Maurice Poster

Maurice (1987)

Drama  
Rayting:   7.7/10 16.6K votes
Country: UK
Language: English
Release date: 23 June 1988

After his lover rejects him, a young man trapped by the oppressiveness of Edwardian society tries to come to terms with and accept his sexuality.

Movie Trailer

Where to Watch

  • Buy
  • Buy

User Reviews

p-n-taylor 19 January 2006

Many viewers and critics have criticised the happy ending of this film as being 'unrealistic' or even 'impossible'. After all an upper class and working class man could never live as a couple in Edwardian England? In fact E.M. Forster's inspiration for writing the book Maurice was a real gay couple, one upper class and the other working class, who lived together openly in England for about 35 years until 1928. They are buried in the same grave.

Edward Carpenter was a close friend of E.M.Forster, who named Carpenter's working class gay partner, George Merrill, as the inspiration for his novel Maurice. He had visited Carpenter and Merrill at Millthorpe in Derbyshire on several occasions: once, in 1913, Merrill "touched my backside - gently and just above the buttocks. I believe he touched most people's. The sensation was unusual and I still remember it, as I remember the position of a long vanished tooth. He made a profound impression on me and touched a creative spring" That was the origin for the writing of Maurice.

bkoganbing 24 March 2008

Fmovies: E.M. Forster (1879-1970) as a gay man lived long enough to see the Stonewall Rebellion happen across the pond the year before his death at the age of 91. Though close friends knew he was gay, as prescribed by the mores of the times, Forster led a quiet, discreet, and circumspect life. He was not a political person, first and foremost he was a novelist, though in his writings you can some trenchant comments about the political, never more so in his A Passage To India.

My guess is that if Stonewall didn't happen here and other developments such as the Wolfenden report recommending decriminalization of homosexuality in the United Kingdom hadn't happened, Maurice might never have seen the light of day. My guess is that Forster would have opted for a time capsule, hoping this novel of young same sex love would see the light of day in more enlightened times. He got to see those enlightened times come before he died, so Forster's novel Maurice was published in 1971 and came to the screen in 1987.

Forster's protagonist is Maurice Hall a young man with some unwanted gay feelings, unwanted because at the time those things were not discussed. Young Maurice forms an attachment with school chum Clive Durham. To put it in more modern terms they're the British boarding school equivalent of Ennis Delmar and Jack Twist.

And they view their relationship differently as did Jack and Ennis. Maurice truly hates the stifling conformity of Edwardian Great Britain, but Clive wants to put it behind him, get married and do as proper British society demands of him.

James Wilby is Maurice and Hugh Grant in one of his earliest roles is the shallow Clive. Maurice takes a path that E.M. Forster took in life as a gay man, as open as he could be, but most discreet.

I do wonder who the Clive character was based on. I also wonder if in the future, the proper Mr. Clive might have been giving the toe tapping signal in some bathroom stall looking to satisfy his real and closeted lusts.

There is also a great performance by Rupert Graves as Alec Scudder the stable-hand at Clive's estate who Maurice eventually does establish a relationship and some measure of happiness. It will be a tough road for them, not very many places on the earth will be that hospitable in the years just before World War I.

Maurice was written around 1910, a decade or so after the Oscar Wilde scandal and six years before Roger Casement's diaries were opened to the public to justify hanging him as a traitor in the Easter Rebellion. The gay baiting there was a deliberate tactic by the British government to shake popular support away from the rebels in Ireland. These were not good times for Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgendered people.

E.M. Forster wrote the novel and tucked it away. It's a beautiful work and a beautiful film made from same. I'm glad in the final couple of years of life, Forster saw the more enlightened times come so we could have a glimpse of what life was like for a young gay male in Edwardian Great Britain.

