The Far Pavilions (1984)

Review of Far Pavilions

For those who appreciate British history in India, forbidden romance and swashbuckling conquest; if you could watch a 5 hour movie, then this is for you. You will find diverse characters, sumptuous costumes, fabulous horse flesh and parade dressed elephants in an exotic countryside of castles , palaces and battlefields. It is just possible to suspend disbelief in the elaborateness of the plot though the character of the leading man pales in quality compared to the lead women.

The history buff and romance novelist will regale; others may be daunted. Makes a good two or three night watch. September 30, 2008

The Far pavilions Dvd

I was kind of disappointed by the movie version of book It didnt bring the magic I felt while reading the novel July 31, 2008

Not as good as I remembered

When I first saw this adaptation for TV in the 1980s, I thought it was a fantastic recreation of M M Kaye's epic story of Anjuli and Ash which I had read some years previously. However, having recently reread the book, and followed it up with this DVD, I have to admit that this time round it fell well short of my expectations.

My first gripe is that the story has been changed quite a lot, so that first quarter of the book, dealing with Ash's early life, is covered in the opening credits plus a couple of flashbacks. Additionally, instead of keeping his background quiet, Ash now spouts off about it to virtually everyone he meets, which changes his character somewhat. And thirdly, the book has the Afghan war as the final scene, whereas this film uses the rescue of Anjuli from Bithor. Whilst I understand these changes are probably for the purposes of pace and dramatic effect, for me they spoilt my enjoyment of the film, since the gradual alienation of Ash from the British, Hindu and finally the Moslem communities is not fully explained, and the aftermath of Anjuli's rescue is glossed over as she and Ash ride off into the sunset.

The film is split up into a number of episodes, but after I'd watched the lengthy opening credits for the third time, I began to wish that, before converting it to DVD, it had been edited into a continuous whole. I also felt rather let down by the casting of the film. For my money, Ben Cross was just too short, and Amy Irving (Anjuli) looked as if her face had been covered in plaster of Paris, since her expression hardly ever changed. The child actors were also a bit wooden. However, the Indian cast were mostly fantastic, and the scenes of India, and particularly the bridal cortege, were great. The latter, in particular, combined just the right amount of gaudy splendour with noise and chaos.

Overall I felt this wasn't a terrible adaptation of the book, just not as good as I remembered, though my view of it probably suffered because I had read the book again so recently.
July 17, 2008

The Far Pavillions

I had a VHS copy of this movie which quickly got stretched out (even though the movie was split into two tapes). I'm very happy with this DVD. The quality is very good. There are a couple of blips, but nothing to complain about. It's a Great Movie!!! June 7, 2008

The Far Pavilions

Was thrilled to find this now on DVD. It is a wonderful story, set in a beautiful country and the usual excellent service from Amazon May 8, 2008

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