9 thoughts on “How did ‘The Buccaneers’ end up with such a happy ending?

  1. It was a very good movie. It could have had a longer ending. I would like to know what happen to the rest of the girls life’s.the story show real life even. I live in the USA and did think anything about how the english lived back then. No matter where you lived back then. Sex and being gay was everywhere. The story was good. Enjoy it.

  2. I did enjoy the movie, but having studied English literature, I found myself wondering about a few elements and because of that curiosity I have found myself here. I do agree with this being a rather “Americanized” and modernized BBC production and found that the homosexuality and marital rape did lend to the sensationalism and did take away from greater character development. It’s used as a means to justify Nan leaving the duke, but I didn’t think it necessary. I usually love the complexity of characters and situations in classic literature. The Duke was a victim of his position in society, but these elements vilify him; thus, deminishing the audience’s sympathies for him. Without these modern elements, we would be forced to delve deeper into the characters to truly understand their unhappiness and their oppression by society and it’s marital expectations. There is the theme of the conflict between freedom and consequences and Love v. Societal Duty/Obligation at the core of this story. It’s inherent in the situation of Nan’s governess Miss Testvalley and should be complimented by Nan’s situation. However, if Nan’s actions are justified too much, making her decision to stay with the duke or leave him “black and white”, the story loses some of it’s depth and complexity. I found the story really interesting.

    • I do agree with this being a rather “Americanized” and modernized BBC production and found that the homosexuality and marital rape did lend to the sensationalism and did take away from greater character development. It’s used as a means to justify Nan leaving the duke, but I didn’t think it necessary.
      Nan didn’t leave Julian because she found out that he was a homosexual. She finally left him after she learned that he had prevented his sister from marrying the man she loved . . . and his lack of concern over his action.

  3. Whatever “happy ending” that was in this story had a bittersweet taint to it, due to Laura Testvalley’s fate for helping Anabel, the latter being shunned by older sister Virginia and Guy Thwaite losing his inheritance.
    But if you feel that this adaptation had “such a happy ending’, so be it.
    “The Buccaneers” was one of my favorite miniseries of all times. It’s interesting. The British criticized it for having an “American” sensibility and its less-than-positive view of the British aristocracy. And the Americans, used to agreeing to British opinion about their costume dramas, failed to form their own opinion.
    And I’m a little puzzled by this opinion that the miniseries was “Americanized” and “moderinzed”. The miniseries was produced and aired in 1995. That’s why it was a “modernized” BBC production. You might as well accuse many other BBC costume dramas made during this period of the same thing. As for it being “Americanized” . . . why is that terrible, considering that the main characters are Americans and the production was based upon the work of an American author.

  4. [“It’s inherent in the situation of Nan’s governess, Miss Testvalley, and should be complimented by Nan’s situation. However, if Nan’s actions are justified too much, making her decision to stay with the duke or leave him “black and white”, the story loses some of it’s depth and complexity.”]
    Can you explain this comment with clearer details?

  5. I don’t disagree with criticisms of changing elements like names and reasons for the Duke of Tintagel’s coldness, but was the ending really “happy?” By the close of the mini-series and all three versions of the novel, the real main character–Laura Testvalley–sacrificed her own happiness for Annabel’s.

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  7. THAT was a happy ending? Granted Nan and Guy managed to run off together. But both paid a heavy price for their action. And what they did had a bad consequence for one particular character.

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