User reviews

This is remake of "The Browning Version", great movie of Anthony Asquith. Here Michael Redgrave is replaced with one of my favorite British actors, Albert Finney. Finney plays Andrew Crocker-Harris, teacher of classic languages in a British prep school. He's disliked from students, his colleagues and his younger wife is being unfaithful to him. The only boy who likes Crocker-Harris is Taplow and they have special relationship that culminates with Taplow's gift that makes Crocker-Harris cry, in one of my favorite scenes of this movie. I also must add, that beside Finney, there is very good performance of Greta Scacchi as his wife. So why to watch this movie? Because of Albert Finney's tutoring skills!!! He gives hour and half of acting lesson to us all. Thank you Mr. Finney, you are a true legend.

A touching,gentle movie,The Browning Version is perhaps hugely under-rated.

The simple tale of an aging school teacher forced into retirement actually contains many poetic metaphors for struggle.Crocker-Harris finds himself at one of life's great crossroads and wrestles with the inner turmoil of the knowledge that his life-work may have been futile.His convictions about language and literature are to be swept aside with the arrival of his successor and his still-beautiful wife,sympathetically played by Greta Scaachi,is as distant as his pupils.

Finney plays this role with a calm and measure that is evidence of a great actor at work.Perhaps only Hopkins could have hoped to have done so well with this role.

The score is excellent and the cinematography elegant.A great "English" film in every sense;my only wish is that it might have been a little longer.Somehow,an epic running time may have yielded the acclaim that it justly deserved.

After watching the Terence Rattigan DVD collection (with most of the adaptations being from the 70s and 80s) when staying with family friends last year, Rattigan very quickly became one of my favourite playwrights and he still is. his dialogue is so intelligent, witty and meaty, his characterisation so dynamic, complex and real and the storytelling so beautifully constructed.

'The Browning Version' is a defining example of Rattigan at his finest. As said in previous reviews for the adaptations part of the Terence Rattigan DVD collection, is also at his best when laying bare deep emotional and psychological strains in his principal characters within a skillful dramatic framework. 'The Browning Version' epitomises that as well as everything that makes me love Rattigan's work so much. This 1994 film is a very worthy adaptation and a lovely film in its own right.

For me, the 1951 Anthony Asquith-directed film with Michael Redgrave is the definitive version and one of the best film versions of any of Rattigan's play, and there is also a preference for the 1985 TV version with Ian Holm and Judi Dench. As said though, quality-wise this version is more than worthwhile and satisfies as an adaptation too.

Directed by Mike Figgis, an interesting if curious choice in his last film before achieving international recognition, 'The Browning Version' (1994) has a few deficits. The whole school bully stuff was not needed and yanks the viewer too much back to the present day, which is sad when the film mostly does very well with its recreation of the period for something modern in comparison to be this at odds.

Matthew Modine is a little bland as Frank, he has the charm but not the callousness and cockiness and the character has been more interesting elsewhere. The film also has the one thing in the 1951 film that struck a false note intact, despite the speech being powerful how the film concludes so optimistically comes over still as contrived and didn't feel right with the rest of the film.

However, so much is done right with 'The Browning Version' (1994). It's beautifully made, with handsome period detail, cosy and sumptuous interiors and the cinematography is a lovely looking complement. The music is more understated than intrusive, a good thing for a film with as gentle a tone as here, and is soothingly orchestrated. Figgis's direction is controlled without being starchy or too low-key to lack presence.

Rattigan's writing is a very large star here. His superb writing, dynamic between the characters and consummate attention to very complex characterisation shine through wonderfully here and really keeps things afloat. There are changes here but rarely in a way that's distracting. The story is gently and intelligently done, as well as incredibly affecting. It too avoids becoming stage bound as is a potential problem with adaptations of plays. The scene with the gift brought tears to my eyes and a lump to the throat, it was always a moving scene in the source material and the same applies here, Albert Finney's reaction particularly stands out.

Of the cast, Albert Finney dominates as a sometimes stern but often incredibly heartfelt Crocker Harris. Despite the character being widely disliked by the students it is very difficult to not feel sorry for him. Greta Scacchi provides a more sympathetic portrayal of his wife (called Laura here and not Millie), usually played cold and without a heart, redeeming qualities or weaknesses as how Rattigan intended. But this more sympathetic approach works because it's not often that Crocker Harris' wife's point of view is understood by the viewer but one does here despite not condoning what she does.

