youngest sister is a trouble maker, a flirt and totally unaware of her surroundings. This Lydia was good! She was flirty and chaotic and very loud. She annoyed me, but maybe she was supposed to? She felt the right age, but I don’t know the way she acted seemed to opposite societal norms of the Regency Period 

Mrs. Bennet, I hated this portrayal. She was so incredibly over the top and her shrieking was a bit much. I always picture Mrs. Bennet as a worrier, but not as a shrieker. 

Mr Bennet was good. In general he’s such a good character, I love his sense of humor and his closeness with Lizzie. This adaptation did a very good job of portraying the details that make me love Mr. Bennet so much.

Mr Collins, this is the cousin of Mr. Bennet. He is set to inherit Longbourne (the family house) and is kind of a generally annoying character. I know Mr. Collins is supposed to be annoying, but this portrayal was almost too much for me. He was so irritating. I couldn't stand when he was on screen.

Mr. Bingley, this is Jane’s love interest. He’s known for basically being the nicest guy ever. This portrayal was good, nothing very special, but it was good. While watching this I began plotting my dream casting for a pride and prejudice adaptation, and I think Andrew Garfield would make an incredible Mr. Bingley.

Mr Darcy, I know this is the character you were anxiously awaiting me to talk about. As I am sure you know, Mr. Darcy was played by Colin Firth in this adaptation, and girls….. He was amazing. Like I get it now. His aloofness, his eye contact, the way he pines for her but gives her her space. So much was said in his saying nothing. And I know that that’s the charm of Darcy anyway, but Colin portrayed it so well. I did feel like he looked a little old for the character, but there’s nothing we can do about that.

As for the other characters, I have thoughts but I am not going to weigh you down with those thoughts when there are far more important things to get to.

​Costumes

I don’t have many complaints when it comes to costumes. They all seemed pretty true to the Regency period. The only things I didn’t like were a.) the color palette they had Caroline Bingley in, green and orange just don’t seem right for her, and b) the excess of curls. Like everyone had curls. There were so many curls. It just didn’t seem very realistic.

Okay, so now let’s chat about the added scenes that made no sense to me, and the random unhinged things that went through my head while watching (in no particular order).  First off we have when Lizzie goes to Netherfield when Jane is sick, Mr. Darcy just randomly runs into her. I don’t know what the point of that was, to examine the mud on her hem? There was no explanation.

Then we have Mr. Darcy playing billiards by himself. Like why? Yes Lizzie walks in, but it was pointless.

Okay so then, Mr. Darcy took a bath…? Umm. Then as he is drying off, he looks out the window and sees

Lizzie playing with a random dalmatian, with no context. It would make sense if maybe this was Darcy’s dog, or a dog that is known for being mean to people, but nope, it was never explained. 

I really didn’t like how at the end of each episode it froze randomly on a character. It honestly made me uncomfortable.

​While watching this I felt like they framed Lizzie and Lydia to be very similar. The big difference is that Lizzie has a natural grace and grooming that Lydia doesn't. Their senses of humor are very similar, but Lydia has no control of herself and her emotions. This isn't necessarily portrayed in the book but I thought it was an interesting take. 

I really liked the initial interaction that happened between Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy, it felt like a genuine encounter between two men who hate each other but want to appear like they don’t. It just made sense.

​I felt like there was a lot of sitting around and talking for a film. I understand that that’s how it is in the book, but adapting some of the scenes to be walking around or dancing would have been nice. 
    
​There was a strange scene explaining Mr. Wickham’s background, it was uncalled for in my opinion.

At some random points there was a floating Darcy head when Lizzie was recalling something he had said to her, and it was so weird.

And then there was a random scene of Darcy sword fighting an old man, like what is happening? We don’t need all of these bizarre Darcy scenes!

Of course we also have the iconic lake scene. This was also weird to me even though I knew it was going to happen, again it really added nothing to the story.

I thought it was interesting how they added in scenes of Lydia and Wickham when they were in London. I don’t think this was necessarily good or bad, it was a choice and they chose it. So yeah. 

I hope you have enjoyed this all over the place review. Do you have thoughts on Pride and Prejudice 1995? Do you have a favorite P+P adaptation? Do you agree with my thoughts? Disagree? I’d love to know.

Belle Thomas

Belle is the writer and dreamer behind An Old Fashioned Girl. She is passionate about reminding girls of their identity in Christ, classic books, history, Louisa May Alcott, and earl grey tea. ​