The Columnist Manifesto

On Thanksgiving day, our dinner guest, Warren, brought the BBC Pride and Prejudice -- the one where Jane Austen-o-files drool over the (in my view, questionable) charms of Colin Firth, an actor whose humorlessness plays very well in the role of Darcy.

I'm thinking we should make this our Thanskgiving tradition. If I'm not mistaken, it was on or around Thanksgiving that The Wizard of Oz was annually aired, back in the pre-video days in which children who wanted to watch their favorite movie over, and over, and over simply had to wait until the next time it was broadcast by the TV networks. The problem with this version of Pride and Prejudice is its 5 hour running time. But I have no problem watching that much video while the turkey is cooking and then later after eating my way into a stupor.

The BBC P & P is widely and rightly acclaimed as a terrific screen adaptation (in contrast to the current Keira Knightley version, which I hear totally sucks), and it bears up under repeated viewings. I always get something new or different on each successive watching.

For instance, this time it finally occurred to me that the paterfamilias Mr. Bennett is, despite Lizzie's affection for him, something of an asshole. As irritating as Mrs. Bennett is, she is quite right that her daughters need to be married to avoid falling into economically marginal lives, and her constant worry is to provide for them -- while all Mr. Bennett does is to act above it all, putting his wife down with witty barbs while virtually ignoring his responsibility to provide for his children.

This year's viewing was particularly enhanced by my frequent hitting the pause button and grilling Warren -- a font of information about the social history of Regency England -- for illuminating background. You too would get a lot out of watching Jane Austen movies with Warren -- too bad you don't know her real name.