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The One Ring Forums: Off Topic: Off Topic: the recent "Persuasion" with Dakota Johnson comes to mind: Edit Log



Annael
Immortal


Dec 9 2024, 3:03pm


Views: 698
the recent "Persuasion" with Dakota Johnson comes to mind

in which the central character--one of my personal favorites--was changed out of all recognttion. I couldn't watch past the first five minutes. Both the Syfy and Studio Ghibli versions of "A Wizard of Earthsea" likewise. They used the same names but otherwise went totally off-book.

I'm happy to see all these "adaptations" were roundly panned by critics and fans of the books. But people who hadn't read the books liked them, which is why such stuff keeps getting made, apparently.

I don't mind adaptations that take a story and reimagine it in another time and place. Seen some wonderful Shakespeare adaptations, like "A Midsummer Night's Dream" set in the 1970s, or "Macbeth" set in feudal Japan. "The LIzzie Bennet Diaries" reimagined Pride and Prejudice with a cast of millennials working in digital media. But the characters and plot were true to the originals. Peter Jackson's big flaw, imho, was his overwhelming need to ramp up tension and create a character arc for every single character, even those who remain unwaveringly themselves in all situations in the book (especially Aragorn, Faramir, and Sam). It backfired for me; I thought it detracted from the stories of those who did change over time, and added nothing, plus I kept growling "He would never say that! He wouldn't act like that!" at the screen.

Overall, I agree with the sentiment that if you want to change the characters to fit modern sensibilities, don't pretend you are retelling the same story. Rename everything, say "inspired by" or call it your homage to the original if you must.

Now I'm remembering the classic Pauline Kael review of "The Scarlet Letter" with Demi Moore, which she said "was 'freely adapted' from the book in the sense that methane is 'freely adapted' from cows."Wink

I am a dreamer of words, of written words.
-- Gaston Bachelard

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NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967


(This post was edited by Annael on Dec 9 2024, 3:12pm)


Edit Log:
Post edited by Annael (Immortal) on Dec 9 2024, 3:06pm
Post edited by Annael (Immortal) on Dec 9 2024, 3:12pm


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