Re: book into film
J J R (jrovira@juno.com)
Sun, 07 Jun 1998 09:03:30 -0400 (EDT)
yeah, Scottie, overall I agree with your assessment of Salinger's
work--your description of its characteristics. I can never see Catcher
being made into a successful film. But I think of all his works, F and Z
may be the easiest to pull off as far as a fairly faithful reproduction
into film. There's a great deal of dialogue, all of which is set in well
described settings, etc. Teddy could probably work this way too. Sgt
Bilko would not, I don't think.
Film and literature are two radically different mediums, however. I've
never heard of an author satisfied with a film adaptation of his or her
work. I've seldom been satisfied with a film if I see it after having
read the book; but many times if I see it before reading the book, I find
myself enjoying the film. I see a book based film, now, as an
independent work of art and try to judge it on its own merits, apart from
my reading of the book.
This justifies film as a medium, too, and making book based films. No
matter what the source of the story, a completely new work is being
created. It's like Shakespeare writing plays based upon histories. We
already have the histories, why write a play? For that matter, many of
his stories were derived from other sources, sources at least sometimes
familiar to his audience. If the existence of the medium itself is
justified, then its use of any source is justified as well.
Jim
On Sun, 07 Jun 1998 08:59:08 +0000 Scottie Bowman <bowman@mail.indigo.ie>
writes:
>
> Why make films of Salinger's works at all ? They're
>singularly
> unvisual & don't greatly depend for their power on the feel
> or appearance of the `real world' - which is what film does
>best.
> Their essential action isn't even vivid dialogue - which is
>not
> Salinger's strong point anyway. They are principally about
> personality & character (of pretty unusual people at that) &
> the various internal pilgramages which they undertake.
>
> If a cluster of ideas have found their most perfect expression
>
> in one medium why try to translate them into another ?
> It's a bit like reconstructing Chartres Cathedral out of
>matchsticks
> or performing the last quartets of Beethoven with a bunch of
> trombones. Interesting no doubt - but not what the man
>intended.
>
> If the wish is simply to teach one's old classmates a bloody
>good
> lesson, as you yourself point out, they won't listen or
>understand
> anyway.
>
> Scottie B.
>
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