merklynn
Menegroth
Jun 3 2008, 2:20am
Views: 4452
|
I think we all live by labels. It is human culture to categorize things in order to memorize and learn from them. We do it from birth. One experience leads us to define another. One example, gives us something to measure another by. With films, particularly ones we enjoy, we want to revisit those same moods and themes. It is important that we all understand that the categories into which we lump things in our minds are not rigid and that there are constantly new twists and surprises for each of us when we discover something that does not fit perfectly into one or another. So understanding this and keeping aware of it is the best way to remain open minded in general.
Personally, one of the lessons I have found hardest to learn over the years, but I think I have finally grasped it, is that adaptations are simply that. Adaptations. Interpretations of one person, or group of people. Their differences alone should not be enough to diminish their enjoyment. Differences in taste however are fair game to all, and politely respecting that someone's version of a story differs from your own, is the best way to handle it. In PJs case I enjoyed the Frighteners, and Heavenly Creatures, but was never big into gore and did not like his earlier stuff, purely because of my own sensibilities. But there are few better examples thant Guillermo and Peter when it comes to the range of films they want to tackle. I think Lovely Bones, King Kong, LOTR, Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners, Brain Dead / Dead Alive are about as wide ranging a canvass as a director can have. Guillermo has a very similar range of genres with The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth, Blade II, and Hellboy, not to mention those I have not yet seen. So what I'm trying to say is that I'm not sucking up, I'll be the first to post in these forums that The Hobbit didn't work for me if it didn't, but I expect to give GDT the respect that it is his interpretation. No one can touch my own personal Middle-earth after all.
The facts are both directors as artists are capable of many forms of expression and have many interests. It is a shame that they can become pigeon-holed by the industy, much like actors can become stereotyped. Take my new signature for example... am I not stereotyping? To be honest, I don't think so, since the particular shots are taken from a time travel film... but we all have expectations of what our hero should look like, and what a book should look like in our heads. Some people want to be surprised, others want the director and their own vision to match as closely as possible. I fall somewhere between the two, but I respect that it is GDTs project, not mine.
(This post was edited by merklynn on Jun 3 2008, 2:23am)
|
