Movie Madness


Wherein Our Heroine Looks at Cultural Icons.
Good morning. I have a question.

Why do people always get their undies in a bundle over movie adaptations?

Don't get me wrong - I've done it, too. There is always the urge to be a grumbling purist when someone has taken a beloved work of fiction and turned it into a screen gem (or screen turd, as the case may be). For instance, as a Jane Austen fan, I was quite cross about the Gwyneth Paltrow adaptation of Emma, mostly because the screenwriter seemed to think that a lot of seemingly innocuous plot points didn't suit him, and he changed them wholesale to suit his vision. Thus, we end up with a movie that was precious and jarringly clowny. Alternatively, there are changes that make sense - Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility added a whole new plot device (the Atlas, for those of you who care) that doesn't exist in the book in order to allow some of the characters to bond swiftly and believably in the space allowed by a movie's running time. The only movie I have ever seen that seemed to match the novel almost word-for-word and note-for-note was The Princess Bride. It's probably no wonder that it's such a beloved film.

So, there are changes and there are changes. There are changes that make a story fit into a movie's structure and there are changes that are imposed because a screenwriter hired to adapt a novel believes his bits are better. (Side note - I heard Douglas McGrath, the man who adapted "Emma" for the screen, interviewed on the radio once. He kept going on and on about Austen's "genius." So his arbitrary changes seemed like a severe case of hubris to me.)

Then, there is the movie that has been so worked over that it bears little or no resemblance to the original work it is based on. Yes, I'm referring to the latest blockbuster, I, Robot. It appears that it shares only a title and Asimov's famous "Three Laws of Robotics" with Asimov's original collection of stories. This has been reported ad nauseam in every newspaper, magazine and weblog out there. Yet Asimov fans still go to the movie and come out aghast at what that screen hero, Will Smith, hath wrought. What happened to their beloved Asimov plot?

Here's a suggestion - if you're an Asimov purist, it might be better to skip "I, Robot." At the very least, don't pay $8-10 to see it. Just a thought.
Posted: Tuesday - July 20, 2004 at 08:03 AM         | |

©