"Change will come as surely as the seasons and twice as quick. We make our peace with it as best we can. Or as Amy once said when she was still a little girl: "We'll all grow up someday. We might as well know what we want."
— Josephine "Jo" March
The 1994 film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic 1868–69 novel of the same name. It was written by Robin Swicord and directed by Gillian Armstrong, and is the fifth film adaptation of the novel.
The titular Little Women are the March sisters, ladylike Meg (Trini Alvarado), ambitious and intelligent Jo (Winona Ryder), shy Beth (Claire Danes) and quick-witted Amy (Samantha Mathis and Kirsten Dunst). Under the guidance of their strongwilled mother Abigail "Marmee" March (Susan Sarandon), and with the companionship of their new next-door neighbor Laurie (Christian Bale), the four grow up in Massachussetts, acting out aspiring writer Jo's plays and falling in love. However, girlhood doesn't last forever, and the American Civil War goes on.
The film also co-stars Gabriel Byrne as Bhaer, Eric Stoltz as John Brooke, and John Neville as Mr. Laurence. It was released on December 25, 1994.
Little tropes:
- Actor Allusion: As Beth's condition worsens, Amy makes a candid confession to Laurie while traveling with him via carriage that she's afraid of the idea that she might die under similar circumstances, that there are still so many things she wants to do, places she wants to visit, and dreams of having her First Kiss. To comfort her, Laurie makes a promise that he'll always kiss her whenever she wants, then jokingly suggests that maybe he'll take her to Paris someday and they both share a laugh. This is a subtle but obvious nod to Kirsten Dunst's previous role in Interview with the Vampire a year prior, where she played the vampire child, Claudia, who met her tragic end in Paris after moving there with her adoptive father Louis, ironically because they were looking to start a happier life away from the clutches of their abusive vampire maker, Lestat.
- Adaptation Name Change: Marmee's full name in the book is Margaret, as Meg is named after her. The movie changes it to Abigail, naming her after Louisa May Alcott's mother (although she was more commonly nicknamed 'Abba').
- Adaptational Attractiveness:
- As par the course with adaptations, the tall Jo with "big hands and feet, and a flyaway look to her" is played by the slender, petite Winona Ryder.
- Professor Bhaer is described as slightly overweight and grizzled, but played by the handsome Gabriel Byrne.
- Marmee is "greying and not particularly handsome" in the book, which does not describe Susan Sarandon, who had already become synonymous with attractive older women in Hollywood.
- Adaptational Jerkass:
- Amy's teacher Mr Davis, who's entirely offscreen. When she's discovered with limes, he whips her hands raw and makes a rude comment about how pointless it is to educate a girl. The film leaves out that he regrets striking Amy when Jo collects her things.
- Jo and the burned manuscript. In the book, she was going to take Amy to the theatre the next week, but here, there's no mention of that, and Jo doesn't care that Amy might be missing out.
- Adaptational Nice Guy:
- Amy is slightly less bratty when she burns Jo's manuscript compared to the book. Here, she can't go to the theatre because she has a cold and John Brooke only reserved four tickets - as well as not being promised that she could go next week as in the book. The film also leaves out Amy's annoyance when she's not forgiven right away, and has her help Jo rewrite the manuscript afterwards.
- Jo gets a slight example too in the same episode. In the skating scene in the book, she and Laurie know that part of the ice is thin, but out of anger about her manuscript she doesn't bother to warn Amy. Here they don't know the ice is thin until Amy falls through.
- Almost Kiss: Subverted. Jo and Professor Bhaer are about to kiss at the opera, when a stage hand makes a noise to interrupt them. They share a laugh, before going right on with the kiss.
- Childhood Marriage Promise: Laurie promises Amy that he'll kiss her one day, when she worries about dying of scarlet fever without being kissed. They end up marrying. Note that there is no such exchange in the novel.
- Distracted from Death: Jo gets up from Beth's deathbed when the wind opens some shutters. When she returns to the bedside, Beth has died.
- Empty Bedroom Grieving: After Beth dies, the housekeeper Hannah scatters flower petals throughout Beth's empty bedroom: on her beloved piano, on the bed, and over her collection of dolls, which ends with Hannah sadly grasping the hand of Beth's favorite doll, Joanna.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Jo has extremely long hair that goes past her waist for the first part of the film, until she sells it to pay for a train ticket, and it's just above her shoulders. After the four year Time Skip it has grown back, but not to the length of before.
- Falling into His Arms: Meg, Jo, Laurie and John Brooke return from an evening at the theater, and as they exit the carriage, Jo raves about the lead actress being "a wonderful swooner."Jo: If only I were the swooning type! [dramatically falling from the carriage]
Laurie: [sardonically, watching her fall] If only I were the catching type. - The Glasses Gotta Go: John Brooke stops wearing his spectacles as he begins courting Meg.
- Happy Rain: It starts to rain in the when Jo accepts Professor Bhaer's proposal.
- Held Gaze:
- Jo and Laurie share gaze at each other before Laurie's Anguished Declaration of Love and their Big Damn Kiss. It's actually kind of funny because on Jo's side, it seems more like she's frozen in fear.
- Jo and Prof. Bhaer also stare at each other at the end before she hugs him, ecstatic that he's not leaving.
- Hot Drink Cure: When Amy is sulking because she has a cold and can't attend a play with her two oldest sisters, Beth promises to make her ginger tea.
- I Should Write a Book About This: Jo is inspired to write a novel about her life with her sisters when going through her sister Beth's things after she dies. (This does not happen in the book, although the Jo of the books does become a successful author: in the final sequel, Jo's Boys, she finally writes a book about her life with her sisters purely for money, and is
surprised and disconcerted when it becomes far more successful than her passion projects.) - My God, What Have I Done?: In this version, Amy is horrified by what she did in burning Jo's manuscript and is near tears herself when she sees Jo crying. She can only weakly say "I'm sorry, Jo", but she later helps her rewrite it.
- Pet the Dog: Aunt March is present for when Beth receives the new piano, and is seen happily singing along to "Deck the Halls" with the others.
- Relative Error:
- Fritz calls at the March house and hears something about "Mr and Mrs Lawrence". Jo has to hurriedly run down the street to explain that it's her sister who is "Mrs Lawrence".
- Inverted earlier, where Fritz assumes Jo is talking about one of her sisters when she mentions Laurie; lampshading that a 90s audience would find Laurie a feminine name.
- Roundabout Shot: After the four year time skip, we see characters hold hands and sing "For The Beauty of the Earth" as they circle around the bower containing the newly-married John and Meg Brooke. The shot then switches to from inside the bower so each character is focused on.
- Of Corset Hurts: Marmee is prone to rants about how corsets are responsible for womankind's reputation as weak and ill (taking her cue from her creator, who did the same in a number of her stories), and when Meg gives in to pressure from her stylish friends, there is the obligatory scene where she is painfully laced into a corset by a strong-armed maid.
- Straw Misogynist: Amy says that her teacher Mr Davis thinks that educating girls is as useless as "bathing a cat".
- This Is Gonna Suck: Amy and Jo share a look that says this when Marmee decides that Jo will educate her sister from home.
- Time-Shifted Actor: One of the major film adaptations to have Amy played by two different actresses; Kirsten Dunst as a child, and Samantha Mathis after the Time Skip.
- Triumphant Reprise: Jo accepting Professor Bhaer's proposal is followed by a swelling reprise of "Orchard House", the music that played over the opening credits.
