Sorry, this movie sucks

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Can't say enough about this brilliant telling of a classic story. An A+ cast that cannot be topped. A truly most-see TV-movie!

How is it possible that such a brilliant cast could make such a bad adaptation of a classic novel? Anthony Hopkins is not allowed to put any real life into Quasimodo, and Derek Jacobi just barely lets us see into his tortured soul. Lesley-Anne Down is laughable as an actress, although breathtakingly beautiful. The real surprise here is David Suchet, who plays a character utterly unlike any we are used to -- a far cry from Poirot!Why was I disappointed? The sound is terrible, the cuts between scenes disjointed, the scenery poorly constructed, and the actors are hemmed in by a terrible script. We are not given insight to the relationship between Quasimodo and the Archdeacon, nor between Pierre and Esmerelda. Tim Piggott-Smith has about the best character development, and he is a secondary character at best.Cameos by such luminaries as John Gielgud and Nigel Hawthorne heightened the disappointment even more. This one is really a stinker and a waste of England's best talent.

With every different version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" that I have ever seen, I hope again that I will one day see a film that copies the novel exactly. Victor Hugo's novel is a tragedy all the way, and it does NOT have a happy ending, or even a semi-happy one! The only version that is most like "Notre Dame de Paris" is the 1977 film described elsewhere in this site. However, the 1982 version comes closer than the earlier ones, which, because of censorship, could not have an Archbishop feverishly pursuing a heathen gypsy female through the dark streets of Paris, laying aside his priestly vows to lust after her to the death. This dark, Gothic romance cries out for black and white--it just doesn't work in color, and the color here is gorgeous. See the 1939 Laughton version to see what I mean. And speaking of the Laughton version, Anthony Hopkins is obviously copying Charles Laughton's legendary performance, and does it quite well--one great actor's nod to another. Has Anthony Hopkins ever given a bad performance? Or has Derek Jacobi, for that matter? He succeeds in making Dom Claude what I have always considered this character to be--not a villain, but a pathetic, pitiable character torn between his holy vows and his forbidden lust for a beautiful gypsy dancer. Lesley-Ann Down is lovely, to say the least, as Esmeralda, and the supporting cast is solid. David Suchet as Clopin is fine in his own way, but it was a thankless task to try to follow Thomas Mitchell's great, over-the-top turn as the King of the Beggars in the 1939 version. Though this version is not as good as it could have been, it still is one of the best, and well worth your time.

This movie version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame is superbly similar to the Hugo novel. Quasimodo looks exactly like it's told in the book, he is almost deaf, and in this movie we see yet another "little Esmeralda", who reminds us of the dancer in the Dieterle version.I was quite surprised that even Frollo is rather good to Quasimodo - just like in the novel - but when he already at the beginning started to show his passion for Esmeralda, I knew that he is just like he must be. Honestly, I couldn't only hate him because he later seemed to be quite unhappy of being "bewitched" and that Esmeralda refused to answer to his feelings.I was especially shocked that the film had even the torture scene of Esmeralda. Captain Phoebus, too, was surprisingly similar to the character of the book, and it was good that Gringoire tried to warn Esmeralda about him. It was also really moving to hear Quasimodo talk about his own ugliness.The only thing I was a little disappointed in was the end; although it doesn't belong to the novel, I had started to hope that Esmeralda could see the truth about Quasimodo.