The most viewed entry on this blog is my 2009 piece about Picnic at Hanging Rock, the novel by Joan Lindsay and the film adaptation by Peter Weir. It's gotten a few comments since, particularly pointing out that the supposed excised ending may not actually be Lindsay's work. I'll accept that as a possibility.
But that's not the point at hand right now. The story has been revisited for a six episode miniseries by Australian company Foxtel, and in the US, it's available through Amazon Prime video.
In case you don't want to read my older blog, let me sum up the story: during an outing to a rock formation near Mount Macedon, three girls from Appleyard College (a finishing school for girls) and a teacher go missing without a trace. The mystery has a huge effect on the locals, particularly Michael Fitzhubert, and the remaining staff and students at the College, and the fates of some characters aren't so mysterious.
As Weir's film is so iconic, comparing this to that film is inevitable. As they share source material and the real Hanging Rock is featured in both, there's scenes that mirror each other, sometimes feeling like an intentional duplication.
It's surprising that the film is noted for its slow pace, but the miniseries doesn't really do that. Instead, it creates a new subplot and fleshes out the backstories of the characters, or rather, the writers' interpretations of these characters.
If you're looking for fidelity to the source material, then Weir's film is the more faithful version. As I said nine years ago, the book and film complement each other (though there are differences). The dreamlike quality of both isn't exactly replicated here.
Taking a 21st Century stance, there's more care given to instances of women having agency in society. The most altered character due to this is none other than Mrs. Appleyard, the headmistress of the college. Rachel Roberts played her in Weir's film, starting as a warm but strict gray-haired matron figure and over the course of the film turning into a terrifying villain. In the miniseries, she is played by Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones) as a much younger incarnation of the character. Her new backstory reveals some surprising things about her, but makes her more sympathetic rather than scary, even though the character retains her nasty side.
One of the missing girls is now a girl of color, and a teacher has been rewritten to be a lesbian. There's a major suggestion that the missing girls successfully ran away, but whether the missing teacher was part of it or tried to stop them isn't made clear. The main mystery of the story is left unresolved, as it should be.
In the novel, one of the teachers at the school gets a nasty fate. In Weir's film, they wisely just have her leave the College. Her fate is restored and even expanded upon here. During the climax of the story, a gruesome sight is described by Lindsay. Weir filmed a toned down version of it, but it did not make the final cut. It is not even included in the miniseries, despite the moment in which it happens being expanded on.
I'm not of the opinion that remakes should never happen. Sometimes a new interpretation of a story finds new depth to the story and can make us think about it differently and appreciate it more. However, now having watched the entire series, I find little defense for making a six-hour adaptation of a story that had been previously adapted faithfully in two hours. Adding so much additional material lets you see a version of the story and characters as interpreted by certain people. However, the dreamlike ambiguity of the novel and Weir's film work in their favor. You were allowed to make your own interpretations and conclusions.
That said, I can't say the miniseries was bad. It was interesting to see another filmed version after Weir. Talent and technical aspects were handled well. It was intriguing enough to go ahead and keep going. And re-examining the characters under a 21st century eye was quite welcome.
Check it out if you're interested in seeing one specific version of this story, but the original novel and Weir's film are going to be the continuing classic versions.
