Great Expectations

I love David Lean films, but I'd never seen his version of Great Expectations before tonight, when I found this in a bin at my local Half Price Books.

I'm not one to "blind buy" movies anymore, but I always keep an eye out for used copies of Criterion releases. Even if I've never seen the film, I trust that most Criterion DVDs won't let me down. I'm usually right.

There are misfires. For some reason, there's a Criterion edition of Armageddon AND The Rock. When people question the judgment of Criterion, they usually refer to these two releases, one of which is pure shit and the other is just okay. After these two, there aren't many bad films with the Criterion name attached.

Add to that, this film has David Lean's name attached as well. Before he directed Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, and The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lean made a couple of films based on Charles Dickens classics: this one and Oliver Twist.

While watching this, I noticed something about Alec Guinness, who plays Herbert Pocket here. In short, for the first time, Alec Guinness set off my gaydar. Thoughts whipped through my head: Was Alec Guinness gay? Obi-Wan Kenobi? Couldn't be. Well, maybe. Doesn't matter, but...okay, let's do some research.

A quick Google search revealed several articles, including one that reported Guinness was arrested in 1946 for a homosexual act. However, when he was arrested, he had the quickness of thought to give a false name. That false name? Herbert Pocket.

So, the role Guinness was playing when he tripped my gaydar is, in fact, the same name he used to try to throw authorities off his real identity and keep his homosexuality a secret. For years!

None of this matters, really. I mostly think the trivia is interesting, not the orientation. I never knew this stuff about him, mostly because I just don't care (until there's movie trivia to be had -- then I'm awake).

What's most interesting about this story, for me, is all the social class stuff. You get this boy who grew up a commoner and because of the generosity of others, got an opportunity to live a different life -- one that he grasped tightly. He learned to be one of another crust, a refined gentleman, though he was destined to be a blacksmith.

Sort of reminds me of my own journey. I grew up in a middle class home, the son of a factory worker and the grandson of coal miners. We were not poor, but we weren't rich. We were not "white trash." We were just working class folks, and we still are, and there's nothing wrong with it. Great Expectations seems to imply that there is, but whatever.

I was one of the only family members to go to college, to embrace the arts, to try to make money from my imagination, and to take a "white collar" job as a teacher. My life turned out very different from the way I might've been destined. I might've ended up working as a grocery store manager, or I'd have gone into the military, or I might've ended up in a factory. I don't know. All of those things were plausible options given my working class upbringing.

I'm not saying those things are wrong or bad or worse or anything of the sort. I could've been happy doing any of those things...maybe. I never felt as though I fit into those roles, and I'm amazed at how things turned out.

It's strange because I never expected to be where I am, and yet, here I am. It's as if someone were looking out for me.