Product Description

As the daughter of a middle-class parson Margaret Hale has enjoyed a privileged upbringing in rural southern England. When her father uproots the family to take work in the northern mill town of Milton Margaret is shocked by the dirt the noise and the gruffness of the people but she reserves her highest contempt for the charismatic mill-owner John Thornton.Running Time: 233 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 794051245328

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #724 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2005-11-15
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 233 minutes

Amazon.com
North & South is a splendid, four-hour adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's 19th century novel about an unlikely, and somewhat star-crossed, love between a middle-class young woman from England's cultivated south and an intemperate if misunderstood industrialist in a hardscrabble, northern city. Daniela Denby-Ashe plays Margaret Hale, forthright and strong-willed daughter of a former vicar (Tim Pigott-Smith) who relocates his family from a pastoral village outside London to unforgiving, largely illiterate Milton, a factory town where John Thornton (Richard Armitage) and his mother (Sinead Cusack), survivors of poverty, rule their cotton mill with an iron hand. Thornton befriends Margaret's father but incurs her wrath for his severity with his workers. What she doesn't notice is Thornton's core sense of responsibility for his employees' welfare. On the other hand, he misinterprets some of Margaret's own actions and intentions. Equally stubborn, the two drag out their obvious attraction over many painful months and events.

North & South's two leads are both very good, though Armitage's brooding, penetrating performance may very well be considered a classic one day. There are other wonders in the cast: Cusack and Pigott-Smith are superb, and Brendan Coyle is memorable as a firebrand union organizer who ultimately becomes an ally to a softening Thornton. The miniseries script by Sandy Welch is a persuasive mix of historical context and character study. Brian Percival's direction is full of moments that linger in the imagination, such as the winter-dream look of a busy cotton mill, with thousands of snowy fibers floating in the air. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

If you like Jane Austen you will like this movie
In this day and age a movie like this is rare, except a few Jane Austen movies. This movie is clean but deeply romantic. All about the importance of living an honororable life. This movie has some "Pride and Prejudice" under tones. I recomend this movie to someone who considers themselves a Jane Austen movie fan. It does have a different kind of plot then Austen movies.So do not expect it to be the same- but simaliar. Enjoy!!!!!!!!

Be sure not to miss this compellin love Story
I loved the casting and acting and music (written for the movie) of this British costume drama set in mid-19th cenury England. I have already viewed it 5 or 6 times.

Exquisite. Eloquent. The best period piece ever filmed. Ever.
This series seems like a well-kept secret, and that's a real shame. Hands down, it's the best film series, historical or modern, I've ever seen. The handsome actor John Armitage should have won a boatload of awards for his portrayal of mill owner John Thornton. Such pitch-perfect restraint and righteous indignation -- just as Gaskell wrote him. Some have compared his portrayal of Thornton to Firth's Darcy -- and Firth was good -- but Armitage just burns up the screen. No comparison, so far as I'm concerned. In fact, all the other actors were flawless and perfectly pitched. Kudos to the casting director. All in all, a DVD set you will want to buy, and BBC should rerun -- over and over. This series simply did not get the audience it deserved. Shame on BBC for not promoting it harder.