Sons and Lovers

As another reviewer wrote good quality programming in the US is virtually non-existent these days so when I picked this little gem up at the library I was blissfully happy for three and half hours. The fine acting by the entire cast made the drama real and intense. A mother in a bad marriage pours all of her love and attention onto her two sons eventually preventing both from making sound choices in relationships with other women. A tragedy shifts the focus onto the middle son Paul and he must endure his mother's jealousy and overprotective behaviour as he fluctuates between two very different types of women. The young actor who portrays Paul (Rupert Evans) is someone who I was unfamiliar with but will definitely look for in future movies. He resembles a very early Brad Pitt in some scenes. I think the British cornered the market when it comes to talent. Overall a great film that I can highly recommend.

I read the novel in a freshman required college course, under the direction of an inspired professor, some years ago. Given the press of work at college, I may not have read the entire book myself, but we certainly discussed it in every detail in class. The book was a clinical study in Freudian psychology, Oedipal complex. The DVD is a great deal more explicit than I remember the novel, perhaps we read the expurgated version of Sons and Lovers. The study of Sons and Lovers affected the rest of my life. A number of beautiful scenes and brutal scences in the DVD. The brutal scenes were, I think, a realistic view of what the author had in mind. This DVD can't be seen as purely entertaining because it is an autobiography of a life that was in fact tragic and troubled. The DVD is well worthwhile for a mature audience, looking for more than pretty pictures and light themes, and Disneyland in a movie. This DVD is real life, and every young person (not too young) should view this DVD.... Read more

Two disks in this set give you a long, leisurely look at the Morel family, from the first meeting of the parents, through the births of their four children, and then focusing on the young adulthood of the middle son, Paul. It has been said that the character of Paul, a painter, is closely modelled after that of Lawrence. From our standpoint, a hundred years later, we have the psychological sophistication to see Paul's dilemma clearly. We know about children of alcholics, mothers who love too much, Oedipal complexes, etc. So it can be a little frustrating to see poor Paul caught in the morass of his family's dysfunction, and we might want to yell at the screen a bit, or to stage an intervention with Dr. Phil. But, to him, or to Lawrence, trying to muddle through before such information was common knowledge, life was certainly a struggle. It is a temptation, maybe to see the characters as psychological types: the alcoholic dad, the frustrated, religious mom who turns away from h... Read more

Leave it to the BBC to produce a first-class adaptation of a classic, beloved novel. In America, PBS can no longer do anything except run auctions for used furniture and so-called heirlooms. ABC, NBC, And CBS have given up all drama in favor of reality shows, but the British treat television as the art form it can be. Lawrence's first novel is also his best. The cast is superb. The direction is subtle, the cinematography gorgeous. Edwardian England films well. The men and women are sexy and sensual in their multi-buttoned outfits, and Lawrence seems to have had it right that people were panting to get out of their clothes. This is an explicit version, with lots of nice coupling in the hay. The mother's suffocating love is shown to kill her husband and children and finally herself. It's Lawrence at his best before he became a prophet and bore.