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 [Larger view] | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
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Average user rating:  | |
 Boring | |
| I finally caught up with this film, and, like so many high profile classics, I found it to be tedious. The script lumbered along and I found no enthusiasm for any of the characters. I must admit that the title character is complex and for that consideration, as well as the look of the period, I gave it 2 stars. | |
| "One should never succumb to provincial ignorance." | |
| The film, "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is based on the novel by Muriel Spark. Jean Brodie (Maggie Smith) is an attractive spinster in her 30s. The year is 1932, and Miss Brodie teaches at the Marcia Blaine School in Edinburgh. While the headmistress remains somewhat suspicious of both Jean and her teaching methods, Miss Brodie is careful to ensure the loyalty of her girls. Miss Brodie is involved with two male teachers--the art teacher--who is married, and the music teacher who is single and very eligible. Miss Brodie is rather indiscreet with her pupils. While she encourages individualism, she also appeals to the ready romanticism of her teenage pupils. Miss Brodie is very strict about maintaining standards of behaviour, and she indulges a favoured group of girls with after hours outings and trips to the opera. Miss Brodie's lack of discretion leads to some serious consequences for her, and for some of her girls, and the film addresses many questions concerning the role of a teacher's responsibilities.
Maggie Smith as Jean Brodie is a joy to watch. She certainly must fit the author's physical image of the Scottish schoolteacher. While the plot is faithful to the book, the film's flavour is hampered by its 1960s style and by Hollywood overtones. Some of the scenes with the schoolgirls are slightly overwrought, so the film begins to feel like a mismatch between "The Sound of Music" and "Mary Poppins". I should point out that while this is not a musical, there were moments when I anticipated the entire cast bursting into song. The Miss Brodie of the novel is a subversive--the Miss Brodie in the film version is an eccentric. The production is glossy--perhaps a little too glossy for this tale, and as a result, the film loses much of the bite of the Sparks novel, and this is a great shame--displacedhuman | |
 A frustrated spinster...... | |
| Towards the end of the movie, as her world started to fall apart, she was told that she was a frustrated spinster. In the movie, Jean Brodie is clearly a frustrated woman, seeking love but rejecting it. She pines for her lost love, Hugh, in WWI action but it is never revealed what there was between them. There are several great performances in this film, set in 1932 in Scotland at a private girls school. Maggie Smith does a tremendous performance as a strong willed and independent minded teacher, determined to do her own way of teaching, regardless. She won an Oscar for it, and it is clear why. Pamela Franklin does a great job as a student who becomes her foil, and some of the ending dialogue is particularly strong as they clash over Jean Brodie's firing. Jean Brodie lived in a world of unreality but couldn't see that. Jean Brodie seemed to either steer her students to perform to their potential, or send them crashing. She kept referring to herself as being in her prime. Commentary by the director, who gives insight into the making of the film, and by Pamela Franklin, who was 19 when the film was released in 1959. The weakness in the extras (and there are only a few extras) are the still shots in the gallery. The shots seemed to be a real mish-mash, without context and some of people not really involved in the film. This is a good DVD to have if you enjoy a strong performance from Maggie Smith and is certainly a classic movie. |
