Via Passive Voice blog, trailers from many of the Little Women movies.
I hadn’t realized there were so many. Let’s see … Passive Guy showcases the ones from 1933, 1949, 1978 (with William Shatner! Who knew?), 1994, and now 2019. The newest one is due to be released this coming Christmas, I see.
Here’s a post about the new Little Women movie. Apparently it is going to focus more on the lives of the four sisters when they are young adults. Or three sisters, perhaps, depending on whether main focus is before or after Beth’s death. The film won’t be straight chronological, but shift back and forth from childhood to adulthood.
Here’s another post. Of course Jo is the main protagonist. I see that the new movie is probably going to modern-ify her attitudes. Well, fine, but I actually like Jo as she is in the original novel: a product of her era, like all her sisters.
How interesting it would be to watch each version in full, in chronological order. I think I’ve only ever seen the 1994 version. If you’ve seen other versions, which was your favorite?
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I want to like the 1933 version more than I do. But while Katharine Hepburn is certainly a solid choice for Jo, all the March girls read as too old. (Hepburn was in her mid-20s, and doesn’t play young convincingly.) And the whole effect is a bit too muted and stately.
I grew up with the 1933 one, and Katharine Hepburn has always been the definitive Jo in my mind, and that movie is the standard by which I measure all others. I confess, I don’t like the 1994 version much at all. I thought the PBS miniseries from a couple years back was decent but flat. In fact, I think I forgot to watch the final episode of that because it was so bland.
The trailer for the new movie enraged me. I’m sure it’ll be well done for what it is, and I won’t hate anyone who loves it, but it made me want to throw things, in large part because of how anachronistic it appears, and because I also don’t feel the need to make Jo more modern. She’s remarkable enough as she is. I don’t plan to watch the movie, as the trailer alone was infuriating enough.
Wow, Louise, I haven’t even watched the trailer yet, and now I’m thinking I’ll give this movie a miss. I hated the modern attitudes forced into the movie “Titanic” and you make this remake of Little Women sound worse than that.
I think I’ve seen 4 of these… In addition to the Katherine Hepburn one (where I agree most of the characters feel too old for the first half), we have one with Elizabeth Taylor from 1949 (where some of the characters felt too young during the second half). Then the 1994 one and the recent miniseries. I’ve never seen one where the script did the second half of the book justice. Annoying!
Yes yes yes. I should have said that, but I didn’t fully realize it until this moment. No Little Women adaptation does justice to the second half of the book, just as no Robin Hood retelling can stick the landing.
While on the subject, no Count of Monte Cristo movie has ever managed to pull off an even adequate adaptation. They all weight the initial prison scenes MUCH too heavily.