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Entry tags:
- adaptation,
- book: lord of the rings,
- book: pride and prejudice,
- ch: aragorn,
- ch: denethor,
- ch: elizabeth bennet,
- ch: fitzwilliam darcy,
- ch: gandalf,
- fandom: austen,
- fandom: middle-earth,
- film: lord of the rings 2001,
- genre: meta,
- húrinionath,
- person: jrr tolkien,
- rants,
- ship: darcy/elizabeth,
- site: tumblr,
- tv: pride and prejudice 1995,
- wank
Tumblr crosspost (15 November 2020)
It’s occurred to me that two of my least favorite scenes in two very different adaptations are … basically the same.
(Predictably, ranting negativity re: Jackson’s LOTR and Davies’s P&P under the cut)
I’ve talked about the P&P 1995 one bugging me before, but it’s the scene at Netherfield where Darcy snaps out “and yours is wilfully to misunderstand them” and it’s all UST-ish. The dialogue is almost word for word taken from the book, and I’ve seen it praised as one of the best scenes on more than one occasion. But for me, it kind of epitomizes my issues with the whole adaptation and especially the treatment of Darcy, because of how the supposed fidelity is executed.
(This is considering it as an adaptation and not TV—it’s good TV, but it is also an adaptation that’s praised to the skies for fidelity and that’s where a lot of my annoyance comes from.)
The thing is, the whole snappish UST deal between Elizabeth and Darcy is not their dynamic in the book—not mutually. Austen’s Darcy smiles as he delivers his line, and is repeatedly described as smiling in that phase of the novel. At Pemberley, Elizabeth remembers this when she recognizes the same smile in his portrait (we immediately thereafter hear that it was painted when his idolized father was alive, IMO suggesting that he feels around her the way he did at that easier, happier part of his life).
So all indication is that he enjoys being around her and having their back and forths. He doesn’t understand that it’s not enjoyable banter to Elizabeth—at least not in the same way that it is for him, and the disparity in their reactions is a major part of the point of those scenes.
On the face of it, converting Darcy smiling to Darcy snapping might not seem a monumental difference, but I think it really does change the entire tenor of the scene, and replacing Darcy’s smiles with irritable or brooding moments is a thing that adaptation does really often and yet it’s supposed to be the One True P&P and esp the One True Darcy.
>_<
As for LOTR, the scene I’m thinking of is the (initial) confrontation between Gandalf and Denethor. In general, the movies very persistently downplay Denethor and his family’s qualities. Like, Tolkien repeatedly associates Denethor with Aragorn and that is just—not there in the films, at all, because Aragorn is made so super special and Denethor so awful. Meanwhile, book!Gandalf’s warning to Pippin about Denethor shows a level of respect for the Stewards and particularly Denethor that is completely inverted in the film, where he describes them as “lesser men.” >:(
Anyway, film!Gandalf’s response to Denethor in that scene is very similar to the book in terms of the written dialogue, like the P&P scene. But in the film scene, Gandalf seems angry and tacks on steward in a tone of utter disdain. IIRC the line immediately following this in the book (“for I also am a steward”) is cut out to make that contempt work (this also reminds me of 1995 P&P cutting out “God bless you” from Darcy’s letter to make their treatment of it work, though it’s worse than that). But in the book, after that scene, Gandalf classes Denethor in with himself again.
To be sure, he does not seem to really approve of Denethor in that moment; he’s quietly rebuking him. But that is something very different from film!Gandalf’s contempt for Denethor and the Stewardship. Book!Gandalf has a clear respect for Denethor’s abilities and stature, and his arc is treated as the tragic fall of a genuinely great man. The film, on the other hand, pretty clearly had zero respect for Denethor and zero interest in him as a towering figure who finally breaks.
And … yeah, I think they bother me so much for the same reason: superficial fidelity combined with radical changes of the underlying dynamic/tone/emotional beats in the service of an easier, more generic narrative. It’s easier to treat Denethor as a contemptible obstacle to the right-minded characters. It’s easier to make Darcy out to be a brooding, snappish romance hero.