Ben Silverstone's Taplow has a twinkling charm, with his chemistry with Finney's Crocker Harris providing a lot of the film's heart, while Michael Gambon is very good as ever and it was interesting seeing Julian Sands relatively early on in his career.

In summation, simple and gentle but beautiful though with short-comings. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This is one of those movies that are easy to overlook because of their lack of special effects, bone-rattling audio, and sexual situations. Nevertheless, The Browning Version tells a poignant story of an aging teacher who is being shunted aside in favor of a younger replacement. Albert Finney is wonderful as Crocker-Harris, "the Hitler of the lower sixth," whose health is failing and whose enthusiasm for teaching is gone. Greta Scacchi is equally good as his unfaithful wife. Her nuanced performance is one way in which this version is superior to the much-admired Michael Redgrave issue of 1951. In the latter, Jean Kent plays an unrelenting bitch who cares not a whit for her husband's plight. One cannot, under any circumstances, imagine how the two characters ever got together. In the new rendition, however, one can see how the lovely Miss Scacchi might have fallen for the athletically built Finney. As a result, one can better appreciate the disillusionment and bitterness that inform her character as she contemplates what he has become.

Albert Finney gives a classic portrayal of a teacher of the times. This movie shows so clearly the invisible gap which existed between teacher and pupil. It was extremely difficult if not impossible to come close to teachers in those days. The innocence of Taplow played brilliantly by Ben Silverstone and his genuine regard and respect for the aging Crocker=Harris, provides the viewer with an intimate encounter in which this teacher who is in a failed marriage, has not accomplished his ambitions to be head of the school, suddenly realises in the form of "Taplow", that he is genuinely loved for what he is, a good teacher who showed his love for the boys by, discipline and teaching. Little wonder that Crocker-Harris weeps when the truth dawns on him. Watch this movie and weep too. Absolutely first class.

Contemporary remake of the Terence Rattingan play updated our era , formerly shot in 1951 . Classic play updated to modern times , it's worth watching for extraordinary performances from British all-star-cast and marvelous ambiances . Forced to retire from an English public school a disliked professor named Andrew Crocker-Harris (Albert Finney) must confront his utter failures as a teacher , a husband , and a man . The lonely unemotional classics instructor realizes his flops , being cuckolded by a colleague and denied a deserved pension by the penurious headmaster (Michael Gambon) . Although he began his career eighteen years earlier as a brilliant young scholar, he has withdrawn into the stiff rigidity of school rules and regimentation , now his professional humiliation and loveless existence have give him a defensive armour of coldness . How this armour is pierced makes for dramatic entertainment . While facing a bleak financial future and a disintegrating marriage , his cold-blooded wife (Greta Scacchi) into an affair with another teacher (Matthew Modine), but the kindness of one of his students rekindles his humanity .

A towering portrait of a wasted life about an out-of-touch teacher who has distanced himself from all human emotion . It contains super works , thought-provoking drama and magnificent settings , though turns out to be slow-moving . Wonderful performance by Albert Finney as a stuffy professor of Classical Greek at an English public school who is disliked by his students . Awesome Greta Scacchi as his bitchy , faithless spouse and good acting by Matthew Modine as her Science-master lover and Julian Sands as a language teacher . In addition , Ben Silverston , Maryam D'Abo , Jim Sturgess , Oliver Milburn and special mention to Michael Gambon as the headmaster . Colour cinematography is awesome , it was splendidly photographed by Jean Francois Robin . Emotive as well as sensitive musical score by Mark Isham . Although the film is pretty good results to be inferior by using strong language and other reasons than classic version (1951) directed by Anthony Asquith and starred by Michael Redgrave as the hapless and unpopular schoolmaster , Jean Kent as the unfaithful wife , Nigel Patrick and Bill Travers . The motion picture was well directed by Mike Figgis , a good British filmmaker . He is an expert on dramas as ¨Time code¨, ¨The loss of sexual innocence¨, ¨One night stand¨ and Thillers as ¨Liebestraum¨ and ¨Stormy Monday¨. ¨Browning version¨ is considered to be one of his best films . Better than average . Worthwhile seeing .

