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DVD The Flame Trees of Thika
Based on the beloved autobiographical novel by Elspeth Huxley, BBC miniseries The Flame Trees of Thika brings an eventful childhood in Eastern Africa to vivid life. In 1913, 11-year-old Elspeth Grant (Holly Aird) traveled with her mother, Tilly (Hayley Mills), from England to Kenya to help build a coffee plantation. (Born in 1907, Huxley was actually six at the time.) Her father, Robin (David Robb), who had preceded them, was waiting to greet his family in the arid town of Thika. Also waiting for them were lions, elephants, giraffes, and countless other creatures (the 18-week production was filmed on location in Kenya).
Directed by Roy Ward Baker (A Night To Remember) and written by John Hawkesworth (Upstairs, Downstairs), The Flame Trees of Thika isn't just about one girl, or one family, adrift in an occasionally hostile foreign land, but also about the dangers of colonialism. The Grants, their neighbors, the Palmers (Nicholas Jones and Sharon Maughan), and most of the other Europeans in Thika feel certain they're bringing culture to the uncivilized, without realizing what they're destroying in the process. Ian Crawford (Ben Cross from Chariots of Fire), is one possible exception to the rule, but he brings another kind of danger in his pursuit of Mrs. Palmer.
Since their actions are seen through the eyes of a child, The Flame Trees of Thika is never preachy, but the meddling of these adults--however well intentioned--in the affairs of the Masai, the Kikuyu, and other locals frequently creates tension. As Tilly notes, "It's like two whole separate circles revolving around each other--their world and ours--and only just touching occasionally." What began as Elspeth's coming-of-age story, becomes one for her parents, as well, in this sensitive and engaging series. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
This is wonderful storytelling on screen. Hayley Mills looks great and her performance is worth watching since it's simpy marvelous. I wish I could see more of her adult films since she is a wonderfull actress. It makes me wonder what has become of her movie career?
This is a must for all that enjoy watching a good story unfold. Enchanting!
A great story!!
Based on an autobiographical novel by Elspeth Huxley, this 1981 film tells the story of the Grant family - little Elspeth (Holly Aird) and her parents, Robin (David Robb) and Tilly (Hayley Mills) - after they arrive in Kenya to start a coffee plantation. The episodic production begins when a lion greets the horse-drawn carriage transporting Tilly and Elspeth to the site of the plantation. Tilly stares the lion down with the help of a poised shotgun, demonstrating her resolve to make a go of it in the rugged new land. After the Grants construct a home with the help of Kikuyu natives, they hold a housewarming attended by neighbors Hereward (Nicholas Jones) and Lettice Palmer (Sharon Maughan), fellow Brits who have also settled in Kenya. Meanwhile, 11-year-old Elspeth revels in the land, the wildlife, and her new Kenyan friends. While her parents are away, Elspeth stays with Mrs. Nimmo (Carol MacReady), a Scotswoman who corrects the little girl's manners and makes her dress formally for dinner. During the day, Elspeth travels back and forth to her home on a pony to feed her pet deer and pet chameleons. On one trip, she meets and makes friends with Englishman Ian Crawfurd (Ben Cross), a newcomer. After her parents return and host the Palmers and Crawfurd at a get-together, Crawfurd and Lettice Palmer, who is bored with her husband, Hereward, and Africa, fall in love and begin an affair. A leopard carries off a dog Lettice cherishes, and everyone joins in a hunt for the animal, including wily Boer huntsman Mr. Roos (William Morgan Sheppard). On the hunt, Lettice and Ian Crawfurd, whose affair has become obvious to all, provoke Hereward. Ian and Hereward brawl. A native whom Hereward insults with a racist remark stabs Hereward, but he survives. When the first World War begins, Robin and Ian both do service. Will they come back? That is the question that gnaws at Elspeth and her mom - and Lettice - while life goes on at Thika
Menacing leopards, racism, war, and the whims of nature vie for attention with a charming little girl in this six-hour production chronicling the fortunes of a British family in East Africa in the early 20th century. Time and again, it is the little girl - a dimpled tyke with a curious mind - who wins the viewer's favor. Her name is Holly Aird, an actress with a rare ability to communicate childhood in all of its innocent wonder. She portrays Elspeth Grant, an 11-year-old whose parents, Robin and Tilly, forsake an easy tea-and-crumpets life in England to coax a coffee crop from scrub land in the vast, open reaches of Kenya. The Grants lead an idyllic life, full of the romance and adventure of untamed Africa. But the film does not ignore the hard realities of everyday life: the racism of white overlords, the infidelity of a bored neighbor woman, and the slaughter of wildlife by trophy hunters. In her role as Elspeth, young Aird sets an example for the adults, making friends with shy blacks, oddball whites, a spindly deer, and two chameleons. She develops a special rapport with British hunter Ian Crawfurd (Ben Cross) and wins over priggish Scotswoman Mrs. Nimmo ( Carol MacReady) and gruff Boer Mr. Roos (William Morgan Sheppard). Hayley Mills, herself a winsome child actor in earlier days, plays Elspeth's mom, the neighborhood's nurse, and everybody's shoulder to cry on. Her well-starched British manners suffer a wrinkle or two as she adjusts to African life, but she maintains her good humor throughout. So, too, does David Robb as Elspeth's father, who does not cower before foul weather, arid land, and war. Lending authenticity to the film are native East Africans recruited to play the black Kenyans.
