Class Action: Julie Christie and Alan Bates in The Go-Between

SteynonLine ^ | March 7, 2026 | Rick McGinnis

[Twotone]

L.P. Hartley's novel The Go-Between begins with one of the most famous first lines in modern literature: "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." The quote has certainly outlived Hartley; it's invoked constantly by anyone trying to make a point about "presentism" and the tendency to judge historical motivations and events by current standards or morality. It even got referenced (and subverted) in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The quote paraphrased some lines delivered by Hartley's old school friend Lord David Cecil in a lecture he delivered at Oxford in 1949. It was crucial enough to his story that they're the first words spoken in Joseph Losey's 1971 movie adaptation of Hartley's book, delivered by Michael Redgrave in voiceover as the adult version of the boy at the centre of Hartley's story about class, sex and innocence lost, set in the twilight of Queen Victoria's reign.

It's implied that modern viewers might find the story they're about to watch strange, inasmuch as the world the characters inhabit and the decisions they make would be incomprehensible today. Things have changed essentially – for the better, many of us would state confidently. But as with any sentiment expressed so often that it's become conventional wisdom, is it actually true?

After the credits roll over Michel Legrand's ominous piano figures on the soundtrack and Redgrave delivers the iconic quote, the film begins with two schoolboys being driven in a horse and carriage down a wooded driveway. Evoking similar scenes in Jane Austen and Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, we glimpse a huge country house between the trees and our journey into the land of landed gentry and the aristocracy has begun.

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TOPICS: History; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: alanbates; juliechristie; movies; thegobetween

[Third Person]

The Go-Betweens were a great band

[sopo]

I think I generally “get” Steyn pretty well, but either he’s floundering here or I am. The embedded video on class roles seems like some kind of inversion “the past is a foreign...”

[Twotone]

This is Rick McGinnis, Steyn-on-Line’s move reviewer. I’ve never seen this movie, myself.

[sopo]

ok, I should have checked that; since Steyn has been doing quite a bit more, I assumed him. I haven’t seen the movie or read the book either. The lack of pithiness of thereview ws really a dead give away it wasn’t Steyn.

[Biblebelter]

I didn’t go to “film school” but my college transcript has at least 30 semester hours in film and filmmaking.

This is a film that I saw in one of my classes.

We also saw Accident scripted by Pinter.

My over fifty year memory of the film is very positive.

I have seen quite a bit of Losey and I thought this was his best film.

Although I get the “class” stuff which has always been a predominant theme in Brit lit, I saw it more as a well done period drama/love story.

I also like this film much better than Far From the Madding Crowd which too was period drama/love story starring Christie and Bates.

That film was in the MGM mold back then of making overlong big budget productions.

Steyn also mentions Get Carter which he reviewed last year.

The Third Man, The Go-Between, Get Carter, and Mike Leigh’s Naked are probably among my favorite Brit films.

[CaptainK]

It’s a top tier movie. I saw it in NYC when it first came out. All the actors involved are amazing and Dominic Guard gives one of the great adolescent performances.

For whatever reason it’s not shown that much on movie channels. A shame considering the garbage coming nowadays. It’s better than any of the movies up for a Oscar next week.