Archive for the ‘On movies’ Category
Quoting SILENCE OF THE LAMBS for the win
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Another reason my wife is awesome
Mrs. Novels and I were sitting through the coming attractions of IRON MAN on Sunday — viewing number two for me — and the one for THE DARK KNIGHT rolled last.
She gasped (swooned?) when Aaron Eckhart appeared on screen the first time. Later, when the trailer flashed a scene of the actor laying cheek down in a puddle of some toxic liquid, she leaned to me and whispered, “I didn’t know my movie boyfriend is playing Two Face.”
This from a woman who thinks comic books — and, therefore, most comic book movies — are silly. I love that I didn’t have to tell her that Harvey Dent becomes Two Face.
Sphere: Related ContentIt’s safe to say I’m stoked
People who know me are well aware I’m ready for the first of this year’s summer Hollywood blockbusters. Since June of 1995, I’ve had this etched into my left leg:
And speaking of comic book tattoos, here’s a guy who’s really dedicated.
While I’m on the subject of comics, don’t forget about this:
It’s tomorrow at fine comic book shops near you.
Sphere: Related ContentManhunter vs. Red Dragon
Within the last week or so, I’ve had the chance to see both Manhunter and Red Dragon… the two movie versions of Thomas Harris’s fantastic novel — also called RED DRAGON — that first introduced us to Hannibal Lecter.
The debate over which is better seems to rage on — some twelve years after Manhunter and six years after Red Dragon — I figured I’d add my two pennies.
My recent viewing of these movies came quite by accident. The week before last, the Sleuth Channel showed Manhunter — Michael Mann’s 1986 version. Then, a few days ago, the channel showed Red Dragon — Brett Ratner’s 1986 remake. Stumbling across them while flipping through channels was utter serendipity.
I’d seen both movies before (Manhunter was a rental many years after the theatrical release; I saw Red Dragon in the theater the week it came out). But I’d never seen them this close together. It was as near to a freshness squeeze test as I could get without renting them each — along with Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal1, and Hannibal Rising2 — for a full on Lecter-a-thon.
As I watched Red Dragon, I began thinking about the two movies… the performances, the direction, the cinematography, faithfulness to the book. Many things stood out to me with each.
That said, let’s break ‘em down.
Character: Will Graham
Our hero… he’s reluctant, he’s smart, he’s really fucked up after having almost lost his life putting away Lecter in the biggest bust of his career. It’s safe to say Hannibal the Cannibal really got into Graham’s head.
Played by William Petersen and Ed Norton3, the actors reveal different things in the character.
Petersen is quiet, more reluctant to remove the walls Graham’s built around himself. Norton is angrier… and more willing to jump in the fray.
Petersen played it spare, which made his flashes of passion more intense. Norton played him analytical, which came across more methodical. Either way can work: Graham’s a psychological profiler, after all.
In the end, I have to go with the way I remember the character in the book.
Winner: Petersen
Character: Jack Crawford
Graham’s old FBI boss and the man who coaxes the erstwhile agent out of retirement to help solve the heinous serial murders of two suburban families.
Played by Dennis Farina and Harvey Keitel, we have two entirely different sorts of guys:
- Farina, the in-your-face, once-a-cop-always-a-cop tough guy.
- Keitel, intense and commanding, yet understated tough guy.
What’s important to note is that both actors have long careers of playing the same freaking guy in everything they do. The difference is that Farina’s performance in Manhunter is early on in our collective familiarity. By the time Red Dragon hit theaters, we’d been well aware of what Keitel does.
Knowing this, Farina’s Crawford seemed fresh. Keitel’s was wooden and, well, dull.
Winner: Farina4
Character: Hannibal Lecter
The most delicious villain ever to appear in print or on screen.
Come on, “Chianti and fava beans ffffffthhhhhht” is embedded into the global pop culture. What more can I possibly say about this magnificent bad guy’s great canon?
Played by Brian Cox and, of course, Anthony Hopkins, the role serves as our introduction to this marvelous character. And, again, we have to put things in context.
In the book, Lecter is an important, but small, character. He’s wicked and brilliant. He was also a plot device.5 Cox, who could have chewed up all kinds of set, got it and played it perfectly. Hopkins, who catapulted the character into the stratosphere, overplayed it.6 By a country mile.
In what will likely be the biggest shocker here…
Winner: Cox
Character: Francis Dollarhyde
The man of the hour. The Tooth Fairy. Mr. D.
