NORTH & SOUTH MOVIE REVIEW

For starters, North & South really isn't a movie, it is divided into four episodes; but oh well!

I like this adaptation of the book written by Elizabeth Gaskell, and I seriously suggest it as something you should look into!




                   

  North & South is the story of Margaret Hale and John Thornton. Margaret, a minister's daughter from the south of England. Mr. Thornton, a factory owner from the north of England. I think they showed very well the contrast of society and culture, and yet the same nationality.

Margaret, her father, and her mother move to the northern town of Milton suddenly. Margaret is shocked by the poverty and apparent lack of propriety in this 'modern' town.

 Her father takes on a pupil, Mr. John Thornton. Now, this was not in the book, but in the BBC drama, Margaret meets Mr. Thornton in the mill, and he is beating his worker for smoking in the cotton mill, which could cause a very bad fire.  Margaret is appalled. 

  Thornton gradually comes out in the story and defends himself.


Meanwhile Margaret is meeting everyone in Milton and makes friends with Nicholas Higgins and his daughter Betsy. Betsy has fluff in her lungs from working in a cotton mill as a child. It's fatal. Her father is a member of the 'union' a rallying of the factory workers.

At one point in the story, there is a riot outside the mill, and Margaret gets struck by a stone defending Mr. Thornton from a rioting mob.

He ends up proposing to Margaret and she turns him down. This is where the plot thickens.

TO BE CONTINUED

(Here's the trailer...) -