Paa the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

I'm reading a memoir about how much the novel "Middlemarch" by George Eliot meant to her.  That reminded me I have a BBC version of the novel at around five hours.  I set it out to see again at some point, but it's daunting.  However, there are two of these classic BBC films of great novels that I adore enough to see piecemeal again and again.  "Our Mutual Friend" is amazing.  It's my favorite novel by Dickens and so profound and prophetic while being filled with romance, tragedy and bizarre characters that somehow become endearing and real to us.  The other is Dickens' also, "Little Dorritt".  Anchored by great actors set free by the vast amount of time to tell the story, both of these films are worth renting and doing a marathon.  I almost bet you will hang in there until three am if need be to see them through.  I actually first saw both in a movie theater, where you could see half the opus and the come back the next day for the rest.  It takes dedication, for sure, but I am devoted to Charles Dickens, who, to my mind is the greatest English novelist.  I am partial to his class consciousness, his ability to bring the poor folk into sharp and sympathetic focus, and his understanding of the human heart, both the dark and light parts.  He understands fathers and sons, fathers and daughters and the complexity of being in a situation that feels wrong for you, and yet you can see no way to get out of it.  "Our Mutual Friend" is about money, and how it corrupts and twists good people and bad.  The economic transformation that Dickens witnessed during the industrial revolution was a cause for alarm, and his understanding of the havoc it would wreck on the already poor, children, families and the environment predicted what we now live with daily.  "Little Dorritt" is about the cost of industry on the people who suffer to make it function smoothly, and with little obvious cost to the middle class, as they are able to ignore the suffering of their fellow citizens.  These stories are epic, and the viewer cannot see them without having a changed world view.  The BBC has honored Dickens and his passionate avocation of the rights of all men by creating such lovely, funny, delightful but truthful visions of the "modern" world.