The two actors who played the baddy — Tom Noonan and Ralph Fiennes — each brought different skills to the game. Noonan, the physical giant, was understated and creepy. Fiennes, the acting giant7, was brilliant and creepy.
Neither of them fit the bill… at least as it was described by Harris in the book: Dollarhyde was seriously jacked8.
If you recall, there were two places in the Red Dragon movie where this notion appears. Reba, the blind love interest with whom Dollarhyde works, mentions that their female coworkers say he’s got a fantastic body. Later Graham says that Dollarhyde is a bodybuilder. His physique is an important trait because the creep-o was consumed by his desire to make himself more attractive to women.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Noonan was just circus tall. Fiennes was downright scrawny.
Don’t get me wrong… the each actor had his pluses. Noonan was physically imposing, while failing to bring out the depth to Dollarhyde’s mental illness. Fiennes was puny, but really rocked how tormented and batshit crazy Dollarhyde was.
Winner: Push
Director: Michael Mann, Brett Ratner
This one might spark a little discussion.
On the one hand, Manhunter had Michael Mann, who directed The Last of the Mohicans, The Insider, and Collateral. On the other, Red Dragon had Brett Ratner, who directed all three Rush Hour movies, and The Family Man.
Mann makes layered, heavy-ish movies with exquisite cinematography. Ratner makes over-the-top, slick Hollywood movies.9 Both did well with the source material… for many of the reasons already listed.
In fairness, Ratner was truer to the book — especially where Dollarhyde-the-wingnut and the ending are concerned. He also recreated the Silence of the Lambs sets, and brought back a number other Silence actors — aside from Hopkins — to reprise their roles.
Can’t hold these last things against Mann. He was the first to explore Harris’s book, after all. You can, however, hold him responsible for leaving off the awesome twist at the end. That was a major whiff if you ask me.
Still, Ratner had it easy. Silence of the Lambs — the movie — gave him an exceptional head start. He also had RED DRAGON, the book. Mann had only RED DRAGON, the book.
Winner: Mann
Manhunter wins in a landslide
So there you have it: Michael Mann’s take wins the day… which isn’t a slag against Brett Ratner’s Red Dragon. I do really like both movies.
It’s just that Manhunter does a much better job overall at bringing Harris’s awesome novel to the screen.
What say you?
If you wanna tell me I’m full of shit — along with the reasons “why” with some intelligent discussion — drop me another line in the comment trail. And if you’ve got a suggestion for another faceoff like this, drop me a line in the comment trail.
Sphere: Related Content- I’m in the minority here, but I liked this movie [⇑]
- I haven’t seen this one. My wife said it was terrible and that’s good enough for me. [⇑]
- Manhunter and Red Dragon, respectively. From here on out, I’ll use this order. [⇑]
- Neither actor gave the best portrayal of Jack Crawford. That goes to Silence’s Scott Glenn. [⇑]
- Okay… a REALLY well done plot device. [⇑]
- Though this may not be his fault. Red Dragon screenwriter Ted Tally — who also penned Silence — added several new scenes especially for Hopkins. You get Tony Hopkins… might as well use him as much as possible. [⇑]
- Which isn’t saying Noonan’s a terrible actor. He runs The Actor’s Studio, so he’s pretty good, really. [⇑]
- That’s gym speak for super-muscular, like a bodybuilder. [⇑]
- This isn’t meant to express a preference. I love both kinds. [⇑]
6 book-to-movie adaptations that rock
Sitting in the theater over the weekend, watching GONE, BABY, GONE—Ben Affleck’s solid directorial debut—I couldn’t help but think that, without books, Hollywood would be screwed.
Quite frankly, and without a doubt, the best movies come from books.
I remember watching flicks as a kid and being surprised that the movie I just saw was based on a novel. Not coincidentally, some of the books that make this list are the direct result of that discovery. Now, I find I’m shocked when a decent movie I’ve seen didn’t begin as someone’s novel.
I’m not saying that there aren’t screenwriters out there incapable of a decent script that didn’t originate from someone’s novel or short story… because there are screenwriters out there who do write good, original material for the screen.
It seems, though, most of those people both write and direct the movie… such as Noah Baumbach, Kevin Smith, and Wes Anderson. Plus, we get any number of comic book movies every year that have canonical roots in the books themselves, but the work that appears on the finished page comes from the mind of a screenwriter (or five… plus an uncredited dialogue polish from Carrie Fisher).
