Review 15: Wuthering Heights (1939)
Other wins: no other Oscar wins, but 8 nominations (including Best Actor, Best Picture and Best Director); New York Film Critics Award for Best Picture; Library of Congress deemed as ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant’.
Director: William Wyler (also directed Mrs Miniver, Ben-Hur, Jezebel, Roman Holiday, and Funny Girl)
Plot: based on a novel by Emily Brontë, the movie tells a story of a temperamental orphan Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier), and his spoiled and equally feisty beloved Cathy (Merle Oberon). Drawn together by passion, but separated by social class, the two would bring destruction to others and to themselves.
Main point: from hate to love there is only one step. But the real point is that the film had to try desperately to make those two characters somewhat less shitty. So, the main point from my perspective is that both Heathcliff and Cathy sucks.
+ Not gonna lie, it is a beautifully shot film, the one that perhaps set the tone for all the upcoming Wuthering Heights adaptations. It is also nice to see the evolution of Laurence Olivier as a performer, how subtly throughout the film he steps away from larger-than-life theatre performer to become a great movie actor.
- Not sure I’m quite the fan of all the creative choices the filmmakers made. I can understand the total exclusion of the ‘next generation’ characters, for it may have been too immoral for the Code-era Hollywood. But the fact that they moved away from violent, Byronic book Heathcliff, to noble pauper with an occasional temper Olivier-Heathcliff wasn’t quite my cup of tea. Also, Edgar Linton (played by David Niven) was turned into sort of a villain. All of this works for Hollywood, but kinda takes away the reason why the book withstood the test of time. Cannot say that Merle Oberon was great in this either, though her last scenes really showcased her talent.
Would I recommend watching it? - Sure! If you’re a fan of classical cinema and Wuthering Heights, this would be a good film to watch. It definitely weaves nicely into Laurence Olivier’s career arc. And obviously, it’s a cinematography winner, so that definitely can be seen here.
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