Sure, they can go for the easier route if they want to, obviously. But it’s incredibly grating in adaptations that claim fidelity.
Tagged: #sure i'm a book purist but tbh pseudo-fidelity bothers me vaaaastly more than loose adaptations
(Predictably, ranting negativity re: Jackson’s LOTR and Davies’s P&P under the cut)
I’ve talked about the P&P 1995 one bugging me before, but it’s the scene at Netherfield where Darcy snaps out “and yours is wilfully to misunderstand them” and it’s all UST-ish. The dialogue is almost word for word taken from the book, and I’ve seen it praised as one of the best scenes on more than one occasion. But for me, it kind of epitomizes my issues with the whole adaptation and especially the treatment of Darcy, because of how the supposed fidelity is executed.
(This is considering it as an adaptation and not TV—it’s good TV, but it is also an adaptation that’s praised to the skies for fidelity and that’s where a lot of my annoyance comes from.)
The thing is, the whole snappish UST deal between Elizabeth and Darcy is not their dynamic in the book—not mutually. Austen’s Darcy smiles as he delivers his line, and is repeatedly described as smiling in that phase of the novel. At Pemberley, Elizabeth remembers this when she recognizes the same smile in his portrait (we immediately thereafter hear that it was painted when his idolized father was alive, IMO suggesting that he feels around her the way he did at that easier, happier part of his life).
So all indication is that he enjoys being around her and having their back and forths. He doesn’t understand that it’s not enjoyable banter to Elizabeth—at least not in the same way that it is for him, and the disparity in their reactions is a major part of the point of those scenes.
On the face of it, converting Darcy smiling to Darcy snapping might not seem a monumental difference, but I think it really does change the entire tenor of the scene, and replacing Darcy’s smiles with irritable or brooding moments is a thing that adaptation does really often and yet it’s supposed to be the One True P&P and esp the One True Darcy.
>_<
As for LOTR, the scene I’m thinking of is the (initial) confrontation between Gandalf and Denethor. In general, the movies very persistently downplay Denethor and his family’s qualities. Like, Tolkien repeatedly associates Denethor with Aragorn and that is just—not there in the films, at all, because Aragorn is made so super special and Denethor so awful. Meanwhile, book!Gandalf’s warning to Pippin about Denethor shows a level of respect for the Stewards and particularly Denethor that is completely inverted in the film, where he describes them as “lesser men.” >:(
Anyway, film!Gandalf’s response to Denethor in that scene is very similar to the book in terms of the written dialogue, like the P&P scene. But in the film scene, Gandalf seems angry and tacks on steward in a tone of utter disdain. IIRC the line immediately following this in the book (“for I also am a steward”) is cut out to make that contempt work (this also reminds me of 1995 P&P cutting out “God bless you” from Darcy’s letter to make their treatment of it work, though it’s worse than that). But in the book, after that scene, Gandalf classes Denethor in with himself again.
To be sure, he does not seem to really approve of Denethor in that moment; he’s quietly rebuking him. But that is something very different from film!Gandalf’s contempt for Denethor and the Stewardship. Book!Gandalf has a clear respect for Denethor’s abilities and stature, and his arc is treated as the tragic fall of a genuinely great man. The film, on the other hand, pretty clearly had zero respect for Denethor and zero interest in him as a towering figure who finally breaks.
And … yeah, I think they bother me so much for the same reason: superficial fidelity combined with radical changes of the underlying dynamic/tone/emotional beats in the service of an easier, more generic narrative. It’s easier to treat Denethor as a contemptible obstacle to the right-minded characters. It’s easier to make Darcy out to be a brooding, snappish romance hero.
Sure, they can go for the easier route if they want to, obviously. But it’s incredibly grating in adaptations that claim fidelity.
Tagged: #sure i'm a book purist but tbh pseudo-fidelity bothers me vaaaastly more than loose adaptations