First Impressions

Some of you may remember that I film a movie every summer with my siblings and cousins. We've done The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream...

This year our production choice was influenced by the 4-1 girl/boy ratio among the cousins, and the fact that my family lives in the Midwest. Independance Day weekend will find us filming:

First Impressions: Pride & Prejudice on the Prairie

In case you’re not familiar with the Western version…

Pa and Ma Bennet live on a ranch with their five daughters, all single. Sad but true. However, don’t worry, by the end of the story, only two remain at home.

Lizzy’s best friend is a girl named Charlotte who decides that even marriage to a complete nicompoop is better than no husband at all. Said nicompoop is a cousin of the Bennet sisters, one US Marshall Collins. He’s the sheriff’s deputy (think Barney Fife), and the honorable sheriff of his town is a lady named Catherine deBourgh. This tough, sharpshooting Annie-Oakley wannabe also has a daughter, a single daughter! Where are we going to find husbands for all of these girls?

Have no fear, some new guys ride into town one day. Young Doc Bingley, who sets his sights on Jane after their first square dance. Doc Bingley has a best friend, Darcy, who is rather, well, proud. He doesn’t think Lizzy is pretty enough to tempt him—little does he know, the entire film tells how they fall in love.

Lizzy happens to meet a pretty cute cardsharp named Mr Wickham, dashing and all that, but a bitter enemy of Mr Darcy. Why this rivalry? Could it be that Darcy knows of Wickham’s dastardly past, involving Darcy's six year old brother (George) as a hostage in a bank holdup? Or could it be Wickham’s devious plans to get Lydia on the wrong side of the law?


As Bingley drawls in the opening scene of the BBC film, "Country manners? I think they're charming."