A Tale of  Two Cities (1980)  

made for TV movie

Chris Sarandon, Peter Cushing, Kenneth More, Barry Morse, Flora Robson, Billie Whitelaw, Alice Krige

Director: Jim Goddard

7th film of this classic by Charles Dickens.  Not as good as other productions.  It is not very good partly because the script does not give us any reasons or explanations for the "spiritual awakening" of the irresponsible, decadent lawyer, Sydney Carlton (Chris Sarandon), who seems to be suffering from a bad case of depression, that leads to his great sacrifice on behalf of Charles Darnay (Chris Sarandon).  The man with the decadent life-style just decides to be good one day without rhyme or reason.

Also there is no one film character who stands up and says that all this blood letting has gone too far.  Instead, all the focus is on just saving one man, Charles Darnay, from the guillotine.  

The best one in the movie is the evil female French shop owner who wants an extreme form of vengeance, because of her wonderful belief that the sins of one member of a family should fall on all.  

 

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