Pride and Prejudice
The most popular of Jane Austen's six novels, Pride and Prejudice earned her wide acclaim and popularity among the British authors of her time. This timeless story centers around Ms. Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. Lizzie Bennett lives in the country near Meryton at Longbourne with her loving but untroubled father, her difficult mother, and her four ridiculous sisters. The story begins with the news of a wealthy, English gentleman, a Mr. Charles Bingly, taking a house in the area. He arrives in Netherfield with his two sisters, his brother-in-law, and his good friend, Mr. Fitz-William Darcy. They soon realize that Mr. Darcy has twice the income of Mr. Bingly and Mrs. Bennett becomes anxious to have her girls introduced to him, as well. The Bennets first meet the party at an assembly where the eldest Ms. Bennett, Jane, and Mr. Bingly are quickly smitten with each other, however, it becomes apparent that, despite his ten-thousand pounds a year, Mr. Darcy is a "very disagreeable man!" Soon after, Jane receives a letter from Netherfield inviting her for dinner and on the way to the dinner, she catches cold and must remain in bed. Discovering this news, Lizzie decides to go to Netherfield to comfort her sister.
Pride and Prejudice (1994)
This is the classic and most well-known of the Pride and Prejudice movies. A BBC Masterpiece Theater production made in 1994, this six episode mini-series stars Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in the role that brought him notice in the movie world. Andrew Davies wrote the adapted screenplay very close to the original text and also tries to explore Darcy's character more through out the show. This is a great adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. I couldn't find the official trailer for this one so I used the trailer that played when Masterpiece Theater was going on its Jane Austen spree.
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Directed by Joe Wright, Pride and Prejudice beautifully skims the original story into two hours with out losing any of the meat of the plot or the spirit of the characters. Keira Knightly stars as Lizzie Bennett (in a role winning her an Oscar nomination) with a great cast including Matthew MacFadyen as Darcy, Dame Judi Dench as Lady Catherine de Bergh, Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland, Carey Mulligan, Talulah Riley, Rosamund Pike, and Jena Malone. Emma Thompson also wrote parts of the script and the beautiful soundtrack is composed by Dario Marianelli (check out the soundtrack because it is amazing). The entire work is not only beautiful to look at but is spilling with some great acting performances, particularly Matthew MacFadyen as Mr. Darcy. I couldn't decide which trailer was better so I put both the American trailer and the British trailer. I will also include a fan-made trailer using the sound reel of the original trailer but with clips from Harry Potter. I know it sounds stupid but it's kind of awesome!