I’m going to do something horrifically controversial, but that shouldn’t be new to any of you who have been following me for any period of time. I want to talk about the fanbases for the 1995 vs. 2005 Pride and Prejudice adaptations.
I’m not going to debate the merits of the two versions. This is not a scene-by-scene dissertation on the film critique of the pieces. This would be nearly impossible given the different styles, not to mention that the 1995 version is nearly 6 hours long while the 2005 film is just over 2. In fact, I believe that the two versions are actually different genres of visual media. The 1995 BBC mini-series, starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, is a historical docu-drama of the book. The 2005 Joe Wright film adaptation with Keira Knightly and Matthew Macfadyen is a romantic comedy.
For anyone who is also chronically online and plays in the Austenesque space, this has certainly popped up on your feed. There are people out there who love one or the other of these two adaptations, then there are people out there who HATE one of them. Usually, the main argument for hating one of them is that the other is so much better, but there are other arguments that merit mention. I’ve spent a lot of time looking through these types of posts and comments across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Tumblr, and Archive of Our Own, and I’ve compiled the main complaints against both versions, which I’ve listed out below, however, I’m not going to list which complain pertains to which version.
Way too slow.
Dialogue is hard to follow.
Elizabeth’s hair would NEVER look like that.
Darcy is too grumpy.
Col. Fitzwilliam is super awkward.
Main couple has no chemistry.
Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Collins are both too annoying, over the top.
Acting is so stiff it’s difficult to watch.
The clumsy script strips out all of the original wit of Austen’s words.
Jane is less animated than a frozen wax statue.
Totally emotionless.
Too much focus on the men in the story and takes away from Elizabeth’s POV.
Unbelievable.
Mr. Bingley is portrayed as a brainless idiot.
Basically the same acting quality as a high school play.
Can you tell which ones go where? The real answers might surprise you!
So, why am I hating on our favorite thing? Because we hate on each other every day on social media. There’s so many posts I’ve seen where someone posted something about one of these two movies and inevitably one of the FIRST comments is along the lines of what I’ve just listed above. There are whole Facebook groups where one of the RULES is that there will be no 1995 vs. 2005 feuding. One of the other things that I find so fascinating in this argument is that there are no really concrete demographic-based ways to separate people into a 1995 person or a 2005 person. I’ve looked around and while the closest thing to a real divide that I can see is that people over 65 tend to slightly favor 1995 and people under 25 tend to favor 2005, I don’t actually think that it’s a strong enough correlation to make it a useful heuristic. I’ve also talked about this with a few other creatives who make P&P themed merchandise like stickers and mugs, and they also don’t see a strong enough divide or predictive characteristics to ever be able to tell what direct the debate is going to take.
How did we get here?
I’m going to offer my opinion based on my observations. I might be partially right. I’m probably mostly wrong. But that’s the privilege of the pen, I get to write what I want.
These two adaptations of Jane Austen’s most popular and enduring novel stand as stark opposites, with what appear to be diametrically opposed goals in their original creation.
The creators behind the 1995 BBC mini-series spent nearly 10 years developing the script and planning an epic, faithful adaptation. Sue Birtwistle and Andrew Davies wanted to create a limited series that could capture the poetic nature of the story while remaining true to the tone, pacing, and spirit of the novel. The series is often touted as one of the most accurate representations of British regency life, clothing, hair styling, manners, etc., etc., … Nearly every scene in the movie comes directly from the book and very little is left out. Dialogue is often directly from Austen’s own words, which lends a huge lift to the feel of authenticity. Many students over the last 30ish years have said that watching the mini-series was good enough to get an A on their book report.
When screenwriter Deborah Moggach was tasked with bringing a new audience to Pride and Prejudice in 2005, she said that she wanted to be as faithful to the novel as possible in the time constraints, but also updated to be more in line with films like Romeo + Juliet and Shakespeare in Love. Then the studio tapped Joe Wright to direct whose body of work was far more edgy and observational than traditional book adaptations. He has said that one of his main intentions of the story was to really portray that these young people were experiencing strong emotions for the first time and struggling with how to understand themselves. The film took on more of a breath of its own to give the characters and the audience time to feel these big emotions.
In my opinion, 1995 is the book brought literally to life and 2005 is the visual representation of how it feels to read it.
If you stay with me for a minute and take my premise as right, then it makes sense that some people are in love with one or the other of the adaptations. Some people are going to be drawn to the absolute accuracy and dedication to Austen’s original words. These are the people who can read a 600-page fantasy book and pick out the one typo or where the timeline fudges a little too much. The ones who have a detailed list of book recommendations and the best order to read them. Essentially, the people in this world who keep our whole society on the rails! Editors, project managers, accountants, scientists, quality assurance and compliance officers.
Other people are drawn to the emotional highs and lows of the story, the awkwardness of a socially inept man saying “what excellent boiled potatoes,” or how the whole sky was angry during Darcy’s first proposal. These are the romance readers who finish a book and the next day can’t tell you anything about the plot, but they know it was the most amazing experience. These are VIBES people. Your best friend who is such a good time, but kind of a ditz and can never find her glasses. That one barista making up endless new flavor combinations of off-the-menu coffee specials.
Both of these people are AMAZING and our world is better for having them around to show us the beauty in the smallest and biggest things.
So the next time you come across someone who has a different opinion from you about your favorite book, movie, TV show, or Austen Adaptation, maybe you’ll think about that person just a little differently. And remember that the most important thing is that we’re all in this community together, loving Jane because she is amazing and her stories tell us something true about humanity, love, women, and ourselves.
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