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Movies / On DVD / Tom Jones
Tom Jones

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Tom Jones (1963)

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Reviews Counted:26

Fresh:21

Rotten:5

Average Rating:7.8/10

Consensus: A frantic, irreverent adaptation of the novel, bolstered by Albert Finney's courageous performance and arresting visuals.

Runtime: 2 hrs 9 mins

Genre: Comedies

Synopsis: Tony Richardson's rousing adaptation of Henry Fielding's classic comic novel stars Albert Finney as the eponymous swordsman. TOM JONES achieved enormous critical and commercial success, benefiting... Tony Richardson's rousing adaptation of Henry Fielding's classic comic novel stars Albert Finney as the eponymous swordsman. TOM JONES achieved enormous critical and commercial success, benefiting from an excellent cast, lively score, and unusually realistic art direction. While the film surely deserves this praise, Richardson initially considered it a failure, and it's likely that he saved the film in the editing room, emphasizing the farcical elements of the story with rapid intercutting, and adding amusingly ironic voice-over narration. The end product is one of the most entertaining costume dramas ever put on celluloid. Tom Jones is raised by Squire Allworthy (George Devine), his mother's (Joyce Redman) aptly named employer. He grows up to be a lively young man, loved by all except Allworthy's legitimate heir--the dour, envious Blifil (David Warner)--to whom Tom's true love Sophie Western (Susannah York) is promised in marriage. Allworthy feels obliged to send Tom away for Blifil's sake, which only briefly dampens Tom's mood. Soon, he's engaging in a famously libidinous eating scene with a woman met en route, carrying on with his ever-entertaining high spirits. An inspired piece of cinematic comedy, TOM JONES is most memorable for Finney's performance, which keeps viewers laughing long after the film's end. [More]

Starring: Albert Finney, Susannah York, Hugh Griffith, Edith Evans

Starring: Albert Finney, Susannah York, Hugh Griffith, Edith Evans, Joan Greenwood, David Warner, Joyce Redman, Diane Cilento, David Tomlinson, Micheal MacLiammoir

Director: Tony Richardson

Director: Tony Richardson
Screenwriter: John Osborne
Producer: Tony Richardson, Michael Balcon
Composer: John Addison

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Sep 28, 1997

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Tom Jones

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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The film is a way-out, walleyed, wonderful exercise in cinema. It is also a social satire written in blood with a broadaxe. It is bawdy as the British were bawdy when a wench had to wear five petticoats to barricade her virtue.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment Comment
02/20/09
TIME Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A classic not just of literary adaptation, but of the last truly adventurous era in British and European filmmaking.

Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | comment Comment
07/08/08
Tim Brayton
Tim Brayton
Antagony & Ecstasy

A lusty historical romp with a cheeky sense of humor and a rollicking energy...

Full Review Source: Turner Classic Movies Online | comment Comment
06/27/08
Sean Axmaker
Sean Axmaker
Turner Classic Movies Online

Irreverent comedy.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
04/01/08
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

If Tom Jones now feels something of a product of its times, it still deserves credit for attempting something new.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
02/20/08
David Parkinson
David Parkinson
Empire Magazine

The ragbag of visual tricks turns a great novel into an entertaining but simple-minded romp.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
01/28/08
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It has sex, Eastmancolor, some prime performers and plenty of action.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
01/28/08
Rich Gold
Rich Gold
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Despite the fitful energy and the beauty of the settings, the ugliness of the mise en scene and the crudity of the editing tend to triumph.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
12/13/06
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Albert Finney's performance can't stop Tom Jones from being a grainy mess.

Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | comment Comment
11/21/06
Wesley Lovell
Wesley Lovell
Oscar Guy

Osborne's courageous hatchet job on Fielding's 1,000 page classic novel and Finney's gutsy performance add up to produce an enjoyable piece of irreverent entertainment.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out

A wonderful adaptation (by playwright John Osborn) of Henry Fielding's famous novel, about the adventures of the amorous illegit son of a servant, splendidly played by the young Albert Finney, who became a household name in America after the picture.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
12/19/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

comment Comment
07/29/05
Chuck O'Leary
Chuck O'Leary
Fantastica Daily

No review available.

comment Comment
06/12/05
Jake Euker
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS)

No review available.

comment Comment
05/11/05
Rob Blackwelder
Rob Blackwelder
SPLICEDWire

No review available.

comment Comment
04/07/05
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat

No review available.

comment Comment
06/25/04
Nell Minow
Nell Minow
Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies

Prepare yourself for what is surely one of the wildest, bawdiest and funniest comedies that a refreshingly agile filmmaker has ever brought to the screen.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/20/03
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
03/27/03
Jeffrey Westhoff
Jeffrey Westhoff
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

A brilliant melding of naturalistic 18th-Century backgrounds with frantic, Keystone Kops-style slapstick and silent film devices like undercranking, titles, wipes, stop-motion photography, etc.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
02/04/03
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

One of the more unusual best picture winners in all the ones that have won, it's shocking and bawdy, even by today's standards, and for that reason it remains a classic.

Full Review Source: Zap2it.com | comment Comment
01/25/03
Michael Szymanski
Michael Szymanski
Zap2it.com
 
 
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