English Video Reflection

Part I

First of all, it’s quite obvious that the first version was made by an amateur film group, and as stated in the text in the comment section, it was made for an English assignment. The second one was made by a professional company that*- was serious about making it as realistic and enticing as possible. The second one was much more entertaining, but as all movies are, they twisted the storyline slightly. For example, the movie showed no speech between the convict and Pip until after he comes home, in which the confrontation is shown as a flashback. This makes the story a bit more entertaining, but also isn’t as powerful as the original, since it isn’t the way that Charles Dickens intended it. The first version stuck to the text much more. However, the first one isn’t without its problems too. It doesn’t have as many props as the second one, and thus wasn’t as realistic. Both the directors made an attempt to make the film as interesting as possible, however, as both have at least attempted to say the lines with some expression.

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Part II

Based on the 2nd one, I think my book understanding has changed dramatically. For example, the convict definitely looks like a malevolent person instead of a nice person that he is portrayed as after Pip gives him the food. I feel that this changes the text a lot since this is the first time that Pip sees the kinder side of the convict before he sacrifices himself to save Pip at the face of the soldiers. In the book, I had envisioned Ms Gargery to be more of a frustrated and sadistic person instead of a violent mother in the video. I feel like this changes my understanding of the story since, with this, one can guess later on that maybe it was Joe that attacked Ms. Gargery out of hatred. In the book, it is never presented as such since Joe is very pacifist in the book, but in the movie, he has a more laissez-faire attitude at Ms. Gargery.

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@Dennis He