CommentsXp Best movie ever!

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

lizholzer-95726 This video (I watched it on YouTube) doesn't come close to developing the central ideas of the novel. In fairness, I don't see how any filmed version could. The story in the book is told from the pov of an enigmatic narrator who doesn't always know the full story, may have reasons for not being 100% square with the reader, and appears emotionally dim and stunted. He has no real intimacy with any of his fellow characters, who succeed in betraying him over the course of years despite their physical proximity. He is bitter, but too phlegmatic to be vengeful. His views on men, women, love, marriage, and human nature are fascinating. The book is terrific and really worth reading, but the film captures only the action and none of the heart. On video, the narrator comes off as some rich clueless slob whose wife and friends do a bunch of random things that inexplicably result in suicide and insanity. Pointless, in my opinion. But Jeremy Brett is handsome, hence a few stars.

AZINDN I saw the Granada production of The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford when it screened on Masterpiece Theatre in the early 80s. It was stunning then, and now out on DVD, it has held up as a fine piece of ensemble acting. A story of "screaming hysterics," duplicity, infidelity, and madness, the superior cast of Jeremy Brett as Edward Ashburnham, a good man, his equally good wife, Leonora (Susan Fleetwood), the American cuckold husband, John Dowd (Robin Ellis), his deceptive wife, Florence (Vickery Turner), and "the girl," Nancy (Elizabeth Garvie) is situated in 1904 and follows the upper-middle class lifestyle set in a German spa town and English country. It is an orderly, polished, and genteel setting of women dressed in white, men in flannels, an altogether civilized arrangement of two married couples John describes as a 'minuet.'That having "a heart" describes not a positive situation but the opposite, Edward is unable to control his romantic sexual urges, a 'condition' that nearly wrecks his good name and that of his wife, who takes over the husband's finances to keep them from total ruin and disgrace. In voice-over narration, the tale of recriminations and thwarted love affairs is told through John in a non-chronological reverie. It leaves the state of marriage a demolished failed situation of lies and stiff upper lip British hypocrisy. Not wanting to create a scandal by divorcing Edward, Leonora tortures him with Nancy's virginal innocence, and reveals to Nancy the truth of Edward's affairs. When faced with the truth about Edward, Nancy offers herself to Edward, but he rejects her instead of corrupting the one pure individual he's ever loved. Summoning the widower, Mr. Dowd to their home, he is ready to marry Nancy, but she is shuffled off by Edward to Ceylon to join her abusive father instead. It is Edward's one unselfish act which his heart is capable. He later tells John that he's gotten over Nancy, she was only a passing flirtation. When Nancy sends back a cable that she is "having a good time," the news pushes Edward to commit suicide, and drive Nancy insane. In the end, John, living in the former home of his first wife's people, as well as the Ashburnhams, finds himself again the caretaker of Nancy, another sick woman, who instead of being John's wife, is sadly, a broken "shuttlecock" from her own sickness of the heart.Adult, very British, and slowly paced, it is one of the finest performances by Jeremy Brett before his Sherlock Holmes days.

kassdo Not sure what they other reviewers were watching but the editing was bad; the acting was boring and the screenplay itself was confusing; actually restarted about 5 minutes into the film because scenes suddenly started to repeat... it was tough to figure out if it was present or past... do not waste time... There was one interesting person who was pretty good... for the most part the scenes were very contrived and the actors did little to make me believe that they believed in the storyline... not sure where the title came from... Have no idea why the American male lead even wanted to remain friends with the English wackos... stay away

moondog-8 This made-for-TV film gets high marks all around: lucid and intelligent cinematography, breathtaking performances, and visually strong direction. It's a great film, based on great source material. The film addresses how a man, by re-examining several years in his life, realizes that he was totally clueless regarding what was happening around him, as his wife and friends schemed and had affairs while he thought they were all happy and content. The novel moves back and forth in time, and so does this film: a complex yet totally engrossing narrative that leaves other time-shift ideas such as *Pulp Fiction* in the dust.Among all the great performances in here, special mention must be made of Susan Fleetwood, whose layered performance is both sensual and calculating.I've turned on many friends to this film. Definitely one of my desert-island videos.Highest accolades!!