Andrew Crocker-Harris, a teacher in a British public school, is approaching retirement. This is not, however, a sentimental "inspirational teacher" film like "Goodbye Mr Chips". James Hilton's character was an elderly man looking back happily on his long years of service to the school. Andrew has not reached normal retirement age (he is probably in his fifties) but has been forced by ill-health to retire and take a less arduous, but less well-paid and less prestigious, position teaching English as a foreign language..
Moreover, no teacher could be less inspirational than Andrew Crocker- Harris. His less-than-friendly nickname among his pupils is "the Croc" (as in crocodile- spelled thus in Rattigan's play, but this could also be heard as "the Crock", British slang for broken-down old car). A brilliant scholar at Oxford, he entered the teaching profession in the idealistic belief that he had a vocation to inspire his pupils with his own love of classical literature. The intervening years have disillusioned him. He has become humourless and pedantic; his pupils either dislike him or treat him as a figure of fun and regard his lessons as a bore. His attempts to maintain discipline by using sarcastic ridicule have made him even less popular and given him an even less friendly nickname-"the Hitler of the Lower Fifth". He is unpopular with his colleagues and patronised by his headmaster. His marriage to a younger woman has broken down, and his wife Laura has been having an adulterous affair with the young American chemistry teacher Frank Hunter.
Rattigan's plot - attractive young married woman torn between a dull, unresponsive husband and a charming but faithless lover- is essentially that of a number of literary works, notably "Madame Bovary" and "Anna Karenina", but whereas Flaubert and Tolstoy placed the emphasis on the woman, Rattigan is more concerned with the wronged husband. The crisis comes when Taplow, one of Andrew's pupils, unexpectedly gives him a copy of Robert Browning's translation of Aeschylus's "Agamemnon". (Hence the title). Andrew is touched by the gift, but Laura spitefully suggests that the boy gave him the book, not out of kindness or love for Greek literature, but as a bribe to secure promotion to a higher class. (Aeschylus's play is significantly about an unfaithful wife who murders her husband).
Rattigan's play was written in 1948 and another film version was made in 1951. Mike Figgis came under some criticism for making this film a contemporary story rather than a forties period piece, but I think he was right. Public schools are very conservative institutions, and there is little which explicitly ties the story to the forties; updating it to the nineties gave more contemporary resonance. There are a few changes to Rattigan's story and some minor details have been changed. Andrew's wife was originally called Millie, not Laura, and his nickname was the "Himmler" of the Lower Fifth, not Hitler. (Possibly Figgis feared that nineties' audiences would not know who Himmler was). One detail that does not ring true is the selection of the school's games master to play cricket for England. In the forties there were many amateurs playing at the top level in English cricket and the selection of a schoolmaster for England might have been plausible, but not in the nineties.
The 1951 " Browning Version" is regarded by some as a great classic of the British cinema, but I prefer the 1994 film. Anthony Asquith's version is too emotionally reticent, too much stiff-upper-lip and not enough genuine feeling. I also felt that Jean Kent's Millie came across as too cold, hard and spiteful. With Greta Scacchi's Laura one senses, as one does not with Kent, something we are told by Andrew, namely that she is as much to be pitied as he is. She behaves badly towards her husband, but she is a victim, not only of a failed marriage, but also of the way she is treated by Frank, with whom she is deeply in love, even though he does not love her.
As for Albert Finney, this is a superb performance. We can always sense that beneath his crusty exterior Andrew is a man of deep feelings, unlike Michael Redgrave who in the early scenes is too much the dry-as- dust pedant to be entirely credible when his more emotional side is revealed later on. Finney is particularly good in the scene (not in Rattigan's play) when he reads extracts from "The Agamemnon" in the original Greek to his class, no longer Hitler or the Croc but a man inspired by his passion for great literature. He reveals Andrew as a truly tragic hero- a man faced with the simultaneous disintegration of both his career and his marriage, but determined to face the future with stoicism.
This film has one or two weaknesses. Matthew Modine as Frank is perhaps the weak link in the acting; I preferred Nigel Patrick in the original. (Frank was not an American in Rattigan's play- doubtless the producers wanted a role for a Hollywood big name). The invented sub-plot involving Taplow and the school bully struck me as unnecessary, These, however, are minor points. Overall, this "Browning Version" is a deeply moving human drama, one of the best British films of the nineties. 9/10
Some goofs. After the cricket match has finished we are told that Fletcher has scored 112 not out, but during the match itself we see on the scoreboard that he has already scored 123. We see in the school hall the Royal Arms bearing the motto "Ich Dien", only used with the "three feathers" badge of the Prince of Wales. The correct motto for the Royal Arms would be "Dieu Et Mon Droit".