This movie touches one's soul. Albert Finney gives a heartfelt performance as an old, crusty, teacher, who reflects on his career and life in the days leading to his retirement. He comes to the realization that his entire life's work has been, for the most part, in vain. It is reminiscent of Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Illyich. While in Tolstoy's Illyich, the character reflects on his life while on his death bed, Finney's soul searching is triggered by his imminent retirement. He realizes that his marriage has failed and that none of his students, with the exception of one, appear to have any appreciation and respect for him. Finney gives a remarkable performance in the lead role. Have Kleenex handy when you watch this one.

Albert Finney and Greta Scacchi have given a fabulous performance. Indeed this is a rare gem in cinema. I give this 9 out of 10. The script is tight, the music score good and the performances are amazing.

Its a simple story of a school teacher who is forced to retire. He finds no comfort in his retirement as he is denied his pension and there is absolutely no one in the school who is sad to see him go. Living with an unfaithful life, this school teacher lives a lonely life. Never to bow down to anyone and nor letting anyone sympathise with him, he portrays a classic and rare case of a strong human being.

As i say this, it was sad to see him break down when a kid showers him a rare gift of love. If this movie does not touch your soul or move you, then you truly belong to the cold hearted. Keep a handkerchief ready.

Please watch this movie. It is a masterpiece .

The movie lives with the superior performance of Albert Finney, who puts Crocker-Harris alive so tremendously, that you can't help but suffer with him. So much that you nearly wish to jump into the screen… ...to support that poor man in his struggle against unfairness.

Finney plays a senior teacher at an English elite school, who is not very popular, even addressed with the nickname "Hitler" of his form, due to his severe strictness and dry adoration for the classical, but dead poets of ancient Greek and Latin. As a perfect British gentleman he is tied by fully self-controlled formality, holding back all his emotions. He is totally obliged to conventions, always saying yes to everything. Except once.

Don`t bother with this poor remake, see the 1951 original.

Being an English person who went to private school I understand that the original captured the atmosphere and emotions of its time. Certain films are made about a certain place in time which is where they belong.

The remake has all the political correctness and weakness of a soap. Also, don`t the directors know that Latin was removed from school curriculum twenty years before the remake was set.

A movie about coming to terms with a life that didn't turn out, at you thought it would, about the importance of little things, when the structure itself is crumbling. I don't know exactly what it was about this movie but it just hit me, where i live. I cried my eyes out, and it colored my emotions for weeks after-wards. It deals with most of the issues that an adult is faced with; marriage, work relations, personal identity, etc., from the viewpoint of an aging teacher, who does what he does, except it isn't really working, as he thought would. Social acceptance and respect is missing, his marriage is on the rocks. In a way he is like a mundane Horatio on the bridge, who keeps fighting, knowing all too well, that the fight is lost, hoping perhaps beyond hope, that one small victory is possible.

The Browning Version(1994) Director Mike Figgis(Leaving Las Vegas)does a wonderful job in this remake of the 1951 classic about an unpopular teacher( Albert Finney) who realizes his life has been a failure after being forced into early retirement because of a heart condition and his relationship with his 20 year younger unfaithful wife(played by the beautiful Greta Scacchi).Its always a pleasure to see Finney, certainly one of the finest actors alive,and maybe even the best, give a gut wrenching performance as the out of touch teacher forced to face an uncertain future. The excellent supporting cast includes Julian Sands and Matthew Modine. A very intelligent, well made movie recommended for all serious film buffs

The cast of the recently updated "The Browning Version" based on a play by the late Sir Terence Rattigan includes Albert Finney, Sir Michael Gambon, Greta Scacchi, and American actor, Matthew Modine. The film is first rate in art direction, costumes, and sets. The film's adaptation from the play is loosely based. Albert Finney deserved an Oscar nomination for playing Andrew Crocker Foster, a retiring Classics instructor at a private boys' school in England. His wife, Laura, is unhappy and carrying on with Modine's character, a science instructor. The scenes with Finney and the boy playing Taplow are unforgettable and probably the finest. This film is a quiet gem and highly underrated. It should be considered a classic because it's well done without over-doing it with theatrics. The film's subtle and goes by pretty fast as well.

This is not, perhaps, the most moving or emotional film you are likely to see. However it is my opinion that The Browning Version displays some of the finest acting ever to be seen by Albert Finney and his supporting cast. The story itself is very well written and sets an example for other British films to follow. So if you are fed up with action packed, no-brainer movies and would like something to sit back, watch and enjoy then The Browning Version is the film you need.

