I saw the Scarlet Letter yesterday in a 1995 version with Gary Oldman, Demi Moore and Robert Duvall.
I hate to sound pretentious, but this was the most outrageous butchery of a classic I have ever seen. I just checked comments on it on the IMDB and most had the same reaction.
I knew nothing of this version; I actually thought I had seen it before, but it turns out that was a 1979 version which was faithful to the book.
To put such a ridiculous improbable happy ending on this film was nothing less than hysterical. I and my wife (who, as it happens, majored in American studies) were aghast, but at the same time it was hugely comical.
I'll never understand the attraction of Demi Moore, btw.
