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Rating:  - The Bite of Real Dickens
In his commemorative book for the 1st 20 years of Masterpiece Theatre, Alistair Cooke commented that those who name "Great Expectaions" or "Tale of Two Cities" as their favorite Dickens novel are showing by their choice that they don't really care for Dickens. Often these more conventional, less eccentric novels are the ones most dramatized, and the public doesn't really get to know the crazy, dark, labrynthian world Dickens was capable of creating in his "big novels"--like "Old Curiosity Shop", "Little Dorrit", "Dombey & Son", "Our Mutual Friend", and "Martin Chuzzlewit". It takes patience to read them, and great patience to render them faithfully on screen. I think that this performance does a remarkably good job of bringing the novel to life.
I had read the book beforehand, so had an idea of how the dramatization SHOULD be done, and was surprised and pleased to see it succeed so well in many ways.
Pete Postlethwaite as Tigg Montague was (in my opinion) TRUE Dickens--eccentric in looks, manner, speech and not softened or blunted in any way. He conveyed the brash pungency of the character, as if an illustration by "Phiz" had come to life. Jonas Chuzzlewit is subtly depicted by Keith Allen.
**SPOILER FOLLOWS**
Oddly, this story reaches its excellent heights in death scenes. I think that's true in both novel and dramatizaton. The death of Anthony Chuzzlewit, a pivotal point in the novel, is almost frightening. And Jonas' suicide, short and sharp.
What characterizes Dickens is the interspersion of sharp, comic elements against dark social commentary. Sairy Gamp is wonderful, with her stuffed-up monologuing. I also liked Mary Graham, who was portrayed by Pauline Turner, not as an overtly beautiful girl, but as one with great sweetnes and warmth. One can easily understand people loving her, as everyone in the novel seems to do.
My ideal of Dickens dramatization was the long-ago Trevor Nunn production of Nicholas Nickleby, which starred Roger Rees. I always find it helpful in a review to know what the reviewer considers good, so this is my standard.
In any case, I'd highly recommend that you see this drama, if you appreciate what I'd call the "bite of Dickens".
Rating: - Wonderfully adapted screenplay and a mesmerizing performance
I have seen many of the BBC Classic series, many are adaptations of novels by Charles Dickens. I have enjoyed them all, but none so much as this one. The adaptation is so wonderful enthralling and balanced, the drama sucks you in delicately and the acting is astonishingly fine. The details used to tell the story are creative and extremely well paced, you will want to watch all the episodes at once. I highly recommend not doing this, as the tantalizing effect of the drama only gets better as you have time between episodes to think about the details.
Rating:  - enjoyable story
I enjoyed this DVD.
Note, the person that was having trouble because they could only get half the chapters ... the DVD is two-sided with Chapters 1-3 on Side A and Chapters 4-6 on side B.
Rating: - one of the best dickens tv-ifications
this 6-hour masterpiece theater adaptation of dickens' relatively obscure novel is a feast for fans of this type of thing, which i am. singling out paul scofield (duh...) as the elder mr chuzzlewit, and philip franks as tom pinch: the antithesis of uriah heep. recommended for those of a literary bent.
Rating:  - Half of Dickens
I would love to be able to comment on Parts 1, 2 and 3 of Martin Chuzzlewitt, with the brilliant Paul Schofield, but on the single disc I purchased, we received only parts 4, 5, and 6.
And while Schofield, and many other favorites, were indeed excellent in that which we watched, we will be forever curious as to how they did in that which we could not watch. Parts 1,2, and 3 were neither on the single disc, nor on any other!!!
It is certainly disappointing to me, a steady customer of Amazon.com and its DVDs, that there is no quality control over the product, and indeed not a soul or a voice to receive a complaint.
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