The Secret Garden (1993) Dvd rip [Eng] : Warner Bros. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive (2024)

This 1993 film is based on the classic fairy tale "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett, a book that Margaret Bowman, one of Ted Bundy's victims, had discovered at age 10, when her grandparents gave her a copy of the book, and she enjoyed reading it, according to a 1999 article published in Tampa Bay:

"She was never called Peggy or Maggie. From first grade on, she insisted on going by Margaret. She was slender and tall. She had her father's light brown eyes and her mother's delicate nose. As a little girl, she would sit in her father's lap and listen to him read 'Peter Rabbit', and if he stopped in midsentence, she would recite the rest from memory. Reading was always a part of her. At age 10, when her grandparents gave her a copy of 'The Secret Garden', she disappeared inside it, wandering its pages over and over." Link to that article: https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1999/11/28/margaret-bowman/

Film critic Roger Ebert said this of the 1993 version of "The Secret Garden":

Likeall great stories for children, The Secret Garden contains powerful truths justbeneath the surface. There is always a level at which the story is tellingchildren about more than just events; it is telling them about the nature oflife. That was the feeling I had when I read Frances Hodgson Burnett's bookmany years ago, and it is a feeling that comes back powerfully while watchingAgnieszka Holland's new film.

Some"children's films" are only for children. Some can be watched by the wholefamily. Others are so good they seem hardly intended for children at all, and"The Secret Garden" falls in that category. It is a work of beauty,poetry and deep mystery, and watching it is like entering for a time into aclosed world where one's destiny may be discovered.

Thefilm tells the story, familiar to generations, of a young girl orphaned inIndia in the early years of this century, and sent home to England to live onthe vast estate of an uncle. Misselthwaite Manor is a gloomy and forbiddingpile in Yorkshire - a construction of stone, wood, metal, secrets and ancientwounds. The heroine, whose name is Mary Lennox (Kate Maberly), arrives from herlong sea journey to be met with a sniff and a stern look from Mrs. Medlock (Maggie Smith), who manages theplace in the absence of the uncle, Lord Archibald Craven (John Lynch). Mary quickly gathersthat this uncle is almost always absent, traveling in far places in an attemptto forget the heartbreaking death of his young bride some years earlier.

Thereis little for Mary to do in the mansion but explore, and soon she finds secretpassageways and even the bedroom of her late aunt - and in the bedroom, a keyto a secret garden. She makes friends with a boy named Dickon (Andrew Knott), whose sister is amaid at Misselthwaite, and together they play in the garden, and he whispersthe manor's great secret: The aunt died in childbirth, but her son, now 9 or 10years old, still lives in the manor, confined to his bed, unable to walk.

Marygoes exploring, and finds the little boy, named Colin (Heydon Prowse). He has lived alife of great sadness, confined to his room, able to see only the sky from thewindows visible from his bed. Mary determines he must see his mother's secretgarden, and she and Dickon wheel him there in an invalid's chair, stealing himout of the house under the very nose of Mrs. Medlock.

Allof this could be told in a simple and insipid story, I am sure, with cute kidssneaking around the corridors. But Holland is alert to the buried meanings ofher story, and she has encouraged her actors to act their age - to be smart,resourceful and articulate.

Theyare so good at their jobs that we stop being aware they are children, and enterinto full identification with their quest.

Moreof the story I must not tell, except to mention in passing the gaunt dignity ofUncle Archibald, played by Lynch with the kind of weary, sensual sadness that Jeremy Irons used to have acorner on.

Bythe end of the film I was surprised by how much I was moved; how much I hadcome to care about the lonely little boy, the orphaned girl, and the gardenthat a dead woman had prepared for them.

Thisis Holland's first American film, backed by Francis Ford Coppola and producedby his longtime associates Fred Fuchs, Fred Roos and Tom Luddy. Holland's earlier workincludes "Europa, Europa," a story of a Jewish boy who is able tosave his life by passing for a Nazi youth brigade member, and "Olivier,Olivier," another case of mysterious identity, about a long-lost son whomay or may not have been found again.

Ifound "Europa, Europa" such an incredible story that I rejected it;what lesson can be learned from the freak survival of one potential victim,while millions died? "Olivier, Olivier" I found a more successfulfilm, although I was mystified by the function of an unexplained supernaturalelement in the story.

In"The Secret Garden" Holland has again made a film about a missingchild, but this time her theme and her telling of it are in complete harmony.It is a beautiful, intelligent film - a fable, a lesson, and an entrancingentertainment. And Roger Deakins' photography elevates the secret garden into aplace of such harmony and beauty that we almost believe it can restore thelives of those who look on it.

Thesummer of 1993 will be remembered as the time when every child in the worldwanted to see "Jurassic Park." The luckyones will see this one, too.

Roger Ebert was the film critic of theChicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won thePulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. The above review was published onrogerebert.com