TOM JONES, BACK AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

Never before and never since has a film director so perfectly and so closely reproduced a novel on the screen as Tony Richardson did in 1963 with Tom Jones. It may be misleading to say that Richardson merely copied the essential details of Henry Fielding's novel, for not only did he remain utterly faithful to the text but he translated and reinterpreted it into the language of film.

Richardson's movie was hugely successful, winning a Best Picture award at the Oscars and attracting a cult following. And yet, only this past month has it been released on videotape. In the hundreds of dictionary-thick books listing thousands of home videos, and the glut of literature on the relatively new world of the VCR, Tom Jones is a near-perfect piece of art which had been shoved off into some dark corner while cheap comedies go from the studio cutting floor to the movie theaters then to a video store shelf in a mater of days.

But Tom Jones, 29 years later, is finally here to stay.

Part of the legend of Richardson's film has revolved around two scenes: "the hunt" and "the feast." Think of any famous, classic film moment, then watch these episodes from Tom Jones, and you'll see the magic quirkiness of Richardson's film.

Of course, the inspiration for all this is Fielding's very long and very funny novel whose subject is the most minute of human quirks and behavior. Except for its length, everything about Tom Jones is small and close and witty. Throughout its course, we meet an assortment of fascinating characters including Squire Allworthy, his neighbor Squire Weston, Blifil, the dashing Tom, his pristine Sophie, the bawdy Molly and so forth.

The truth of Fielding's novel lie within the actions of these rough-edged characters and the primitive land on which they live. Richardson knew this and knew the importance of resisting the temptation to fill the movie with a dramatic, booming, 32-piece soundtrack and wide, overlong images of the sun setting over the fields and horses of rural England. Instead, he stayed small, as did Fielding more than two centuries earlier.

Tom Jones was, in fact, ever so slightly ahead of its time (1963), coming as it did on the cusp of the era of Janis Joplin and LSD. Richardson and Fielding are there to remind us that "free love" was around centuries before the 1960s, may have taken a break during the 50s, but was about to make a strong return by the late 60s. The characters in Tom Jones are among the fiercest drinkers and wildest lovers in all of history.

Things have definitely changes since 1963, among them Albert Finney, who played the role of Tom Jones in Richardson's movie. Finney now possesses all the characteristics of a late-middle-aged man, from the beefy chin to the salt-and-paper hair and loosening skin. Like others his age, Finney endured the 60s, probably just barely, coming out of that decade a shell of the physical god he was in 1963. He is almost a different person from the Finney of 1963, who fit neatly into the role of Tom, the bronzed free spirit skipping about the fields and making love to chambermaids who, as do all women who meet him, find him irresistible. An almost foreign Albert Finney, a distant land and time and a perfectly up-to-date film. That is Tony Richardson's Tom Jones, now at your neighborhood video store.