Fellwanderer Reviews

BBC Play of the Month: The Wild Duck (1971) Season 6, Episode 7

Perfection

[10/10 · 10 April 2008]

I can only echo the words of the previous reviewer.

The performance of Jenny Agutter is simply superb, touching innocence can never have been better portrayed - unless it was her own performance in The Snow Goose.

I first saw this on a B/W television while at university back in 1971 and never forgot it. For years I have searched for it and only a chance comment allowed me to eventually track it down.

Finally, today, I was able to watch it in colour as part of the Henrik Ibsen Collection.

What a shame the BBC don't make it available in the UK, either as part of a set or actually televise it once more!

The Snow Goose (1971 TV Movie)

Quite simply - the perfect film

[10/10 · 7 August 2005]

Having been brought up just a few minutes from the Essex sea marshes, this film has always had a special poignancy for me.

I first saw The Snow Goose during the Christmas holidays in 1971 and it has remained the most moving film I have ever been privileged enough to watch. Everything about the film is as near perfection as it is possible to get. Richard Harris gives a masterful performance as Philip Rhayader and the young and incredibly beautiful (then and now) Jenny Agutter matches him scene for scene with a maturity beyond her years. I have a lump in my throat every time I watch it and I watch it at least once a month.

It is criminal that this film is not commercially available for generations yet unborn to revere as do all those who were fortunate enough to see it. If ever a film deserved a ten plus, this is it.

Postscript: In October 2007, almost 36 years after first watching it, I had the most memorable moment of my film viewing career when I saw a perfect version of The Snow Goose at the BFI, London, while sitting next to my friend Jenny Agutter. Tears were running down my face at the end.