Inspired by a recent reblog from you - do you have any particular Ivanhoe adaptation that you would recommend? Thank you 😊
Hi Anon! I do, but I feel I should preface this recommendation by saying that part of what makes Ivanhoe extremely hard to adapt is that this delightful novel is:
a formative example of historical fiction as a genre
an oddly vivid look at a very specific set of debates about what Englishness was in 1819, and had been in the past, and should be in the future
a romantic adventure story
It is all these things in a trench-coat. It also contains both a very specific set of 19th-century prejudices about identities and also about the medieval period itself (sigh) and some fascinating interrogation of those prejudices.
Ivanhoe is also completely unhinged, and I say this with deep love for it in my heart.
This (shall we say) tonal variance contributes to the fact that its three major English-language adaptations are:
A Glorious Technicolor extravaganza that is doing a 1930s genre in the '50s with some retro casting choices and also Elizabeth Taylor. Eye-watering. Clunky. Extremely earnest. Felix Aylmer and Robert Taylor were both able to do better work in the slightly earlier Quo Vadis.
A 1980s made-for-TV movie about social tolerance and forbidden love, with absolutely amazing (and I mean that in its full sense) hair and costumes. Anthony Andrews, Olivia Hussey, a young Sam Neill, John Rhys-Davies... a very attractive and charismatic cast.
Perhaps the oddest of the lot, but also the one I would recommend, the Gritty 1990s Miniseriesâ„¢. This one has actually mostly-plausible costumes, and an incredibly stacked cast (this is, in fact, a theme with Ivanhoe) and what it gets profoundly right in a way the other adaptations don't, I think, is that this is high-stakes. It's a romantic adventure story, yes, but also it is a story about choices made by individuals and communities about religion and ethnicity; about law and justice; and not least about identity. Also it dares to ask the question: what if the recent wartime backstory of approximately a third of the male protagonists mattered more? And Christopher Lee is there.
In conclusion: good luck, have fun, come by the inbox to chat about Ivanhoe any time.
