Cider with Rosie (1998)
Made by Carlton Television for ITV (UK) , this adaptation of Laurie Lee's autobiographical novel follows a young man's maturation in the country town of Gloucestershire near the end of World War I. As young Laurie (Dashiell Reece) comes of age under the protective eye of his mother (Juliet Stevenson), he learns to live with an eccentric collection of friends, neighbours, and relatives. As he enters his teenage years, Laurie (now played by Joe Roberts) discovers women, specifically Rosie Burdock (Lia Barrow). Veteran screenwriter John Mortimer adapted Lee's book, with Lee narrating.
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The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Set 100 years ago (it's 2018 now) it tells the story of a young lad who has moved to the Cotswolds during the era of the 'great war'. While the Triple Entente and the Central Powers were slaughtering each other by the millions, the villagers of Slad have their own problems to attend to. The BBC have seen fit to trot out all the familiar ubiquitous faces to take part in this unnecessary nonsense and the result is dire. The book is both brutal and comedic in equal measures, but this TV film is neither. There are now THREE TV movies of this book and they are all bad, but this is the worst. In 2015, Timothy Spall starred in one that was marginally better than this and way back in 1971 there was a half decent version made watchable because of the magnificent casting, attention to set detail and the collaboration of the author of the book.This, however borders on being offensive.
In 1975, the BBC made a film version of Cider with Rosie, also approved by Laurie Lee, and featuring Rosemary Leach as the mother. The earlier production is a triumph compared to this one, with a wonderful semi-impressionistic view of this dramatisation of English village life after the first world war.In the 1975 version, look for example at the final shot where we see the young Laurie passing the real life elderly Laurie. What a glorious touch! Fortunately I have the first version on tape (and now preserved on a DVD!). This later version, sadly, is strictly run of the mill made-for-TV drama compared to the 1975 one, which was produced by Eileen Diss and scripted by Hugh Whitemore, 2 of the BBC's greatest!.
This film is faithful to the book, perhaps too keen to get all the book into the film. Lee like Hardy evokes an England that hadn't changed for a 1000 years and was about to change for ever. They lived in a small village, where the rest of the world might not existed. He doesn't show this life as idyllic.Don't forget to read the book!