Tom Jones
by John Osborne
Nine out of
10
Tom Jones
has been nominated for no less than ten Academy Awards, out of which it has won
four of the most important ones, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best
Writing
It has also
won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Comedy and Most Promising
Newcomer, for Albert Finney and Best British Film, Best film from Any Source and
Best Screenplay at the BAFTA Awards, all in 1964.
The film is
also included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list:
Albert Finney
is astounding, charming, scintillating in the leading role of Tom Jones, based
on the novel by Henry Fielding.
The actor is
just mesmerizing in his outstanding work – nominated for an impressive five
Oscars! For:
Tom Jones,
Murder on the Orient Express – so superior to the recent, flawed adaptation –
The Dresser – a fantastic film, where Tom Courtney is also fabulous – Under the
Volcano, based on the marvelous novel by Malcolm Lowry, and last but not least –Erin
Brockovich.
Paradoxically,
Albert Finney has been so memorable even when he chose to pass an opportunity:
We learn
from the sensational book Adventures in the Screen Trade, by the recently
deceased legend William Goldman, that Finney has been approached for Lawrence
of Arabia.
That became
the unique chance to launch the career of the Man of La Mancha, the phenomenal
Peter O’Toole
The hero of
Tom Jones is a bastard, although not in the sense used in the present, when so
many are born in single parent families and this has become an insult referring
to the vileness of an individual.
He is born
outside wedlock and that was such a shame on the one who would mostly be
destined to live in squalor, unless he or she was lucky enough to have a royalty
as one of the parents or a noble, rich one.
The Squire
Allworthy is…worthy and allows the infant to be raised in his house, albeit at
one point he sends the “sinful” young man packing, away from his mansion and
into a dangerous world.
Tom Jones is
thought to be the son of a servant, Jenny Jones, but his real identity would be
revealed towards the end, when it might help him escape a serious, potentially
tragic predicament.
As a young
man, he is volatile, chasing skirts and eventually involved in a sexual bond
with Molly Seagrim, who would later become pregnant and accuse the protagonist of
ignoring her.
Fortunately,
as he visits her one day, insisting when he is told she is not at home, he enters
her bedroom, where she is very vocal, only to see that she has another lover (maybe
more) that was hiding behind a curtain.
The hero becomes
infatuated with Sophie Western, the woman who was born in a “better” family and
the one that Tom jones saves, when her horse is running wild away from a
hunting party.
There is a
vile character in the narrative, Master Blifil, who wants to marry Sophie and
becomes a vicious enemy of the protagonist, willing to do anything to see him
gone, maybe dead.
Squire Western
is also against Jones, seeing a potential marriage with him as anathema,
especially if he is sent away by Allworthy, which happens and the poor young
man is on the road, without a penny.
Eventually,
Tom would arrive in the city, after adventures in one inn, where the owner
throws his clothes in the street, when he is unable to pay, but he pretends to have
had money, which had been stolen.
This is where
he meets a rich woman who falls for this charming, handsome young man and consummates
her passion, only to retaliate when Tom asks her to marry her, in order to make
his escape.
The lady
would show his message to Sophie, in order to take revenge on the hero who is now
in the most dangerous position of all – he may be executed, under false accusation
of theft.
Tom Jones is
indeed one of the best films that one can see, perhaps in the first 500, not
just the 1,000 must see movies.
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