Anne of Green Gables
1985 · 199 min · Family, Drama
Directed by Kevin Sullivan
“Go back to the day that Anne was waiting at the train station...”
At the turn of the century on Prince Edward Island, Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla decide to take on an orphan boy as help for their farm. But they get an unexpected jolt when they're mistakenly sent a girl instead: Anne Shirley.
Why it's worth watching
A beloved, richly acted adaptation celebrating imagination, found family, and the transformative power of love and belonging.
What it praises
Family love (including adoptive/found family), perseverance, honesty, and the beauty of ordinary life.
For discernment
This is the warm, faithful adaptation its reputation promises: Anne's imagination, her fierce loyalty, and the slow softening of Matthew and Marilla into loving adoptive parents are genuinely nourishing, and faith is treated reverently as ordinary furniture of the community. A few things a viewer should not gloss over: an older schoolmaster is depicted flirting with a teenage pupil — holding her hand in a boat, a kiss on the cheek — presented uncritically as a period romance rather than the impropriety it is; Anne unwittingly gets her bosom friend Diana drunk on 'raspberry cordial' that is actually currant wine, played for comedy with vomiting; and the film opens in a genuinely bleak foster home marked by screaming and verbal abuse. There is also a heart-attack death and funeral, and a child's frightening bout of croup. None of this is gratuitous, but the romanticized teacher-student attachment in particular is worth a parent's attention as something the story treats far more casually than a discerning family would.
- SexualityAn adult schoolmaster is shown flirting with a teenage student — holding hands and a kiss on the cheek — depicted as sweet period romance rather than as inappropriate.
- SubstancesAnne accidentally serves Diana currant wine mistaken for cordial; Diana gets visibly drunk and vomits, played for laughs, and a drunk man is briefly seen in flashback.
- NoteThe story opens in an emotionally abusive foster home full of screaming and name-calling, and includes a sudden heart-attack death with a funeral and a small child's near-fatal illness.
- LanguageAnne reads the word 'Hell' aloud from a poem, and an unchurched Anne is repeatedly called a 'heathen.'
Cast
Megan Follows
Anne Shirley
Colleen Dewhurst
Marilla Cuthbert
Richard Farnsworth
Matthew Cuthbert
Patricia Hamilton
Rachel Lynde
Marilyn Lightstone
Miss Muriel Stacey
Schuyler Grant
Diana Barry
Jonathan Crombie
Gilbert Blythe
Charmion King
Aunt Josephine
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