MovieChat Forums > The Wings of the Dove (1998) Discussion > The British are Evil! (spoilers)

The British are Evil! (spoilers)

posted 15 years ago by britwrit
7 replies | jump to latest

First of all, I'm an American who's lived in London for the last 15 years or so. I love the place and I love England. Further, I've read a lot of Henry James and thought that this film was a great adaption of a brilliant book (which I'm in the process of reading for the third time.)

And let me also acknowledge that James lived in England for forty years, over half his life, and became a British subject months before his death in 1915, to show his loyalty to his adopted country in its time of crisis.

That being said, boy, don't the British come off as nasty, evil pieces of work here? While Kate is somewhat sympathetic, her plot is monstrous. Densher is a wishy-washy tool, and everyone else is too coarse to be believed. In the meanwhile, Milly is practically a saint, one of a long line of James heros and heroines (Christopher Newman, Isabella Archer, Daisy Miller, etc. etc.)who come to Europe to get slapped around by the devious foreigners.

I don't know. Is my reaction too extreme or did anyone else feel this way as well?

[–] Concise_Statement 15 years ago

Nah, that's way too harsh for my taste. I think Roger Ebert, with whom I've disagree a lot, actually gives a much fairer assessment of the predicament.

http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/atm/reviews.html?sec=6&amp ;subsec=wings+of+the+dove
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19971114/REV IEWS/711140306/1023

"And no regrets?"

[–] SteveH2002 12 years ago

Read the Ebert review, but I tend to agree with you. However much gloss you try to put over things Kate and Merton come off as a couple of grifters zeroing in on the (seemingly) innocent, dying Millie's fortune.

In fact, I'll go harsher and say that the Brits in this movie are both pimping out themselves and pimping out each other to get their hands on Millie's fortune. Strip away the mannered conversations and polite behavior and you're left with something that resembles a pack of jackals circling a dying fawn.

[–] ShannonTriumphant 12 years ago

This sort of scheming is not at all particular to the British! Just look at Edith Wharton's House of Mirth, in which the vicious, envious Bertha Dorset schemes to ruin Lily Bart so that she can stop her from marrying the man she's been sleeping with, Lawrence Selden, and keep having other lovers and not lose her social standing!

Look at The Age of Innocence!! You see Isabelle Archer as a heroine? How so? Newland Archer is far worse than Merton! He blandly gets engaged to May Welland, a scheming, boring, bland socialite, then falls for her married cousin. He moons over Ellen Olenska to the point where May asks if he wants out of the engagement! Too gutless to say "YES!" he rushes into the marriage and immediately regrets it, asking Ellen to be his mistress. She is heartbroken and insulted, and initially turns him down. Then, deciding to "come to him once" before leaving, May lies and tells Ellen she is pregnant, ruining the one chance at happiness she might have with Newland. He's weak, May is scheming and Ellen suffers.

Millie is just as bad. She's a wispy, falsely nice phony, who manipulates Merton into thinking Kate is bad and poisons his love for Kate by leaving him her money.
And they are ALL AMERICANS! So...I wouldn't point the finger at any other nationality when it comes to nastiness in love affairs!

She deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die.

[–] rincool 11 years ago

...Kate is bad. And I think the original poster is talking about the British in this film specifically.

[–] BittanyG 10 years ago

It's really your heroes and heroines who are the foreigners though right? Not the Brits...

[–] IMDb-Rot_in_Hell 10 years ago

If you really love England, then you are literally an idiot.

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

Unlike some films, I dont see any form of evil that is specifically British. People of every nation and ethnicity is prone to greed, and will do awful things to get their hands on large amounts of money, even that.

There are other films that are much more anti-British, where the shots aimed at British culture hits home. "the Bridge over the River Kwai" and " The Remains of the Day" come to mind, I'm sure there are others. This one, not so much.