James Hitchcock Andrew Crocker-Harris, a teacher in a British public school, is approaching retirement. This is not, however, a sentimental "inspirational teacher" film like "Goodbye Mr Chips". James Hilton's character was an elderly man looking back happily on his long years of service to the school. Andrew has not reached normal retirement age (he is probably in his fifties) but has been forced by ill-health to retire and take a less arduous, but less well-paid and less prestigious, position teaching English as a foreign language..Moreover, no teacher could be less inspirational than Andrew Crocker- Harris. His less-than-friendly nickname among his pupils is "the Croc" (as in crocodile- spelled thus in Rattigan's play, but this could also be heard as "the Crock", British slang for broken-down old car). A brilliant scholar at Oxford, he entered the teaching profession in the idealistic belief that he had a vocation to inspire his pupils with his own love of classical literature. The intervening years have disillusioned him. He has become humourless and pedantic; his pupils either dislike him or treat him as a figure of fun and regard his lessons as a bore. His attempts to maintain discipline by using sarcastic ridicule have made him even less popular and given him an even less friendly nickname-"the Hitler of the Lower Fifth". He is unpopular with his colleagues and patronised by his headmaster. His marriage to a younger woman has broken down, and his wife Laura has been having an adulterous affair with the young American chemistry teacher Frank Hunter.Rattigan's plot - attractive young married woman torn between a dull, unresponsive husband and a charming but faithless lover- is essentially that of a number of literary works, notably "Madame Bovary" and "Anna Karenina", but whereas Flaubert and Tolstoy placed the emphasis on the woman, Rattigan is more concerned with the wronged husband. The crisis comes when Taplow, one of Andrew's pupils, unexpectedly gives him a copy of Robert Browning's translation of Aeschylus's "Agamemnon". (Hence the title). Andrew is touched by the gift, but Laura spitefully suggests that the boy gave him the book, not out of kindness or love for Greek literature, but as a bribe to secure promotion to a higher class. (Aeschylus's play is significantly about an unfaithful wife who murders her husband). Rattigan's play was written in 1948 and another film version was made in 1951. Mike Figgis came under some criticism for making this film a contemporary story rather than a forties period piece, but I think he was right. Public schools are very conservative institutions, and there is little which explicitly ties the story to the forties; updating it to the nineties gave more contemporary resonance. There are a few changes to Rattigan's story and some minor details have been changed. Andrew's wife was originally called Millie, not Laura, and his nickname was the "Himmler" of the Lower Fifth, not Hitler. (Possibly Figgis feared that nineties' audiences would not know who Himmler was). One detail that does not ring true is the selection of the school's games master to play cricket for England. In the forties there were many amateurs playing at the top level in English cricket and the selection of a schoolmaster for England might have been plausible, but not in the nineties. The 1951 " Browning Version" is regarded by some as a great classic of the British cinema, but I prefer the 1994 film. Anthony Asquith's version is too emotionally reticent, too much stiff-upper-lip and not enough genuine feeling. I also felt that Jean Kent's Millie came across as too cold, hard and spiteful. With Greta Scacchi's Laura one senses, as one does not with Kent, something we are told by Andrew, namely that she is as much to be pitied as he is. She behaves badly towards her husband, but she is a victim, not only of a failed marriage, but also of the way she is treated by Frank, with whom she is deeply in love, even though he does not love her.As for Albert Finney, this is a superb performance. We can always sense that beneath his crusty exterior Andrew is a man of deep feelings, unlike Michael Redgrave who in the early scenes is too much the dry-as- dust pedant to be entirely credible when his more emotional side is revealed later on. Finney is particularly good in the scene (not in Rattigan's play) when he reads extracts from "The Agamemnon" in the original Greek to his class, no longer Hitler or the Croc but a man inspired by his passion for great literature. He reveals Andrew as a truly tragic hero- a man faced with the simultaneous disintegration of both his career and his marriage, but determined to face the future with stoicism. This film has one or two weaknesses. Matthew Modine as Frank is perhaps the weak link in the acting; I preferred Nigel Patrick in the original. (Frank was not an American in Rattigan's play- doubtless the producers wanted a role for a Hollywood big name). The invented sub-plot involving Taplow and the school bully struck me as unnecessary, These, however, are minor points. Overall, this "Browning Version" is a deeply moving human drama, one of the best British films of the nineties. 9/10Some goofs. After the cricket match has finished we are told that Fletcher has scored 112 not out, but during the match itself we see on the scoreboard that he has already scored 123. We see in the school hall the Royal Arms bearing the motto "Ich Dien", only used with the "three feathers" badge of the Prince of Wales. The correct motto for the Royal Arms would be "Dieu Et Mon Droit".

johnny-08 This is remake of "The Browning Version", great movie of Anthony Asquith. Here Michael Redgrave is replaced with one of my favorite British actors, Albert Finney. Finney plays Andrew Crocker-Harris, teacher of classic languages in a British prep school. He's disliked from students, his colleagues and his younger wife is being unfaithful to him. The only boy who likes Crocker-Harris is Taplow and they have special relationship that culminates with Taplow's gift that makes Crocker-Harris cry, in one of my favorite scenes of this movie. I also must add, that beside Finney, there is very good performance of Greta Scacchi as his wife. So why to watch this movie? Because of Albert Finney's tutoring skills!!! He gives hour and half of acting lesson to us all. Thank you Mr. Finney, you are a true legend.

dbdumonteil It's not only a teacher's downfall:it's also the twilight of a teaching,not only a way of teaching but also the teaching of dead languages.Half a century ago,Latin and Greek were the elite's pride.Now they have been dethroned by mathematics and science,... and English in the countries where the first language is not that of Shakespeare.The science teacher just happens to be a young "modern" smiling dude,whereas Finney's successor is an older man who does not seem that much funny ..This movie destroys a cliché: the lit(or language or history) teacher is liberal,the science teacher is a bore (check the notorious "dead poet society").Finney is called the "Hitler of the low sixth-form" and hated by both his students and his colleagues.It's the actor's performance which gives the movie substance.All that surrounds him is not that much great:cardboard characters such as his principal,his wife ,her lover et al, the umpteenth version of the posh school.But Albert Finney's rendering is extremely moving.He remains sparing of gestures and of words.When he's given a present (first time by one of his students ,"the Browning version" of a Greek drama),he understands that you 're never a wash-out when at least,you've enriched a human being 's mind.And when he publicly criticizes himself,the standing ovation he gets shows that the assembly has finally understood the mote and the beam parable.Compares favorably with the first version.

tcmaloney This is one of those movies that are easy to overlook because of their lack of special effects, bone-rattling audio, and sexual situations. Nevertheless, The Browning Version tells a poignant story of an aging teacher who is being shunted aside in favor of a younger replacement. Albert Finney is wonderful as Crocker-Harris, "the Hitler of the lower sixth," whose health is failing and whose enthusiasm for teaching is gone. Greta Scacchi is equally good as his unfaithful wife. Her nuanced performance is one way in which this version is superior to the much-admired Michael Redgrave issue of 1951. In the latter, Jean Kent plays an unrelenting bitch who cares not a whit for her husband's plight. One cannot, under any circumstances, imagine how the two characters ever got together. In the new rendition, however, one can see how the lovely Miss Scacchi might have fallen for the athletically built Finney. As a result, one can better appreciate the disillusionment and bitterness that inform her character as she contemplates what he has become.