Mansfield Park movie - a critique

I just finished reading Jane Austin's Mansfield Park and as soon as I was done I watched the movie. Which is exactly the opposite of what I usually do. Usually because I am a relatively slow reader, I watch a movie to determine if I want to read the book. Not surprisingly more often than not, I like movies much better than there book counterparts. But in this instance, I read the book first and I have to tell you, the book is MUCH BETTER than the movie. I am warning you now, this is a spoiler! If you have not read Mansfield Park, and you want to - don't read the rest of this post!

There. I've warned you. I'll go on.

Here's my big beef with the movie vs. the book. The movie is completely wrong. But first, a quick explanation of important events in book - Fanny Price comes to live with Bertram family, is silently in love their son Edmund all along, but Edmund falls for Mary Crawford, whose brother Henry falls for Fanny only after leading Edmund sisters Maria and Julia along. In the end Edmund ends up with Fanny and they live happily ever after as we them expected to.

This happens in the movie too, but they changed so many things I couldn't stand to watch it. First, they portray Edmund as liking Fanny throughout the movie, but feeling that propriety should have him marry Mary Crawford. In the book, Edmund never cares for Fanny in that way. He loves her as a sister but shows no sign of affection further than that until the last 8 pages. So to indicate that he has been loving her all along is completely wrong. In fact, Fanny has no reason to believe that he will ever love her, even though in the movie she does because he does all of these things to indicate that he does love her.

Second, Henry Crawford doesn't get due justice. Yes in the end, Henry goes back to Maria and Maria commits adultery against the husband she doesn't love and that is bad, etc. But that is the last 20+ pages. For the majority of the book, you really start to like Henry. He tries so hard to get Fanny to love him. He ensures her brother's promotion in the army. He visits her in Portsmouth (more than Edmund ever does). And devotes all of his resources to her. She flat out rejects him several times over the course of about a year. It is at this point, that he finally gives up and finds solace in Maria's arms. I think of Henry as more of a victim than as the bad guy he is portrayed to be in the movie. Of course, he shouldn't have hooked up with Maria, that is inexcusable, but still he wasn't totally evil.

Third, the movie made Sir Thomas (Edmund's father) into the bad guy and he wasn't! The movie brought in this slave element that doesn't exist in the book. It alleged that Sir Thomas owned slaves in Antigua that were being raped and beat regularly by their white overlords, including Sir Thomas himself. This simply was not in the book. There is no absolutely no mention of slavery. Whoever wrote the movie version was on some sort of agenda. It doesn't do anything to the movie. They also make him mean and cruel to Fanny which he never was. Of course, he criticized Fanny for rejecting Henry, but that makes sense. He had no idea Fanny loved Edmund and he saw the wealth and position of Henry as a desirable match for the penniless Fanny. Anyone of that time period would do the same. I was really offended that Sir Thomas became a sort of villain in the movie when he really was a likeable character in the book.

I think that's all I have to complain about for right now. Suffice to say, I am more than upset about the movie portrayal. I may never read a book before watching the movie again. It makes me too upset.