With reference to the opening scenes, compare David Lean's and Tony Marchant's adaptations of 'Great Expectations' and consider how the directors' choices may affect audience response.

lapses and explaining things that cannot be said in pictures. The book is blown through the pages by a flurry of wind and this sound is repeated throughout the initial scene. The audience then immediately see Pip in silhouette, running towards the graveyard. He enters the churchyard and pulls a plant from in front of his parent's grave. The shot then moves to a creaking tree above the grave. This gives the audience a sense of suspense and fear; they feel as if somebody is watching Pip. Pip runs away from the grave, back towards where he entered the graveyard. Suddenly, he runs directly into Magwitch, and is terrified of him.In the scenery of the David Lean adaptation there are many similarities with the original text; 'the low church wall', the silhouetted gibbet, the 'long, black horizontal line' of the marshes and the tombstone of the parents with the parent's names in the lettering described in the book. However Marchant adapted the scenery and story slightly, inserting a chase through the long grass. In the book there is no mention of arable land, only land 'intersected by dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it'. The chase is probably inserted to add some additional drama and tension to the original story. In the scenery Marchant uses the graveyard, but does not show the parents' tombstone. Both settings have some similarities with the book; in both adaptations the graveyard is a 'bleak place overgrown by nettles' and the area is shown to be 'marsh country' as Dickens describes. This is significant as the story progresses, and later in the book the landscape is described as 'A most beastly place. mud bank, mist, swamp; swamp, mist, and mud bank.'In the scenery, there are many symbolic aspects. Both films show the gallows, which represent death, and criminality. The geese in the Tony Marchant film represent freedom, migration and lack of restrictions. The graveyard setting represents death and mortality. The tombstone is a common device used by Dickens - it appears in 'A Christmas Carol' in which Scrooge sees his own tombstone. The tombstone represents death - the convict could starve to death, the convict might kill Pip.In both films the appearance and character of the convict is very similar, both have shaved heads, and similar faces. Both directors try to make Magwitch look as he is described in the book, 'a man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars.' In both films he has a similar accent, and speaks to Pip in a similar, threatening way. In both cases, the director has attempted to make the audience scared, and give them the experience of sharing Pip's dilemma - should Pip steal the file and the food, or should he disobey the convict, and risk having his 'heart and liver tore out, roasted and ate.'Pip's character is shown in a similar way in each of the films, although his physical appearance differs. He is shown to be mischievous and childlike. However, he is terrified of his sister and the convict. He has a friendly relationship with Joe, and treats him as a father. In return Joe treats him as a son.Joe is also shown to be physically different in each film. The David Lean production portrays him as he is described in the novel, 'a fair man' with 'curls of flaxen hair on each side of his smooth face' and eyes of 'a very undecided blue.' Marchant however, decided to cast an older actor. I feel that this is because Pip's relationship with Joe is similar to modern children's relationships with their grandparents, rather than their parents. Having not viewed the entire Marchant film, I do not know whether there is reference to the deceased parents, but I noticed that the graveyard scene did not include the gravestone of Philip and Georgiana.In both adaptations, Mrs Gargery is portrayed in a similar way. She is very angry and violent, she hates having to look after Pip; she finds him a burden on her life, and her beating of Pip could be regarded as shocking. The David Lean film shows her mainly from the point of view of a bystander, watching her from a distance, rather than experiencing her wrath.. The audience do sympathise with Pip, but due to the figures being in the middle distance, they do not feel involved in her anger. In contrast, the Marchant film uses a huge number of close up shots on her face, making her appear larger, and more dominant, powerful and angry. One of the main differences between the adaptations is the order in which the story is told. Lean uses the chronological linear development used in the novel for the main story, but due to the narration at the very beginning, the entire film could be regarded as a flashback - elderly Pip looking back on his life. In the opening scenes Marchant uses a flashback to show Pip's encounter with the convict. It shows Pip in bed, and then cuts back to the point in which the convict speaks to him. This is used to build up suspense in the audience during the time in which Pip returns home. The audience knows that something has happened in the graveyard, but they do not know exactly what. They are unsure as to whether they will ever find out what has occurred or whether the incident will remain as a mystery. The opening credits in each film are very differently presented. Lean begins his film with the credits, backed with happy, cheerful music. Marchant uses the opening credits sequence to build suspense, by using eerie, unnatural, high-pitched, synthetic background music. The text is imposed over a series of static images of the marshes. The credits are shown between the chase scene and when the section in which Pip returns home. The audience have witnessed the pursuit, and had a brief glance at the face of the convict - they have seen the airborne geese above the marshes, and they want to know what will happen When examining the film, one has to regard the social context in which the film was made. Lean's version was created the year after the Second World War. People would probably need their morale boosted after the six years of conflict, and the film was probably intended to make people feel happier. In the closing stages of the Lean film, Pip meets Estella in Miss Haversham's house. He pulls down the curtain, lighting the room, and shouts at Estella 'look around you … death and decay … you do not belong here … you must get away from this place … come with me into the sunlight.' I believe that this is a metaphor; 'death and decay' is the war and Estella represents the people of Britain. They can 'come out into the sunlight', and leave the war behind them. Lean is reminding the audience that they can forget the war, and go on to lead new lives.Lean also attempts to put across a moral message. When Pip is a child his conscience speaks to him and the audience. As he makes his way downstairs to steal the food there is a voice whispering, "wake up Mrs. Joe, wake up Mrs. Joe, wake up Mrs. Joe." This effect does appear in the original text, 'every crack in every board calling after me "stop thief!" and "Get up Mrs Joe"'. A similar device is that of the talking cows. Lean uses this, but again, Marchant decides not to, preferring a more realistic approach. The cows provide an element of humour in the film, but I feel that in the book they were included mainly to give the audience a glimpse of Pip's conscience and not to provide comedy. This also gives the film a touch of originality. Before the 1940s a large amount of film sound was simple and ill-conceived - the audience saw a car, therefore the audience should hear a car. Consequently, when the audience saw a cow, they were probably expecting to hear cow, not a human voice. Now, however, in an age when talking animals appear in most children's television programs, the modern audiences are not likely to be surprised by the effect.Another aspect to take in consideration is the media for which the productions were originally created. The BBC version was written for the television, bringing the characters into the home. I assume that Lean's film was originally created for the cinema. Lean shows this in many ways. The modern audience can recognize that aspects such as the silhouetted gibbets would have a greater impact when shown on the large screen. Both films are set many decades before the dates they were made, and neither audience had experiences of the period in which the story was set. Marchant's version is an attempt at an accurate historical representation of the Victorian age. I feel that Lean decided to concentrate more on storyline, and the following of Dicken's text rather than being fixated in creating an accurate historical representation of Victorian Britain. Dickens had written from his own first hand experience of the era, so he knew what had happened. The descriptions of the characters in the text are very precise, and Lean has concentrated on creating the individuals that Dickens described. This is probably what the audience would expect. The post-war audience would want to look back on the age of empire in the way that Dickens did, but in the 1990's, a new approach is expected by the increasingly changing audience. Dickens is generally considered as boring and tedious, and the Marchant film attempts to give a fresh, 20th century makeover to one of Britain's most celebrated authors.To conclude, I feel that, considering the circumstances in which it was made, Lean's film was the more successful of the two. In post war Britain there was not a huge amount of money for making films, and there was limited technology available for the production. Materials were expensive and scarce, and could not be easily obtained. The film manages to make the opening sequence terrifying, exciting and tense, without using excessive violence or disturbing images. It manages to portray the novel in a realistic way, and his storyline is truer to the original than the BBC version. Page  of