Dan has a wonderful post up right now.
Here is his deal:
The other night I passed an hour or so watching the extras on the Master and Commander DVD. One of these extras features Peter Weir discussing the process of adapting O’Brian’s novel(s) to the screen, during the course of which he says something to the effect of ‘it’s very hard to make a great movie from a great book.’ I would quibble with this statement only slightly, amending it to ‘it’s very hard to make a great movie from a greatly loved book.’ War and Peace is undoubtedly a ‘great’ book, but greatly loved? In contrast, arguments will rage over whether The Lord of the Rings is a ‘great’ book, but is undeniably greatly loved.
When you take these greatly loved books, and adapt them to the screen, that you must be very careful.
Because the audiences of the book love these characters. These people are not cardboard cutouts. They LIVE.
Dan points out that the strength of “greatly loved books” usually lies in the characters, not in the plot, not in the main events. The characters are emblazoned in our minds. Holden Caulfield. I could tell you, sort of, what happens to him … but I could talk forever about who I think he is.
One of the reasons that fans of the Anne of Green Gables books (and those books move beyond being greatly-loved, and cross over into scary obsessive-compulsive-disorder for large swaths of the globe) loved the mini-series EVEN THOUGH it changed aspects of the plot, and shifted some things – (and I’m such a purist, that I had a hard time accepting the changes). I think the fans gave a vote of confidence to the mini-series because they captured the CHARACTER.
Anne Shirley is a very clear character, you read the book and you actually feel like you are meeting a flesh-and-blood 3-dimensional real person. And the mini-series did not suddenly make her something different, or try to alter her in any way.
Like Dan says: I recognized the character in the mini-series as the same one I had met when reading the books.
Still, she wasn’t exactly MY Anne, because MY Anne exists only in my head, but it was close enough, and it captured the spirit of the books, the spirit of who that girl is, and why she means so much to so many people.
Go read his post. It’s very good stuff.
I have to stop reading your greatness after six rounds at the pub. Come to think of it, I need to stop having rounds at the pub on Wednesdays.
I’ve read this blog pretty consistently for the last couple of months and posted occasionally. After reading a bunch of today’s posts, I had an epiphany about why I like the writing (and commentary) so well. In the world that I work in (environmental consulting), I work with thoughtful and intelligent people who can generally write and express themselves well. The writing is just all devoid of passion. So today, on your site, I got to read posts that are observant and well written, but also feature (by turns) obsession, fury, and terror. So thanks for sharing your skill, and your passion.
Emily – “rounds at the pub” is a worthy pursuit, any day of the week.
Jackstraw: Why thank you kindly.