This is a truly great story and is one I remember so well seeing on PBS back in 1981. its so great that this is on DVD!!!
The first two episodes of this BBC miniseries only hint at the delights to come. A lawsuit aimed at church reform in the town of Barchester forces a decent middle-aged clergyman (the august Donald Pleasence, best known in the U.S. for the Halloween movies) into a moral crisis and a conflict with his son-in-law, a pompous archdeacon (Nigel Hawthorne, The Madness of King George). The gracefully written and acted narrative shows glimpses of dry wit--but in episode 3, the arrival of a new bishop (Clive Swift, Keeping Up Appearances), his imperious wife (Geraldine McEwan, The Magdalene Sisters), and his devious chaplain (Alan Rickman, Truly Madly Deeply, the Harry Potter movies) launches The Barchester Chronicles into a satirical power... More Info about this DVD Director(s): David Giles (III) DVD Release Date: Released the 25 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The BBC has raised the mini-series to an astonishing creative peak. A prime example is the 1994 production of Middlemarch, based on the classic novel by George Eliot, which juxtaposes morals and money, grand ambitions with petty jealousies, and pursuits of the mind with bodily needs. A handsome young doctor named Lydgate (Douglas Hodge, Vanity Fair) comes to the provincial town of Middlemarch to start a new hospital; a headstrong young woman named Dorothea (Juliet Aubrey, The Mayor of Casterbridge) yearns to contribute to the greater good of the world. These idealists enter into marriages that derail all their intentions and lead them into lives they never imagined. The network of characters in this six-episode program, ranging up and down the societal ladder, create... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Anthony Page DVD Release Date: Released the 19 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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"Wherever we are, that will always be the center of things." So professor Guy Pringle reassures his new wife, Harriet. Unfortunately, where they are is Bucharest in 1939, with the Nazis gathering on the border, and fascism casting longer, darker shadows. Thus begins this epic 1987 miniseries based on Olivia Manning's Balkan and Levant trilogies that was originally broadcast in the United States on Masterpiece Theatre. For most Americans, it was an auspicious first look at England's glamorous former First Thespian couple, Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, who, as one character notes of Harriet, "lightens the darkness." Fortunes of War suggests what Casablanca might have been like had it followed Victor and Ilsa instead of Rick, who famously didn't want... More Info about this DVD Director(s): James Cellan Jones DVD Release Date: Released the 17 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Dear Amazon - I'd be happy to review this product, however BOTH copies I ordered were corrupted and unwatchable. Because I was traveling a lot, I wasn't able to return them to you in time. However, I just want you to know that you may have a bad batch of this DVD. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Martyn Friend DVD Release Date: Released the 28 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The two disk set is as good as it gets. Too bad it did not go on
to cover the later years. The production is among the best I have seen. There is nothing that Edward Fox wore that I would reject.
10 second scences required different wardrobe. I know Edward was a careful and distinguished dresser , but James Fox oudoes him on all counts. The sets and dress were equal to the story More Info about this DVD Director(s): Waris Hussein DVD Release Date: Released the 22 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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