Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2020 17:25:59 GMT
Usually I am disappointed by whatever they do because the film I saw in my head just ain't the same. Not always so because it can be better - or make sense of a long haul or complicated doings...… War and Peace springs to mind. However, today I found someone in the house had recorded the '76 or so version of Swallows and Amazons - which as it so happened also matched my coffee mug. To my delight it is a gem because it is just how I imagined it from the books - so far it is true to them also. No daft stuff about renaming Titty, either. It has the characters right and close to the original basic illustrations. It took me back many decades to original discovery of these books and characters. The latest film of it did not do that.
|
|
|
|
Post by goodhelenstar on Apr 21, 2020 8:30:41 GMT
I think perhaps it depends on whether you read the book or see the film first. Long, complex novels operating on many levels generally don't translate well to film, perhaps slightly better to TV where they may have many more hours to do justice to it. I haven't read War and Peace (mea culpa) but am aware it's a marathon not a sprint! The Name of the Rose springs to mind – one of my favourite books which was filmed and then made into a TV series for which there’s a thread here: pointsofviewtoo.freeforums.net/thread/3733/name-rose-bbc Very mixed reviews! The film focused almost exclusively on the murder mystery and as a result was a very enjoyable yarn as long as you weren’t expecting the intricacy of the novel. Possession is another favourite of mine, which was made into a dreadful film IMO. But then its subject was literary vanity so perhaps it never stood a chance as a film. |
|
|
|
Post by beverley61 on Apr 21, 2020 11:46:00 GMT
I think the mediums are so different that you have to let it go. I agree that it can be disappointing.
I watched Swallows and Amazons last wee too. I've never read the book so it was new to me and I found it a bit slow.
|
|
|
|
Post by Miranda on Apr 21, 2020 12:01:42 GMT
I think if it's a tricky book then the filmmakers should use the basic idea and make something that works well on film.
For instance, Agatha Christie's Nemesis. It's a very creepy book. It's long-winded and takes time to build but it does build a very creepy atmosphere. When the BBC did the Hickson version, they followed the book pretty closely. But for me it didn't really work. Not a lot happens in the book, it's more about the relationships between the people and the writing. So when ITV did it, they pretty much threw the book out the window and wrote something else. But it did work as a TV drama. I quite enjoyed it and have watched it a couple of times.
So both approaches can work if well-written.
|
|
|
|
Post by yankee on Apr 24, 2020 14:15:45 GMT
Sometimes they work quite well as companion pieces. Sort of distant cousins raised in very different environments.
"Jaws" is a prime example.
The book focused mainly on very complex character studies. The shark, the hunt for the shark was really a subplot that brought a bunch of very different people together.
There are chapters where the shark is barely mentioned.
In the book there are many passages that deal with a sexual affair between Hooper and Cheif Brody's wife Ellen.
Hooper in the book is a pompous, rich, entitled, condescending frat boy.
Ellen Brody a former debutante from money who married below her station and has regrets.
In the book Brody strongly suspects the affair and during the eventual shark hunt he and Hooper are not at all mates like in the film.
In the book Hooper dies in the shark cage and Brody, for a moment at least, is not unhappy about it.
In the book Quint is dies in a way very reminiscent of Captain Ahab in Moby Dick. Dragged off by a rope by the source of his obsession. Quietly drowned. Not the spectacular shark jumping up on the back of the boat and swallowing him whole like in the film.
And the demise of the shark in the book is also very unspectacular. It just sort of dies. The bullets, the harpoons, they take their toll and the dead shark drifts down into the darkness of the sea.
The film changes all of these elements to such a high degree and yet is a very entertaining adventure yarn with spectacular moments and a fairly happy ending.
Each a good piece of entertainment in their own very different way.
|
|
Anymore to come?
