Search - Byron on DVD

Tamara C. (ChicaLinda)
Reviewed on 9/9/2008...

Jonny Lee Miller is very good as Byron. Unfortunately I didn't like the character very much!

1 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

What a man!!!!

Amos Lassen | Little Rock, Arkansas | 11/23/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Byron"

What a Man!

Amos Lassen

I remember in high school reading George Gordon, Lord Byron's poetry and falling in love with it. I later took it upon myself to learn more about Byron the man and the more I learned the more I wanted to know, He was a rebel, he was beautiful to look at and he was most definitely a non-conformist and how I wanted to be him. When I heard the BBC was doing a film about him I could not wait to see it and I finally had that opportunity. The film added some new things to my picture of Byron. I had never thought of him as being clever and witty and getting to see the character of the man gave me new ideas about him. Byron was a conflicted and contradictory man and his life so full of scandal is thrown up there on the screen for all of us to see.
Jonny Lee Miller (Trainspotting) is Byron and he gives us the character of Byron as demure and the bad boy of society and he comes across as a real threat to the mores of old England.
Byron had quite a life and it is impossible to deal with it all, Notably missing is the summer he spent with the Shelleys. Yet with that not included there was room to look at other parts of his life that had not been dealt with before on film---his mess of a marriage and his last visit to Greece to help liberate the country fro the Turkish yoke. We also see his Italian years.
Byron lived intensely and represents to me, at least, of living the kind of life that many of us would like to lead. He had beauty with debauchery and he knew what the word liberation means. As England closed her mind, Byron opened his. He was a snob and a playboy who went against what was due to happen in Victorian England.
The film, unfortunately, misses a great deal of the vibrancy of Byron's life. I wanted to see ore of his philandering and his immorality. It appears that this aspect of Byron's life suffered due to the script as the actor certainly could well have handle that aspect of his life. The film has some great moments, especially when Vanessa Redgrave lights up the screen simply by being there."

The spirit if not the letter of Byron's life

A. J Terry | 11/20/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is not a biography of Byron's life, or any kind of documentary. It is a very powerful portrayal of Byron's personality and, possibly, of how life felt to him. Although some details are incorrect and there are important omissions (notably, Byron's stay at the Villa Diodati with the Shelley menage), it is a noteworthy film."

For the Byron completeist

Jonathan Greenlee | 02/18/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"An excellent intro to the life of Byron. Not an in-depth exploration nor commentary/interpretation. This will give you a good outline of Byron's life to construct your own understanding from further reading."