Moreover, no teacher could be less inspirational than Andrew Crocker- Harris. His less-than-friendly nickname among his pupils is "the Croc" (as in crocodile- spelled thus in Rattigan's play, but this could also be heard as "the Crock", British slang for broken-down old car). A brilliant scholar at Oxford, he entered the teaching profession in the idealistic belief that he had a vocation to inspire his pupils with his own love of classical literature. The intervening years have disillusioned him. He has become humourless and pedantic; his pupils either dislike him or treat him as a figure of fun and regard his lessons as a bore. His attempts to maintain discipline by using sarcastic ridicule have made him even less popular and given him an even less friendly nickname-"the Hitler of the Lower Fifth". He is unpopular with his colleagues and patronised by his headmaster. His marriage to a younger woman has broken down, and his wife Laura has been having an adulterous affair with the young American chemistry teacher Frank Hunter.
Rattigan's plot - attractive young married woman torn between a dull, unresponsive husband and a charming but faithless lover- is essentially that of a number of literary works, notably "Madame Bovary" and "Anna Karenina", but whereas Flaubert and Tolstoy placed the emphasis on the woman, Rattigan is more concerned with the wronged husband. The crisis comes when Taplow, one of Andrew's pupils, unexpectedly gives him a copy of Robert Browning's translation of Aeschylus's "Agamemnon". (Hence the title). Andrew is touched by the gift, but Laura spitefully suggests that the boy gave him the book, not out of kindness or love for Greek literature, but as a bribe to secure promotion to a higher class. (Aeschylus's play is significantly about an unfaithful wife who murders her husband).
Rattigan's play was written in 1948 and another film version was made in 1951. Mike Figgis came under some criticism for making this film a contemporary story rather than a forties period piece, but I think he was right. Public schools are very conservative institutions, and there is little which explicitly ties the story to the forties; updating it to the nineties gave more contemporary resonance. There are a few changes to Rattigan's story and some minor details have been changed. Andrew's wife was originally called Millie, not Laura, and his nickname was the "Himmler" of the Lower Fifth, not Hitler. (Possibly Figgis feared that nineties' audiences would not know who Himmler was). One detail that does not ring true is the selection of the school's games master to play cricket for England. In the forties there were many amateurs playing at the top level in English cricket and the selection of a schoolmaster for England might have been plausible, but not in the nineties.
The 1951 " Browning Version" is regarded by some as a great classic of the British cinema, but I prefer the 1994 film. Anthony Asquith's version is too emotionally reticent, too much stiff-upper-lip and not enough genuine feeling. I also felt that Jean Kent's Millie came across as too cold, hard and spiteful. With Greta Scacchi's Laura one senses, as one does not with Kent, something we are told by Andrew, namely that she is as much to be pitied as he is. She behaves badly towards her husband, but she is a victim, not only of a failed marriage, but also of the way she is treated by Frank, with whom she is deeply in love, even though he does not love her.
As for Albert Finney, this is a superb performance. We can always sense that beneath his crusty exterior Andrew is a man of deep feelings, unlike Michael Redgrave who in the early scenes is too much the dry-as- dust pedant to be entirely credible when his more emotional side is revealed later on. Finney is particularly good in the scene (not in Rattigan's play) when he reads extracts from "The Agamemnon" in the original Greek to his class, no longer Hitler or the Croc but a man inspired by his passion for great literature. He reveals Andrew as a truly tragic hero- a man faced with the simultaneous disintegration of both his career and his marriage, but determined to face the future with stoicism.
This film has one or two weaknesses. Matthew Modine as Frank is perhaps the weak link in the acting; I preferred Nigel Patrick in the original. (Frank was not an American in Rattigan's play- doubtless the producers wanted a role for a Hollywood big name). The invented sub-plot involving Taplow and the school bully struck me as unnecessary, These, however, are minor points. Overall, this "Browning Version" is a deeply moving human drama, one of the best British films of the nineties. 9/10
Some goofs. After the cricket match has finished we are told that Fletcher has scored 112 not out, but during the match itself we see on the scoreboard that he has already scored 123. We see in the school hall the Royal Arms bearing the motto "Ich Dien", only used with the "three feathers" badge of the Prince of Wales. The correct motto for the Royal Arms would be "Dieu Et Mon Droit".