zl_rita518 31 January 2006

Before I watch Maurice, I almost had no idea of the life of gays. I used to hold the notion that homosexuality was unacceptable and disgusting, which was under the influence of some so-called orthodox thinking. As the time goes by, I gradually realized that you can't make a judgment before truly knowing something about it. Truth is not told by "everybody" but explored and medicated by yourself. And the movie "Maurice" has provided me with a good chance to have a better look at the true life of gays, to perceive their pure and pristine affections towards the same sex, to feel their struggle and desperation under public prejudice and pressure. Though my life is a far cry from that of Maurice and Clive portrayed in the movie, it seems that I can understand them perfectly and are quite empathetic with them. I think that is because what is expressed in the movie is undoubtedly part of human nature, which can strike a chord in the depth of every human being's heart. For that reason, one line in the movie stroke me deeply. When Maurice's psychological doctor advised him to emigrate to countries such as France and Italy where homosexuality was no longer criminal, he said:" England has always been disinclined to accept human nature."

A great movie!

harry-76 8 April 2000

Maurice fmovies. E. M. Forster's novel, "Maurice," is given a first-rate screen adaptation by this British production. James Ivory's direction is very cinematic, conveying the multi-layered story through a series of dramatic scenes, with just a bit of over-voice narration. Its impact comes through an incremental effect, reaching moving proportions by the end of the lengthy presentation. James Wilby, Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves and Helena Bonham Carter are all excellent, heading a superior cast. Every aspect of the production has been carefully prepared and executed.

What emerges for me is the tragedy of societal constraint, under the guise of virtue. It is a tightrope to walk for the free-wheeling, independent thinker in this society: he who steps outside the bounds of regularity is subject to scorn and persecution. That the drama's heros do not fall into the mode of so-called "normalcy" leave them open to a lifestyle of tension and risk. Forster beautifully conveys this in the novel, and Ivory transfers it to the screen with great skill.

Certainly "Maurice" is one of the top motion pictures of the 80s. Kudos to all who took part in bringing this poignant novel to the screen.

andre08011 7 February 2005

I remember I saw this movie I was about 17. I'd read the book and fell in love. It tells a love story between two men and the way they have to carry it out despite society rules (with some changes it still happens nowadays...).

The general message would be "love conquers all" but is it really so? Are Maurice and Scudder able to live happily ever after? I doubt, and on the beginning of the XXth century it would be even worse.

Despite all, it's lovely to watch the same kind of story we're used to watching in movies that portray society in different times, but now speaking about love between men! Although James Ivory's work is beyond criticism, in my point a view, there were some scenes in the book (the one when they are in London, sitting naked by the fire, for instance) that really should be in the movie.

But it's a tender and romantic approach of of book (only published after E.M. Foster's death) that surely would have pleased it's author.

WinstonMacBride 4 January 2003

I ran into this movie a long, long time ago, watching the TV news one evening back in 1987. I felt as I couldn't miss it as soon as I realized it had been shot in Cambridge, my favorite place in the world, but all my feelings went much beyond that when I saw it. I didn't feel uneasy about homosexuality at all but it was with that movie that I finally realized it was only love, no matter whether it involved a man and a woman, or two men, or two women.... The set is magnificent, the actors at their best (a great Hugh Grant who was so great as to show how Mr E.M.Forster had become tired with Clive...), and I must say that Mr Ivory did a pretty good job with his version of the story, very well adapted. In fact I do believe the book is superior in many moments but, on the other hand, the film is far far superior in many other moments, and you can't really say this all the times. I suggest everybody should watch it and enjoy it, no matter what your sexual preferences are. A masterpiece, indeed!

Similar Movies

6.2
Jug Jugg Jeeyo

Jug Jugg Jeeyo 2022

9.0
Rocketry: The Nambi Effect

Rocketry: The Nambi Effect 2022

5.4
Deep Water

Deep Water 2022

6.0
Jayeshbhai Jordaar

Jayeshbhai Jordaar 2022

5.4
Spiderhead

Spiderhead 2022

5.0
Shamshera

Shamshera 2022

5.9
Samrat Prithviraj

Samrat Prithviraj 2022

7.0
Gangubai Kathiawadi

Gangubai Kathiawadi 2022


Share Post

Direct Link

Markdown Link (reddit comments)

HTML (website / blogs)

BBCode (message boards & forums)

Watch Movies Online | Privacy Policy
Fmovies.guru provides links to other sites on the internet and doesn't host any files itself.