Christopher Eccleston Picspam part 2 - Jude - NSFW warning!!
Right on with part 2!
Next up is Jude. This is one of my all time favourites of Chris's works. Wow, I really cannot put into words how good he is in this film. He goes through the full range of emotions, but it is the tragedy that he portrays that really, really hits home.
I saw this after reading Jude the Obscure. A few months later I was in the Video Rental shop and there in £1 for 7 days section (bargain or what?) was the film. It caught my eye but at the time I had no idea Chris was even in it. Anyway took it home and there he was, in several scenes in all his glory! The film isn't 100% faithful to the book but it is a damn good interpretation of it. It was in this film that I really started to admire him and yes, lust after him!
Industrious Jude is industrious!
Clever Jude is clever!
It should be illegal for a man to be this gorgeous!
Jude is denied his chance to study at Oxford/Cambridge Christminster and told he is better off as a 'working man'. Oh and look who pops up here! About to get shown up for the pompous little prick he was (the character, not DT!).
Jude recites the Creed in Latin, and shuts the upperclass tit up!
Sue, his cousin, comes back into his life and pretty soon they fall in love.
Despite the fact that they are both married to other people.
Lucky Kate Winslet!
And now the naughty ones!
*stares at the naked back*
Kate Winslet is one lucky woman....
Will you look at that arse, perfect, absolutely perfect. I could stare at it all day....
*forces self to move on*
The story of course is one of grief and tragedy. Here is Jude and Sue and their family, trying to find somewhere to live after descending into poverty.
This film still chokes me up.
Tragedy strikes. Jude's son to his former wife, despairing of the desperation of their lives, knowing that his parents and siblings will soon by homeless and starving once again because his family cannot find lodgings with young children and due to Jude and Sue 'living in sin', kills his siblings before taking his own life. This scene is haunting.
Jude and Sue return home after searching for work and lodgings. Jude's eldest son was left caring for his siblings. Whilst alone he decided to end their lives and his own. Jude desperately tries to revive his children. Horrified he realises that it is fruitless.
Jude is griefstricken. His family are the most precious thing in his life. Chris's portrayal here is his best, without a doubt. This scene grabs your heart, tears it out of your chest and tramples all over it. It is one of the most profound portrayals of grief that I have ever seen.
Time moves on, the children are buried, but Sue blames Jude for the deaths of their children. She blames Jude because it was his son, and not hers who was responsible for their deaths. She leaves him and Jude is left with nothing.
Jude tries to speak to Sue, he sees her in the cemetary and at the church but she will have nothing to do with him. She has become religious and tries to tell Jude that God had punished them for living in sin.
Jude is left with nothing. His dreams of an education are gone, his love is gone and his children are in the cold, frozen ground. This picture and the expression on Chris's face here just scream of a broken man.
Screencaps are taken from here, my own collection and the ones previously credited in part 1.
Part 3 tomorrow.