So, after leaving the theater, my wife and I discussed the movie. She didn’t like it, by the way. I liked it more than she did, but I don’t think Affleck’s name should appear among the list of directors nominated for an Oscar next year.
“What’d you think,” I asked.
“It was okay.”
“You didn’t like it.”
She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “I’m glad there was more movie after the part where I thought it was going to end. Otherwise, I thought it would’ve totally sucked. It was just kind of slow. I kept waiting for something to happen.”
Fair enough. I nodded and said, “I kept reminding myself the movie was true to Dennis Lehane’s story without being faithful to the words on the page, kinda take it for what it was. Still, it just wasn’t as good as the book I’d just finished reading.”
“You know,” she said, “I think mediocre books make better movies.”
“I can see that. Really good books have really good characters and movies sometimes can’t do what books do. Books have the luxury of space and time to reveal character, so directors really have to finds something small and really get it right for it to work.”
“I can’t wait for Peter Jackson to make THE LOVELY BONES because it’s probably going to be great. That book was a chore.”
I laughed. But that got me thinking more about good books that ended up as good movies.
That said, what follows are the best six book-to-movie adaptations ever made. Please, don’t go all half-cocked on me… I did establish some criteria:
- The book must be one that I’ve read
- The movie must be one that I’ve seen
- The movie must be faithful to the story
It had to meet all points above or it didn’t count. I thought about them a lot and here they are:
- THE GODFATHER/THE GODFATHER, PART II
- ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN
- THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP
- BIRDY
- DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?/BLADE RUNNER
- JURASSIC PARK
I realize that this is two movies, but PART II’s flashback scenes—almost half the movie—came directly from the novel so it’s really a continuation of the first in ways that sequels usually aren’t.
There’s not much, however, to say about these movies that hasn’t been said much better by others before me. But I will say I’ve never seen a book brought to life so perfectly by its movie counterpart than in this example.
I’ve owned the movies on VHS or DVD, and the novel now for twenty years. I often read the book and then follow it immediately with a movie marathon. Try it sometime… it’s a Godfather Geek-a-palooza.
Who said the book had to be fiction? Not me.
I remember seeing this movie in the very early 80s and being fascinated by the story… mystery and palace intrigue, good versus evil, dirty shenanigans.
It’s where I learned that “follow the money” was the secret to unraveling most everything, and I was hooked by the fact that these guys were writers—not cops. And, for the son of a cop, it was almost a life changing revelation.
What’s more is that Woodward and Bernstein turned reporters into celebrities for reporting. I’ve also done the read-the-book-watch-the-movie thing with this one, too.
I’ve mentioned it before, but this book is what made me want to become a writer. But I never would’ve known it was a book had I not seen the movie.
In fact, I loved this movie so much that—after watching it on HBO for the first time—I had my dad drive me to the bookstore to buy the book. I still have the same copy and I’ve read it countless times since.
Not many people remember this movie—which won the Grand Prize of the Jury at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival—and I’m not sure that many more remember the book (William Wharton’s first).
But it’s a brilliant story of guys whose friendship is forged on the tough streets of Philly and nearly torn apart by the Viet Nam war. The 80s brought us many Viet Nam movies—most of them more famous—but none of them were better than this one.
Oddly enough, I’ve read this book just once. Still, it’s one of my favorites.
As crazy as it is, this movie was my first real introduction to the noir tradition. I was fourteen years old in 1982, the year of this movie’s release, and in love with science fiction. Take the guy who played Han Solo and put him in another sci fi movie and, well, it was cinematic genius where I was concerned.
I got way more than I’d bargained for with BLADE RUNNER. Ridley Scott’s stunning cinematic masterpiece—even the voiceover version—freaking blew me away.
Little did I know that my love affair with this movie—and Phil Dick’s brilliant book—would still be on fire some twenty five years later. And, yes, I’m super-stoked for the movie’s silver anniversary DVD release in December.
I literally read the final word and turned the last page of this book as the lights dimmed inside the theater on its opening weekend. Somehow, I remember the guys sitting in front of me and my girlfriend—who’s now my wife—taking bets on how many movie trailers there’d be. I think it was seven.
No matter, I’d borrowed my buddy Ike’s copy of the book—which he’d had long before the flick came out—and madly raced through it, trying to time my finish with the opening. I didn’t want to spoil the book by seeing the movie first.
While the movie version of Crichton’s thriller wasn’t as closely played to the page as some of the others on this list, the brilliance of Spielberg and all those wonderful computer dinosaurs made this a magnificent movie.
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