Fridays with the Foundling
You didn’t think I was done, did you?

Tom Jones

Tom Jones

Director’s Cut, 121 min.
1989 (Theatrical Release 1963)

Heroes, whatever high ideas we may have of them, are mortal and not divine. We are all as God made us, and many of us much worse.

The film adaptation of Tom Jones (Oscar winner for Best Picture), directed by Tony Richardson (who won Best Director) and written by John Osborne (Best Adapted Screenplay) was my first introduction to Fielding’s work.

As adaptations go, it’s okay. Osborne and Richardson, took all the essential moments from the novel and discarded the rest. Then they compressed the moments they took, excised some characters (Nightingale and all of Mrs. Miller’s family, for example). Then they played up the humor in every scene as much as they could (editing and the score helped with that).

There are a lot of little things about this that I love–characters–most notably Tom and Mrs. Waters–will give the camera knowing looks to play up a joke. Think John Krasinski in The Office or Adam Scott in Parks and Recreation. Finney has some great physical comedy, but perhaps mugs a bit too much.

Of course, you can’t talk about the movie without taking about thatscene. After Tom saves Mrs. Waters, they share a meal. It’s one of those scenes that you may have watched without ever having seen the movie. It’s sensual, it’s hilarious, it’s a little disturbing. It’s a great cinematic moment.

It’s odd that when Director’s Cuts are synonymous with lengthening the film (especially watching this a few weeks after Snyder’s jumbo-sized Justice League is released), this Director’s cut trimmed seven minutes. Yet, there’s still a lot of fat that could be cut–there are a lot of crowd scenes that are just not necessary (there’s a hunting scene, in particular, that goes on for 4-5x as long as it needs to).

This isn’t anywhere near as good as the novel–it couldn’t be. But it’s a fun, heightened, take on the story with some great performances (and a few “meh” ones, too).