Content warning: this review mentions animal abuse and sexual assault.
Welcome to Part 8 of looking at various adaptations of Wuthering Heights and seeing if they can capture the spirit of the book by Emily Brontë. Today, I’ll be looking at the 1998 movie made by Masterpiece Theatre starring Robert Cavanah as Heathcliff and Matthew MacFayden as Hareton.
As I got more into the post-Kate Bush Wuthering Heights adaptations, it’s clear that each one of them wants to be as faithful and transgressive as possible. So far, this version takes the cake for both. Not only does it contain the second half of the book, but it also has almost every scene, including ones that weren’t in the prior adaptations. The most infamous being when Heathcliff tries to hang Isabella’s dog. I was nervous about that since anytime she was on screen prior, she was carrying her little black dog. Luckily, the film provides a happier ending to that scene than in the novel.
I honestly didn’t expect how far Masterpiece Theatre would go to show the wickedness of the novel, but wow, it went there. It includes a scene in which Heathcliff rapes Isabella soon after they get married. In previous adaptations, he’s always a brute to her, but I never would’ve expected that one would take it up a notch, especially from Masterpiece Theatre, which is funded by viewers like you. Thank you. The 2002 Goodbye, Mr. Chips movie through Masterpiece Theatre also had plenty of realism, but it wasn’t to the level of this version of Wuthering Heights. It was very unsettling. It didn’t help that director David Skynner decided to juxtapose that sequence with Catherine getting hair cut to reduce the swelling in her brain from her fever. Although I don’t know if I want to see this film again, I will give it props for including such a disturbing scene.
The rest of the movie is decent. I like how it taps into the best parts of the 1970 and 1992 flicks. It contains the scene in which Heathcliff chases ghost Catherine all across the Moors, which is a nice homage to the former. In addition, it emulates the 1992 movie with its gothic horror tone, supernatural elements, and its volatile Heathcliff.
On the other hand, there were a couple of parts which were baffling. For starters, the story starts when Heathcliff flashes back to his youth as opposed to Nelly telling Mr. Lockwood about it. This is like the 1950 teleplay, and just like that one, this change makes Mr. Lockwood and Nelly pointless to some degree. Also, in the beginning, when young Catherine and Heathcliff are playing outside, she sees an older Heathcliff. Then later, when he’s dying, he flashes back to that time. How was he able to teleport himself through space and time? I mean, he has the ability to put people in purgatory by damning their souls, but that could’ve been explained better.
My main complaint is the rape scene is so overpowering that it overshadows everything else in the film. It’s not to say the movie is bad. Not much of it is as memorable as the sequence mentioned earlier.
The performances are mostly good. Robert Cavanah is Heathcliff. Let’s get it out of the way now: he’s another white man playing a racially ambiguous character. Even with bronzer on, that still doesn’t change the fact that he’s a white man. As for his performance, he’s the most volatile Heathcliff I’ve seen. He forcibly kisses Catherine, and I already mentioned what he does to Isabella. It doesn’t help that he looks like a tan Bob Geldof during the first half. I still prefer Ralph Fiennes’s interpretation of the character because of how dynamic it was, but this one is still serviceable. Orla Brady is Catherine. She does a good job with tapping into the character’s volatile moods, especially when she calls Hindley a tyrant and acts like a stubborn child during the key scene. The best performance comes from Matthew MacFayden, who portrays Hareton – Hindley’s son. From the moment I saw him, I felt the character’s sadness, torment, and determination with little to no dialogue. Also, he gets to play with a puppy. MacFayden would go on to portray Mr. Darcy in the 2005 film version of Pride and Prejudice.
The Wuthering Heights 1998 television movie is fine. It’s the most faithful version I’ve seen so far in how true it is to the text, and it captures the disturbing elements of the story. I’m truly amazed by how PBS greenlit this one, but I don’t know if I will ever return to it because of how unsettling it is (even with Matthew MacFayden in it). I would recommend it to those who are actively watching every adaptation of Wuthering Heights and/or want to see a more loyal adaptation of the story. We’ll see how the other ones fare as we move into the 21st century.
Now, let’s see how this one fits into the ranking.
- Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights 1992 Movie
- Wuthering Heights 1939 Movie
- Wuthering Heights 1958 Teleplay
- Wuthering Heights 1967 Series
- Wuthering Heights 1998 Television Movie
- Wuthering Heights 1970 Movie
- Wuthering Heights 1950 Teleplay
- Wuthering Heights 2026 Movie
We’ll see how this ranking evolves after I see all the others.
Stay tuned next month when I review the 2009 mini-series with Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley.
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Book Reviews by a Chick Who Reads Everything 