When I was growing up in rural Texas, The Silver Chair was the first book I ever read at the age of 7. It is a beautiful story in so many ways. It has a special place in my heart and I've re-read it continuously throughout the years, and now I'm a full-grown woman and I still like to dip in.
I'm not going to write too in-depth a review only to say this BBC Network version of The Silver Chair is frankly awful. As I've read the book so many times I know the storyline inside out, but if I was watching this film for the very first time, with no knowledge of the storyline or the characters, the film version would be virtually unfathomable.
The acting, particularly that of Camilla Power (Jill Pole) and David Thwaites (Eustace Scrubb) was awful: very wooden, very over-the-top and completely unconvincing.
The voices used for the owls and the owl costumes looked like someone had gone to the nearest thrift/charity shop and bought a jumble of clothes, and the voices sounded like Cockney accents or at best ordinary English accents with no attempt to sound owlish or Narnian (whatever that is).
I suppose the standout performance was that of Puddleglum (played by Tom Baker, formerly Dr Who). Puddleglum is one of the most interesting and odd characters, for he is a Marshwiggle, lives in a wigwam on an island in the marshes surrounded by rivers and other remote wigwams, he eats thick, black eel stew and smokes strange black tobacco in a long pipe, has webbed feet and a green tinge to his hands and face. But he is a sage character and the children's protector.
The special effects are particularly bad too: take the moment when the gate at Experiment House is opened and does not reveal bare moorland as they expected by a portal into another world. When the children go through the door, it looks like a cheap bit of film-splicing has taken place; there's certainly no feeling of visual magic despite the fact that something magical is supposedly happening. The part where both Jill and Eustace are blown by Aslan into Narnia look awful and very poorly produced; same for when they are climbing up the Giant's bridge over the chasm.
The bullying scenes at the beginning just seem very odd too. The bullies just shouting "Pole! Pole! Pole!" and nothing else; there's no obvious reason given for the bullying, or why Eustace too is hiding in the glasshouse. At this early stage, the dialogue moves too quickly attempting to follow the narrative in the book but not enough is explained which would confuse the first-time viewer. The film attempts to follow the book verbatim at some points, whilst at others it takes extraordinary leaps and misses large portions, resulting in a fragmented mish-mash which actually does not make sense (unless you have read the book many times, as I have).
The characterisation of both Jill and Eustace is very poor too: they bawl at each other, in the heat of rage, and then seconds later are completely different in mood and character. They're very trite characters, selfish and given to tantrums and over-the-top exclamations ("That's the most DEEELLLLICCCIIIOOOUUUUSSSSS stew I've ever eaten" and "It's the purest water I've ever tasted" and "Oh dry up will you".) This does not follow through well. They're not really likable characters, coming across as spoilt brats and both actor's verbal delivery is jarring, what's spoken is over-the-top and wholly unrealistic. They sound like young children trying to play well-informed, worldly-wise, educated adults. I suppose they were fairly young when they acted in this. But the effect just spoils the whole thing.
The film locations - Haddon Hall, Derbyshire and the Peak District, England - are beautiful and look good on screen, although again, continuity is bad: when they embark on their journey from the Marshwiggle's wigwam Puddleglum mentions something about the start of winter fast approaching, but we shortly see the trio crossing a bleak moorland in the blaze of summer (you can see the heat haze on film). Twenty minutes or so later, when Jill falls into the giant letter E of the inscription UNDER ME, it's snowing.
I've seen a lot of BBC productions and they're usually highly polished and exceptional pieces of work. This is just so bad in many ways and it's a shame that it's currently the only film version of such a great book. At a running time of almost 2 hours 40 mins, even for an ardent fan of the book such as myself, it is a trial to sit through the whole thing.
I'm not going to write too in-depth a review only to say this BBC Network version of The Silver Chair is frankly awful. As I've read the book so many times I know the storyline inside out, but if I was watching this film for the very first time, with no knowledge of the storyline or the characters, the film version would be virtually unfathomable.
The acting, particularly that of Camilla Power (Jill Pole) and David Thwaites (Eustace Scrubb) was awful: very wooden, very over-the-top and completely unconvincing.
The voices used for the owls and the owl costumes looked like someone had gone to the nearest thrift/charity shop and bought a jumble of clothes, and the voices sounded like Cockney accents or at best ordinary English accents with no attempt to sound owlish or Narnian (whatever that is).
I suppose the standout performance was that of Puddleglum (played by Tom Baker, formerly Dr Who). Puddleglum is one of the most interesting and odd characters, for he is a Marshwiggle, lives in a wigwam on an island in the marshes surrounded by rivers and other remote wigwams, he eats thick, black eel stew and smokes strange black tobacco in a long pipe, has webbed feet and a green tinge to his hands and face. But he is a sage character and the children's protector.
The special effects are particularly bad too: take the moment when the gate at Experiment House is opened and does not reveal bare moorland as they expected by a portal into another world. When the children go through the door, it looks like a cheap bit of film-splicing has taken place; there's certainly no feeling of visual magic despite the fact that something magical is supposedly happening. The part where both Jill and Eustace are blown by Aslan into Narnia look awful and very poorly produced; same for when they are climbing up the Giant's bridge over the chasm.
The bullying scenes at the beginning just seem very odd too. The bullies just shouting "Pole! Pole! Pole!" and nothing else; there's no obvious reason given for the bullying, or why Eustace too is hiding in the glasshouse. At this early stage, the dialogue moves too quickly attempting to follow the narrative in the book but not enough is explained which would confuse the first-time viewer. The film attempts to follow the book verbatim at some points, whilst at others it takes extraordinary leaps and misses large portions, resulting in a fragmented mish-mash which actually does not make sense (unless you have read the book many times, as I have).
The characterisation of both Jill and Eustace is very poor too: they bawl at each other, in the heat of rage, and then seconds later are completely different in mood and character. They're very trite characters, selfish and given to tantrums and over-the-top exclamations ("That's the most DEEELLLLICCCIIIOOOUUUUSSSSS stew I've ever eaten" and "It's the purest water I've ever tasted" and "Oh dry up will you".) This does not follow through well. They're not really likable characters, coming across as spoilt brats and both actor's verbal delivery is jarring, what's spoken is over-the-top and wholly unrealistic. They sound like young children trying to play well-informed, worldly-wise, educated adults. I suppose they were fairly young when they acted in this. But the effect just spoils the whole thing.
The film locations - Haddon Hall, Derbyshire and the Peak District, England - are beautiful and look good on screen, although again, continuity is bad: when they embark on their journey from the Marshwiggle's wigwam Puddleglum mentions something about the start of winter fast approaching, but we shortly see the trio crossing a bleak moorland in the blaze of summer (you can see the heat haze on film). Twenty minutes or so later, when Jill falls into the giant letter E of the inscription UNDER ME, it's snowing.
I've seen a lot of BBC productions and they're usually highly polished and exceptional pieces of work. This is just so bad in many ways and it's a shame that it's currently the only film version of such a great book. At a running time of almost 2 hours 40 mins, even for an ardent fan of the book such as myself, it is a trial to sit through the whole thing.