David Copperfield - George Cukor
This is part of my unedited thoughts series
The film felt pretty true to the source material. The problem was that lots of the characters seemed to have forgotten that they were in a Charles Dickens adaptation.
Dickens’ characters are larger than life and if you don’t lean into that the acting will be awful. There is a great contrast in the opening scenes between David’s aunt and his mother. The aunt gets it and she is brilliant to watch throughout the film. His mum comes across as a melodramatic fop.
When I was reading the novel I felt that a lot of the plot centered around the machinations of Uriah Heep. This is because his ploys affect both the true target of David’s affection and his lodger – David. It was happening throughout the book as David was lodged with this family from fairly early on. Without this, there doesn’t seem to be any real antagonist.
I also felt that the whole Emily plot could have been cut. This is a great look into the world in which David lives it holds no baring on the central plot. That is unless we see Emily as a potential love interest. For this to happen David needs to give us a sign. All the early setup is there and until he is asked outright we could believe that it was a possibility.
I hate the way this film opens with a quotation from Dickens about how much he loves David Copperfield. Then we see the first page of the book. Yeah, we get it. This is an adaptation. The fact that it is an adaptation and Dickens liked the story has no bearing on the story itself.
The three girls are central to holding the disparate parts of this story together. Emily, Agnes, and Dora. Emily the early remembrance of his early life and represents simple poor folk.
Agnes, his lifelong friend during his days at school. Who loves him dearly. She is also key to being fought over by David and Uriah, even if David cannot see it. Then we have Dora. Dora is David’s idea of what he should be aiming for. Some sort of phantasmical beauty well above his station.
The thing that David doesn’t seem to understand – despite it being thrown in his face the entire story – is that happiness is all that matters. The money the status that he seems to (only really half-heatedly) long for is unimportant. His blindness to this leads Emily to ruin and breaks Agnes’ heart when he chooses Dora.
I just happened to be reading Nicholas Nickleby at the time when I watched this and it got me thinking about some other Dickens that I had read. I haven’t read these books recently but I have read Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, and Hard Times. The last was so long ago I barely remember it at all.
I feel that Dickens has a well-worn troupe. There is a young boy left in destitution. Generally, his family or relatives are horrible to him and he has to leave to make his way in the world. He is generally naive and blind to the love of a girl (or girls). This is fine because I do feel that the lead in these stories is more of a window in the world of fantastic larger-than-life characters that Dickens creates.
