Florence Nightingale (DVD)

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In short order, and with dramatic improvement, her success at the hospital becomes "the talk of London" and she becomes the resentment of the head nurse under her as a result, who is jealous of the credit and notice that Nightingale receives. That kind of jealousy will be Nightingale's undoing at several other junctures in her life as she grows even more famous. But to put things in perspective, recall the headlines and national debate when women wanted to go into combat in the United States military. It hadn't been done before, and those who pushed for it to happen found that society pushed right back. The same thing happens to Nightingale when she decides to raise money and enlist 40 nurses to take to the main base hospital for the British fighting the Crimean War. She arrives in Suctari, Turkey, in November 1854 with the blessing of the Secretary of War (Peter McEnery), whom she met at a party (and in real-life dated, though not in this picture). Imagine her surprise to be told by a rigid Dr. Menzies (Michael Elwyn) that they are far from London and that a rigid Dr. Hall (Jeremy Child) will tell her what she can and can't do. The rest of the film follows the progress she makes and the doctors who either fight her or admire her. We don't get the figures in the film, but just six months after she arrived in Scutari, Nightingale's changes produced dramatic results. Hospital deaths dropped from 42 percent to just 2.2 percent.

Smith does a decent job with the part, though she begins with a British accent that she quickly loses. Dalton is onboard mostly for his reaction shots, and so seems a bit wasted. But all of the actors do a nice job of immersing themselves in character and in Victorian times. The illusion is helped considerably by location filming in England and believable-looking sets, costumes, and military action. Same with the cinematography, which feels more big-screen than small-screen much of the time. And director Daryl Duke, who won an Emmy for "The Thornbirds," adroitly handles the narrative sweep of the film. Several scenes seem to go on a bit too long, or move a little too slowly, but overall this TV production is a nice biographical portrayal of one of history's legendary figures.

Video:
Two surprises here. The first is that a film with a widescreen mentality would be presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio, and the second is that for a TV movie shot under different conditions the picture quality would be as excellent as it is. In a party scene, a tapestry on the back wall would usually be the source of all sorts of noise, but that's not the case here. There's a nice amount of detail, true colors, and strong black levels that provide a nice contrast even in shadowy scenes.

Audio:
The audio is a simple Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono. Even the war scenes don't resonate the way they might with a more robust soundtrack. But this was television, and you almost expect it to be front-heavy. There's at least no distortion and no distractions. Subtitles are in English.

Extras:
There are no bonus features.

Bottom Line:
Though slow-moving in spots, this biopic about the "mother of modern nursing" stays close enough to the facts to be worthwhile, and has production values rich enough to make the drama come alive. And Charlie's Angel Smith is more believable than not as the saintly Victorian woman who left her aristocratic past to guarantee a better future for the poor.

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