Enthusiasts of English period pieces should seek out the BBC's adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge, a dark and moving tale set in 19th century rural England.
Ever since I visited the British Isles in 1998 I have been a sucker for English drama, especially period pieces and their “Mystery” programs, with “Foyle’s War” being my favorite. I think it is fair to say that my first-hand acquaintance with the people and their lovely evergreen island turned me into an Anglophile. In the last two weeks I have seen three English dramas serialized for TV, two on the BBC network, the other on ITV, the Independent Channel. Two were entertaining productions of two of the best known D.H. Lawrence novels, "Sons and Lovers" and "Lady Chatterley's Lover." The third was Thomas Hardy’s "The Mayor of Casterbridge," which was shown on A&E in 2003 and came out on DVD the same year. Even though I am a great admirer of Lawrence, "The Mayor of Casterbridge” had more impact on me and moved me to tears. Anyone who shares my enthusiasm for English period pieces should keep their eyes peeled for it on the shelves of the Bookmans stores. It’s very fine and I want to devote some attention to it, and to the actor who had the lead as Michael Henchard. His name is Ciarán Hinds.
The sum and substance of Hardy’s novel was the character of Michael Henchard, the itinerate farmer who, in a rags to riches fashion, becomes the Mayor of Casterbridge in Wessex County in southeast England, near the coast. The time is around 1850. The town and County are inventions of Hardy’s fictitious locations similar to the William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippi. Hardy’s original title for the tale was “Man of Character.” Virtually everything rotates around the character, decisions, and actions of Henchard. One particular flaw in the character of the man haunted him unto death. When he and his wife Susan, with a baby girl in her arms, arrive on the outskirts of Casterbridge on foot from parts unknown, they stop at a County Fair for some refreshment before heading into town. He eats a local dish called furmity, which was often spiked with rum. Furmity was a kind of corn mush. When inebriated by too much rum, he quarrels with Susan and, in a fit of pique, offers her for sale for five guineas to a kind sailor who takes him up on it. The next day, after he comes to his senses and realizes what a terrible thing he has done, he goes into a church in Casterbridge and swears on a large bible that he will stay away from strong drink for 19 years, when he would hit forty years of age. He buries this contemptible act deep in his mind, but it is never forgotten. The ‘Furmity Woman,’ an old hag with bad teeth, doesn’t forget what happened either and plays a role in his downfall 20 years later. Despite her uglified appearance, I recognized the actress who played the old hag right away; it is Jean Marsh of “Upstairs Downstairs” fame.
The story then leaps ahead 20 years. Henchard not only manages to keep his vow about strong liquor, he becomes a man of wealth and someone to be reckoned with in the social strata of the town. He is now a corn-dealer, corn being the main crop in the region, which is agrarian in practice and lifestyle; the life and people Hardy, who was definitely a country mouse, knew so well. Eventually, he is chosen Mayor and does a reasonable job in that capacity. He is admired and feared by many, and envied by other successful men in town. But then fate intervenes and upsets his apple cart: Susan returns to town with Elizabeth-Jane, now a young woman, because the kind sailor has been reported lost at sea and she doesn't know what else to do but ask Henchard for help. Naturally, he feels honor-bound to aid her, indeed, when he learns she is a widow, he offers to marry her, again to appease his conscience and to atone for the past misdeed. And they beome, once again, man and wife. But their reuniting is just the beginning of his seemingly foreordained downfall, as Fate and the unforgivingness of the universe won’t let this reparation stand as the thing that will remove the stain of the ‘original sin.’ The remainder of the story is a twisted string of incidents and strange coincidences that greases the slope on which Henchard descends to utter wretchedness and a heartbreaking conclusion. How miserable he feels and how undeserving he is of compassion from anyone is summed up in a will he writes shortly before his death, a few lines that are unbelievably somber and sad. Hardy’s profound pessimism is laid on thick and this ‘Man of Character’ is tripped up by his pride time and time again. Clearly he is his own worst enemy. The final line in the novel refers to happiness as a brief episode in a general drama of pain. In Henchard’s case, the pain is rooted in the shame that ends only through death and oblivion.
The role of Henchard is demanding and Ciarán Hinds is equal to the task. He was born in Northern Ireland, the son of a doctor and a mother who was an amateur actress, and originally schooled in theater in Ireland, after giving up a career in Law. His credits include a lot of work in British television, but in recent years he has done considerable work in American films, and to my mind, always stands out as an interesting actor. He is now in his early fifties. (He hardly passed as twenty-one at the start of “The Mayor of Casterbridge,” but the awkwardness over that fact is soon forgotten.) Some of you will recognize him as the actor who plays Julius Caesar in the First Season of “Rome.” In “Road to Perdition,” Daniel Craig - the new James Bond - murders him, while in Spielberg’s “Munich” he is done in by a femme fatale who specializes in killing foreign agents. He is also in “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” and “Phantom of the Opera.” His latest movie is “Amazing Grace” (2007), recently in Tucson for several weeks. He received the Irish equivalent to an Oscar for his performance as Henchard. He is perfect for the role of the complex figure of Henchard as he is a man of natural dignity, noble bearing, and with very intense eyes that can stare a hole through you. On screen he is always a riveting figure.
There is a 1978 version of the novel that stars Alan Bates, which was written by the great Dennis Potter, the playwright who penned “The Singing Detective.” I’ll have to see the Potter/Bates version too, and compare the two. It is considerably longer, as the A&E film did eliminate several important vignettes. And as a side note, the movie called “The Claim,” directed by Michael Winterbottom, an English Director, which came out in 2000, is a frontier western set in the American West that uses the same Hardy novel as the basis for its story. I have seen it twice and consider it a sleeper film of that year, a film that deserved more attention than it received at the time. Anyone interested in a variation on the theme might check it out.
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