The novel by William Makepeace Thackeray was a sermon that used a story line to illustrate the points.
Vanity Fair is taken from the book "Pilgrim's Progress" and is a representation of how the temptations of worldly desires can prevent one from achieving true spiritual communion with God.
Whew! Not a light subject and Thackeray's book was a tiresome, long-winded sermon thinly disguised as a novel. The movie did what it could - if it had been "true" to the novel it would have run 6 hours. A lot of the sting went out of Becky's character in the movie -- in the book she was a heartless, social climber and you grew to despise her, then pity her - then despise her again. In the movie, she is made almost admirable, but the world and what it admires has changed a lot since 1848.
If you like gorgeous costuming, period pieces in general and are reasonably forgiving when it comes to editors that should have made a few more cuts - you'll enjoy this movie for what it is. If you're a huge Thackeray fan, you probably don't own a TV anyway...
Vanity Fair is taken from the book "Pilgrim's Progress" and is a representation of how the temptations of worldly desires can prevent one from achieving true spiritual communion with God.
Whew! Not a light subject and Thackeray's book was a tiresome, long-winded sermon thinly disguised as a novel. The movie did what it could - if it had been "true" to the novel it would have run 6 hours. A lot of the sting went out of Becky's character in the movie -- in the book she was a heartless, social climber and you grew to despise her, then pity her - then despise her again. In the movie, she is made almost admirable, but the world and what it admires has changed a lot since 1848.
If you like gorgeous costuming, period pieces in general and are reasonably forgiving when it comes to editors that should have made a few more cuts - you'll enjoy this movie for what it is. If you're a huge Thackeray fan, you probably don't own a TV anyway...