THE COURIER Monday February 28 2011
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Film Culture
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Film Editor: Adam Williams - courier.culture-film@ncl.ac.uk
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Making films by the book
Sucker Punch
Jeremy Trotter takes a look at how successful film adaptations of famous literature can be From The Godfather to Jaws, literature has been one of the most common sources of inspiration for film-makers. The box-office chart is frequently filled with book adaptations, with a Top 10 this week that includes 127 Hours, The Green Hornet, Gulliver’s Travels, and of course, Gnomeo and Juliet all having been derived from a literary source. The recent release of True Grit is the latest addition, which has been described by the Coen brothers as faithful to the novel. The recurrent problem regarding book adaptations that film-makers must address is how close the film should be to the source novel. Adapting a book is tricky, as one has to please not only fans of the novel, but also satisfy newcomers. There is always the inevitable outcry from readers when characters or the plot are changed, but it is important to remember that books and the cinema are different mediums. Each requires completely different pacing and structure. For the keen reader there is an awkward situation when a favourite book is adapted. The film-maker will inevitably change certain aspects from the book, or just simply use the title and the film bears no resemblance. In books, the way characters and scenes are visualized are unique to each reader, but once a director has committed something to the screen, by default that becomes the standard version. What is essential for a good adaptation is that the key themes and spirit of the novel survive the transi-
tion to the screen. In the Harry Potter series, there were sometimes vast differences between the book and the film that annoyed some fans. However, the films are successful in that they capture the magic of the alternate world as written by JK Rowling. The pacing of the film would be extremely slow if every plot point was adapted. The same can be said about The Lord of the Rings. The success of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings led to a rush of film-makers searching for the latest fantasy author to adapt. They struck lucky with the Twilight saga, but failed massively with Eragon which was critically panned. Philip Pullman’s The Northern Lights, filmed as The Golden Compass, also was such a failure that the sequels are unlikely to be filmed. Blame has been directed at the producers for having watered down the anti-religious subtext, which just shows that in adaptations although the plot can be changed, the key themes of the source novel must survive. Although every genre of novel has been adapted, sci-fi and fantasy novels are a firm favourite of Hollywood, who scour the back-catalogue of authors for inspiration. Famously the work of Philip K. Dick has been frequently adapted, with works such as Blade Runner and Minority Report having been filmed. Robert Heinlein’s novel Starship Troopers was also adapted successfully. The combination of expensive specialeffects and the novel’s fascist allegory resulted in a fairly entertaining
Director: Zack Snyder Cast: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone ETA: March 2011
Lord of the adaptations: J. R. R. Tolkien’s series of books were turned into films
film. It is often the case that a film is less obviously inspired from a book, such as 2004’s Downfall. Although ostensibly a historical drama set in the last days of Hitler’s bunker, it draws heavily from the diary of Hitler’s secretary, Traudl Junge. Similarly, the true story of Schindler’s List was actually adapted from Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keaneally. Notable also was the screen version of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, a tale of childhood friendship in Auschwitz. Interestingly despite it being a children’s book, the film version was rated 12A due to the distressing climactic scenes. The film was lauded however for introducing the Holocaust to young people. For every successful adaptation there are disappointments. Danny
Boyle’s The Beach failed to capture the true spirit of backpacking, nor the breakdown of a utopia as described by Alex Garland. It might be unfair to single out the casting of Leonardo Di Caprio, but there were differences between his performance and the description of the protagonist in the novel. Book adaptations will continue to cause controversy. The ownership of film-rights is lucrative business, and can get very fraught as seen recently in the wrangling over the rights to The Hobbit. Although there are often films that merely trade on the title of a book, some adaptations are quite exceptional and may act as a complement to its source, if not exceed it.
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Literary adaptations 5) A Scanner Darkly Whilst this is not one of the best known films based on Phillip K. Dick’s Sci-Fi back catalogue, it is possibly the most disconcerting. Where Bladerunner questioned what it is to be human, A Scanner Darkly delves into the trappings of a not too distant dystopia where questions of personal identity, the role of the authorities and the necessity of escapism are raised. Director Linklater’s use of the Rotoscope technique (animation over live action) creates a dizzying and disorientating visual quality that perfectly suits the subject matter. 4) Breakfast at Tiffany’s The need for films to be more commercially attractive than their literary counterpoints is beautifully shown in the 1960s adaptations of Truman Capote’s novella. What could have been a depressing drama about the difficulties of surviving in the city is stylistically turned into the classic romantic comedy. With the shades softened around the edges Hepburn’s character is made
a carefree spirit looking for love that all women can idolise. In this role she became one of the defining icons of twentieth century cinema. 3) Fight Club When Fincher’s version of Palahniuk’s book was released it’s unlikely anyone had predicted the extent to which it would permeate to the heart of contemporary culture. The mark of a great adaptation is surely those that outgrow their original conception and thanks to this skilfully marketed anti-corporate package few will have read the initial text but, as they are so similar, they have almost merged into one. It raises questions about the nature of commodity culture, whilst making a lot of money along the way. 2) Atonement Take one of the most popular modern authors, combine with two of Britain’s most popular actors and heart-breaking wartime conflicts, and you may be bound for success. This could be what Joe Wright thought when deciding to adapt
First gaining real attention during the production of Watchmen, Zach Snyder’s latest WTF-athon looks set to push the boundaries of CGI and slow motion to the maximum. Sucker Punch is basically the result of giving a child with an overactive imagination $85 million and a bunch of women in skimpy Catholic school girl outfits. Snyder himself as described it as “Alice in Wonderland with guns” and, judging by the trailers, he isn’t wrong. With ninjas, dragons, robots, huge weapons and large mythical creatures, this is pretty much an attempt to get everything possible into one film. And this may be its downfall. It looks very much like a dark Alice in Wonderland, with hints of American McGee’s Alice about it, but this attempt to pack everything into one, slow mo filled CGI fest may detract from the story. It’s at this point it should be made clear that the story is insane. The story focuses on Baby Doll, who is locked away in a 1950s mental asylum by her stepfather. Using her imagination as an escape, she realises that by utilising this, and gaining the help of other inmates, her imagination can be more than just a coping mechanism, instead acting as an actual release from the confines of the asylum. With a female ensemble lead cast including Emily Browning, Jena Malone and Abbie Cornish, and other relatively bigger name stars, such as John Hamm and Scott Glenn, it’s impossible to tell whether or not Sucker Punch is actually going to be good or not. It seems to tread a fine line where story is sacrificed for exciting special effects à la Avatar. Snyder has said that he had a script but wanted to take the action scenes and build a story in which these action scenes could become more fantastical but not detract from the story, though that is easier in theory than in practise. His record has been relatively successful with a remake of Dawn of the Dead, an adaptation of Watchmen and 300 under his belt; time will tell if the master of slow mo can pull this off when Sucker Punch is released next month. Chris Taylor
McEwan’s powerful novel about deceit, love and family bonds. Losing none of the passion of the book, it is beautifully filmed and takes advantage of the recent popularity for period drama with the costumes sometimes out shadowing the acting. 1) A Clockwork Orange Adapting a book which is already heavily stylised and iconic in its own right can fall into the trap of a car-
bon copy film; however Kubrick’s independent vision allows this 1971 adaptation to become a standalone classic. Arguably seen as the defining film of this period of Kubrick’s career, the film fuses brilliantly the ultra-violence and terror of Burgess’ narrative with a social commentary that has not aged in the 40 years since its conception. Perhaps avoid if easily offended. Polly Randall