I don't think I have the gift of words to write something that makes brilliant sense. Some movies are good, some movies aren't. This movie is just a superb thing. Everything is done with class. The acting is fine and subtle and the scene where the old teacher gets the book and he starts crying is magnificent. The soundtrack satisfies all my needs with it's romantic melodies and perfect timing. This movie is a must-see.

It is a lousy remake of what was a superb original film.

Certain films have a time and place and this one belongs in a post war grammar/private school and not in a current comprehensive school.

The older British grammar schools had good and bad qualities but there was a general aspiration to Greatness. During the 1960s the left wing labour government destroyed anything that was good in British education and replaced it with bland "comprehensiveness". Last year (2004) they apologised and admitted the mistake – a bit late for the unfortunate pupils of the 60s and 70s who were stuck in their dreadful system.

The remake is just like the school it is set in, bland and soulless – the ideal training ground for future telephone sanitisers.

This was an unexpected jewel of a movie. If you like movies such as "Remains of the Day," you will enjoy this one. Against the backdrop of a traditional boys school in the English countryside, a teacher who is being forced out examines his life. This movie is well-done across the board--the rich if spare script (perfect), the cinematography, a well-integrated score, all perfectly paced. This movie and the characters in it have layers. The acting by Albert Finney and Greta Sacchi is masterful (Michael Gabon is good, too). All that, and it has an honest ending. This movie had my rapt attention from the opening scene, and I am certain to watch it again.

The performance by Albert Finney is a beautiful and powerful one of inner emotion, misunderstanding and unapreciation. On a simply level it makes you more reflective and retrospective of your school days and those who nurtured us, but on a deeper level it brings, in many different examples, you a deeper understanding of the turmoil people go through, from a miss understood teacher who`s sharp exterior hides a broken heart, to the troubles of a young boy who feels for this man, and has domestic troubles of his own. Not a unique film as comparisons of varying strengths can be made to films such as `Goodbye Mr Chips` and `Dead Poets Society`, but still an amazingly powerful and emotive film.

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".

It has taken me 20 years to come across this movie, what can i say.. The wait was worth while! What a performance by Finney, In the year of Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption i can only imagine these were the reasons this movie never received more awards. The story is simplistic and flows along nicely, as you root for Finney to wake up from the ridicule from his wife (Scacchi) and students whom have named him The Hitler of The Fifth Grade. A headmaster (Gambon) brilliant as ever, takes liberty's with his pension and roll as grandmaster, after 20 years of loyal, although sometimes disconnected service, Finnay slowly but surely starts to realise that his presence will not be missed nor noticed! Will we now see see his Human side? Yes which will break a statue to tears. I cannot stress enough how brilliant Finnay was! No special effects or backward twists here. Just good old fashioned brilliant performances, beautiful backdrops and happy endings.

I got this out one wet Sunday afternoon hoping for an inspirational school drama along the lines of "To sir with love" or "Dead poets society"-- something to moisten my eyes and make me think anything was possible. Boy was I wrong -- this muddling drama, which covers the last days of an old masters career at an English public school, was depressing from beginning to end. As each element of the masters tragic life was revealed to me, I kept wondering when the turn-around point would be. Surely this entire movie was not just going to be the telling of the sad life of an uninteresting man and an ineffective teacher -- surely there would be some rising climax to contrast the woe. But no! For the final speech scene which I hung on for, the master turned out the most embarrassing self pitying display I have ever seen on film -- something like my grandfather when he's had too many drinks at Christmas. Of course, the teachers and students dutifully applauded, shouted and stomped (to indicate to the viewer that this was indeed the climax) but I was just thought he was an old fool. There were admittedly some nice insights into human behavior and relationships and some good English upper-class mocking (tea and cricket chaps!) but the other characters never seemed to develop as if to save room for the central story. Unfortunately, the sad old teacher didn't developed beyond self-pity throughout the entire movie, leaving me with the definite impression that he "..got what he deserved, no more and certainly no less".

Albert Finney masterclass. I first saw this at the Birmingham film festival in 1995 at uni. This Browning Version .. LA Confidential .. Pulp Fiction and Dazed and Confused were released in the same year. But I only return to this film.

If you dont cry you are already dead .