Good Film, Bad Waugh

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FILM

[Brideshead Revisited]

Good Film, Bad Waugh

NO AMERICAN did more to resuscitate Evelyn Waugh's reputation than the late William F. Buckley. By Waugh's death in 1966, the reactionary Catholic novelist's standing had fallen almost as low as Jay Mclnerney's has today, yet Buckley's devotion introduced Waugh to a new generation. For Waugh's 1982 apotheosis, the monumental 13-episode "Brideshead Revisited" miniseries, Buckley was rightly hired to host the show on PBS.

The news that the recent movie adaptation of Brideshead, Waugh's magentahued 1945 saga about a decadent Catholic noble family, would star the English actor Matthew Goode was intriguing. Goode, …