Jude (film)

Jude
Original Poster
Directed by	Michael Winterbottom
Produced by	Andrew Eaton
Screenplay by	Hossein Amini
Based on	Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Starring	Christopher Eccleston Kate Winslet Liam Cunningham Rachel Griffiths
Music by	Adrian Johnston
Cinematography	Eduardo Serra
Editing by	Trevor Waite
Distributed by	Universal Pictures PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
Release date(s)	October 4, 1996 (UK) October 18, 1996 (USA)
Running time	123 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English/Latin
Box office	$409,144

Jude is a 1996 English film, based on the novel Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy and directed by Michael Winterbottom. The screenplay is written by Hossein Amini. The original music score is composed by Adrian Johnston.

The majority of the film was shot in late 1995 in Edinburgh and locations in Country Durham including Durham Cathedral, Durham City, Ushaw College, Blanchland village and Beamish museum.^{[citation needed]}

Plot summary

In the Victorian period, Jude Fawley (Eccleston) is a young man who dreams of a scholarly university education. Circumstances conspire against him, however, forcing him into a job as a stonemason and an unhappy marriage to a country girl, Arabella (Griffiths). He remains true to his dream, however, and months later, after his wife's sudden departure, heads for the city, where he thinks education lies for any man who is willing to work hard. There he encounters his beautiful cousin, Sue Bridehead (Winslet), who shares his intelligence and disdain for convention. Whilst Jude is clearly enraptured by Sue, she instead decides to marry Jude's old school teacher, Phillotson (Cunningham), after Jude tells her he is married to Arabella. Meanwhile, Jude is forced to push aside his university career dreams after a series of rejections based primarily on his lower-class status.

The marriage of Sue and Phillotson is not a success, with Sue refusing to give herself sexually or romantically to her husband. She leaves her husband to join Jude in what turns out to be a rough life, moving from place to place as Jude picks up occasional work as a stonemason. The two however are in love and over the course of years, Sue gives birth to several children, whilst the agnostic and independent Sue refuses to officialize their arrangement via marriage. Eventually a boy named Jude ("Juey") is revealed to have been born by Arabella shortly after she left Jude. The boy, who seems to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, comes to live with Jude, Sue and his half-siblings.

When Sue and Jude are once again forbidden a permanent rental lodging owing to their scandalous unmarried state, Sue explains to Juey that the family cannot stay long at their present lodging because there are too many of them. The next day Sue and Jude return to their lodging to find that Juey has suffocated and killed his half-siblings before committing suicide via hanging. He leaves behind a suicide note explaining his motivation: "Becos we were to menny."

Jude and Sue in particular fall into a deep depression after the deaths of their children. Sue believes their deaths to be the result of God's judgment and punishment for their unholy, unmarried state. She decides to return to Phillotson, whom she finds sexually repugnant, as he is her true husband in the eyes of God.

A year after the death of their children, a sickly Jude and morose-looking Sue meet when they separately visit the tombstones of their deceased children. Jude demands that a guarded Sue tell him whether she still loves him, to which she replies, "You've always known". After a passionate kiss she tearfully walks away from Jude to return to Phillotson. Jude shouts to Sue, "We are man and wife, if ever two people were on this earth!" as she walks away.

Main cast

Actor	Role
Christopher Eccleston	Jude Fawley
Kate Winslet	Sue Bridehead
Liam Cunningham	Phillotson
Rachel Griffiths	Arabella
June Whitfield	Aunt Drusilla
Berwick Kaler	Farmer Troutham
David Tennant	Drunk Undergraduate

External links

• Jude at the Internet Movie Database
• Jude at AllRovi
• Jude at Rotten Tomatoes