As assiduous readers will know. I went to see the new Harry Potter film last week. My pal Jane Finnis added a comment to the post which you can see by clicking on “comments”. Read it? Go on, click on the comments. Done it? Fine. You’ll understand what I’m talking about then.
I must admit that I’ve got a lot of sympathy with Jane’s point of view. There’s always a resistance when the world queues up and tells you absolutely positively without stopping that you have to see/read/buy/go to whatever it is NOW!
It’s that vague resentment of being bossed about, I think. That and a innate distrust of propaganda. Surely, one reflects, I’ve lived this long without absolutely positively without stopping seeing/reading/buying/going to this life-changing TV programme/film/book/chocolate fire-lighter/amazing gig. How difficult is it not to continue just doing it? Besides that, there’s a certain imperious in some sorts of advertising that just puts my back up. EAT! says the banner of a chain of sandwich shops. To which, being contrary, I always think, “No, dammit, I won’t. So there.”
I remember when the first Star Wars film came out. The hype in Britain was like nothing we’d ever experienced before. We were bombarded with endless magazine articles, pictures and little plastic models. It was more like being in on the birth of a new religion than merely a new film coming out. It was so over the top that a new top had to be invented for it to go over. I wasn’t that fussed about seeing the film but went along with a group of science-fictioney friends to The Empire, Leicester Square.
And wow. Believe you me, when the utterly vast space cruiser flew overhead on the big screen and vanished into the back row, somewhere far above our heads, I was totally hooked. Seeing Star Wars really was more than just seeing another film, no matter how good it was. It suddenly made you free of a whole new raft of shared cultural references. A grim boss could be referred to as Darth Vader, if you waited too long to be served in a bar, you could do the Jedi Mind trick (or pretend to, at any rate – how cool would the real thing be!) and say, “Use the Force, Luke!” and everyone would get the reference and laugh. Now, of course, those references are completely embedded. When Radio Four launched a new show which asked celebs to try a new activity, it was called, without explanation, “I’ve never seen Star Wars”.
That’s what Harry Potter’s like. When Peter Mandeleson was first sacked from the government (yes, he’s been back and forward ever such a lot of times since!) MP’s in the House of Commons dining-room were heard to rejoice that Voldemort had gone. If you want to phone someone and can’t get through, it’s fairly commonplace to say you’ll “Send an owl” and everyone knows that we’re technically Muggles.
But… Star Wars was a mega budget film with jaw-dropping special effects. Harry Potter is (just) a book. (Books, I know but don’t quibble.) And books, pre Harry, were on the way out. Children, in particular, were thought to have given up on reading, dazzled by the sirens of computer games and TV. By and large, children's books were about Issues or cartoon-types that talked endlessly about lavatories because toilets (apparently) made kids laugh. Grave academic studies told us that the attention span of the average child had dwindled to slightly less than that of a mentally defective mosquito and words on a page were just boring, innit? I mean, like, they don’t move or nuffin. I have, as I’ve mentioned before, there are five junior Gordon-Smiths. On those golden weekends when a new Harry Potter book was published, the house was deathly quiet, full of five intensely reading children. Well done, Harry.
Hmmm...yes, I see what you mean. I saw Star Wars in London when it first came out too, and though I don't think I found it quite as life-changing as you did, I really enjoyed it and saw what the fuss was about. I can think of one film that had a mind-boggling effect on me...much further back in time it was: South Pacific The amazing colours, at a time when many British films, and all British television, were in black and white. OK, I know the canary yellow skies were OTT but I remember how impressed I was at the tender age of nevermindteen. And the music and choreography too...I'd never seen anything like it. If Harry Potter has that effect on kids today, that's great.
ReplyDeleteI think I have finally figured this one out for myself after watching a few Agatha Christie adaptations in my time - if a film/TV drama is good, then it's good, whether or not it is faithful to the book. If a film or drama is bad, then it's BAD. I object to some of the recent AC adaptations, not because it's obviously that the writer has never read the book, but because the story is really, really bad and makes no sense at all. Evil Under the Sun and Death on the Nile don't stick faithfully to the book (particularly EUTS) but they are great films. Equally a film can stick rigidly to a book and make a really boring film (fill in your own example!)
ReplyDeleteThen again, some people will watch, or read anything, if it's by a certain author (who buys all those Dan Brown books?!)
My youngest daughter and I went on my birthday to see the movie (she's 35 so you do the math) - we are big HP fans anyhow but loved, loved the movie...and the book and when I can get it from the library the audio book also - and I rarely re-read any "regular, mostly mystery" books.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what the pull is for me but there is something about all of the HP stories that keeps me fascinated!
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Isn't it nive to have something you can really enjoy with your family - even if they're long past being kids! I think the charm about HP is being made free of another world - but that's the pull of all really good fiction. Thanks for the comment.
ReplyDeleteYes, you're right, Carol. I must admit I've given up a bit on the later AC adaptions, as they veered so far away from the book. That's not necessarily bad, but Christie is so well-plotted it seems nuts to put a new story in there and simply call it a Christie. That's not to say no changes must be made, of course - pictures can sometimes say much more than words and much more expressively and vice versa, so you've got to use the medium you're working in. I think it's a matter of tone as much as anything. If you take a well-loved book, it's got to feel right, to give the same atmosphere as the book.
ReplyDeleteDoes this love of South Pacific explain your theme tune? "There is nothing like a Jane..."
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What a great idea...I'll adopt "There is nothing like a Jane" as my sig tune from now on! I agree with everyone who says that, while you have to change things sometimes when crossing media, you'll be hard put to it to improve on a Christie plot.
ReplyDeleteOh, did that bring back memories, Dolores! Star Wars was, indeed, life-changing for our family because our oldest son was 11 years ald and set on being an astronaut. I think he saw the movie 36 times that summer. I only went along once, but, yes, i, too, remember the moment when the star ship whooshed overhead. We then allowed Stanley to "camp out" in the theatre line when the next one was released so he could get in to the first showing. Stanley then went on to the Air Force Academy, to become an astronautical engineer. (He works in laser development now). and then, 20 years later, in 1999 when the first movie of the "new set" came out, Stanley & kelly were in Korea. The movie premiered in Seoul on THE DAY kelly got out of the hospital with our first grandson. We have a picture of them standing in front of the theatre with 5 dayold Thomas in a carry basket.
ReplyDeleteDolores, I know your blog was about Reading books, but thanks for the chance to reminisce. Oh, yes, and we all love harry Potter, too--books and movies, but books most.
Donna, those are fascinating memories. CS Lewis says something somewhere about having a child's imagination inflamed by literature (he was talking about books but films count too, I'd say) and this setting them on the path which they'll follow in later life. It sounds as if your Stanley should take a bow! I love the idea of the new family with tiny Thomas in a carry-basket. (They're called Moses Baskets in the UK - do you have that expression by the way?) There's one thing for sure - we'd all be so much poorer without imaginative creations such as Star Wars and Harry Potter, even if they're very popular and not "real" literature. There's a lovely phrase of GK Chesterton's - "Literature is a luxury, fiction is a necessity."
ReplyDeleteDonna, what great memories...and Dolores, what a terrific Chesterton quote. If I hadn't already got a quotation for my email signature that I'm rather fond of, I'd be tempted to adopt it!
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