North and South

[osprey_archer]

I suspect that the director of North and South spent a lot of time shouting, “Smolder, Thornton, smolder!” Because Thornton, cotton mill owner and romantic lead, smolders like a champion through most of the miniseries. He also broods and glowers and generally makes attractively grim faces.

This adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South is a sort of confirmation of the theory that second-rate novels make first-rate adaptations. Almost all the changes the adaptation makes are improvements: they smooth over the rough patches of the plot while mostly retaining the novel’s characterizations. (They also add a scene where Margaret visits to the Great Exhibition of 1851, probably purely on the grounds that world’s fairs are cool. I heartily approve.)

I am curious, though, why the filmmakers decided to roughen up Mr. Thornton’s already rough edges even more. They introduce him beating up a worker he caught smoking in his cotton mill, a brutal scene that doesn’t occur in the book at all. He’s not being presciently anti-smoking. Cotton mills, which had cotton fluff floating in the air like snow, had a tendency to go up in blazes if people smoked in them, so I can see why Mr. Thornton would be so fanatical about it...but nonetheless it’s an odd choice to introduce the romantic hero by having him beat bloody an underling who can’t fight back.

The filmmakers also rather drama up the ending, but I tend to think that’s an improvement - not least because their version cut out all reference to Mrs. Thornton.

Mrs. Thornton is Mr. Thornton’s mother. She has virtues, like a steely will and a firm and flinty honesty, and I should probably appreciate them more than I do; but I just can’t. She’s just so mean! She doesn’t love anything or anyone except her son, not even her daughter, Fanny. Fanny is, admittedly, a bit of a brat, but how could she be anything else after a lifetime trying desperately to wring a few drops of attention from a mother who obviously favors her brother?

Comments

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

That was some super duper A+ smouldering.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

If he smoldered any harder, he would probably set something on fire.

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

Well, there goes the cotton factory.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Clearly this is why he's so repressed! Like Elsa in Frozen, he's struggling to control magic that might break free, except his magic is smoldering.

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

Am I detecting a whiff of Thornton/Elsa shipping here?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I hadn't gotten that far, but...fire and ice, opposites attract, always a possibility?

But that would break up Margaret and Thornton, and that would be sad.

[nagasasu.livejournal.com]

Bless this thread. XD

(Jumping aboard the bandwagon that goodness there is a lot of smoulder going on).

[littlerhymes]

He doesn't know how to not smoulder. It's his gift and his curse.

second-rate novels

Whoa whoa whoa. I'll throw down for Gaskell any day of the week. GASKELL FOREVER.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Maybe he's like the fire version of Elsa in Frozen! Only with better self-control.

I love Gaskell's Cranford - it's actually one of the first classic books I read and really *got* - but I don't think North and South is quite as good. I've been thinking about reading her biography of Charlotte Bronte, even though I know more recent scholarship has undermined part of it, just because it's basically hundreds of pages of Gaskell fangirling Bronte and how awesome is that?

[littlerhymes]

... I would read that Frozen au.

Cranford is ridiculously charming and arch. N&S sets out to do such a different thing, I can definitely understand if one's appealing and the other's not. :)

Having heard the mixed things about the biog, I might leave it for last and get through her other novels first. But yes, it is ADORABLE that she was such a Bronte stan.

[ladyherenya]

My theory is that they had Thornton beating up the worker in order to quickly establish that he has a different perspective on (some) things to Margaret and that she's uncomfortable with his actions. Whereas in the book their different perspectives and Margaret's discomfort is conveyed through Margaret's internal reaction to a lot of little things - which you can't get the same way in an adaptation. I'm not still not sure I like the choice they made here, in making Thornton violent, but I do think it's effective in highlighting the north/south divide.

I kind of like Mrs Thornton. She's bitter, grieving and introverted; she doesn't have any friends and her daughter is not very like-minded - I think Mrs Thornton has tried to shelter Fanny from the bitterness and hardship they've endured, with the result being that Fanny doesn't really understand where her mother (or her brother) are coming from. But yes, she's a difficult character to like.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. I can see why the director would think establishing the gulf between then swiftly would be a good idea, even if I wish they hadn't been quite so brutal about it.

I tried to like Mrs. Thornton. I do admire her, because she's clearly made of titanium: her misfortunes have soured her, but nothing would ever break her. She reminds me of a quote from Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, to the effect that she has all the chilly virtues, but one yearned for one warm fault.

In the book Gaskell goes out of her way to point out Mrs. Thornton's good qualities, which usually I appreciate, but I just couldn't. Maybe next time I watch it she'll grow on me.

[silverusagi]

No real thoughts, though I really like this miniseries. Still haven't managed to read the book yet.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

The book is interesting, although somewhat repetitive - particularly the parts about economics, because Gaskell doesn't really seem to have much to say about it, but keeps returning to it anyway. I think the miniseries hits most of the high points.

[innie_darling]

Aw, I love this book (the sugar-tongs scene was the first thing I fell in love with) and this miniseries is a great adaptation. You're absolutely right about John Thornton's Smolder - it's ridiculous how much he plies it, but it's his go-to move, evidently.

I must disagree with you about Mrs. Thornton, though, because she RULES. I've loved her since this passage: She never called her son by any name but John; 'love,' and 'dear,' and such like terms, were reserved for Fanny. But her heart gave thanks for him day and night; and she walked proudly among women for his sake. What a glorious image.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

It's an extremely effective smolder. I'm not sure he actually smiles until the last scene of the movie, when he and Margaret are at the railway station, and the smile is so much more affecting because I hadn't realized his face could *do* that.

I feel kind of bad for not liking Mrs. Thornton, because the book goes to all this trouble to point out all her good points. And I can't really blame her for taking against Margaret after Margaret turns down Mr. Thornton - obviously Margaret was right to turn him down at that point, but of course his mother would feel angry about her son's hurt feelings.

But she's so unforgiving and really doesn't care about anyone but John. I foresee a lot of terrible mother-in-law drama in Margaret's future.

[island-of-reil.livejournal.com]

I always get Elizabeth Gaskell, whose books I've never read (I think), confused with Catherine Gaskin (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/catherine-gaskin/), several of whose books I read in high school and college.

And when I hear of North and South, I think of the John Jakes novel and the miniseries made out of it. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_and_South_%28TV_miniseries%29)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

There are way too many things called North and South. It can be confusing.

[island-of-reil.livejournal.com]

I have found myself confused by the existences of new canons called Priest, Rush and Defiance, which to me denote movies made respectively in 1994 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110889/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_2), 1991 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102820/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_3), and 1980 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080605/?ref_=sr_3).

/edited to fix a hyperlink