02 February 2007
a rage post
bridge to terabithia, the movie. . .
picking your favorite book is kinda like picking your favorite film. i mean there are so many different genres to choose from, it is an exercise in comparing apples and oranges. but the bridge to terabithia is definitely near the top of my list. this book probably influenced my life more than just anything else i have ever read. the amazing thing is that i know i am not alone. this book had a tremendous impact on many people my age. in a lot of ways it is sort of the catcher in the rye or tropic of cancer of my generation. everyone has read it, and it has had a tremendous impact on so many of us.
so when i first heard that they were *finally* making a movie based on this text, i was really excited. coming right on the heels of another great book to movie adaptation (the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe) i had high expectations. that is, until i saw this trailer:
what in the hell is this?!? here is a list of things that happen in this trailer that actually happened in the book:
1. jesse and leslie raced.
2. they swung across a creek on a rope.
that's it. i don't know how they managed to make an entire film about a book in which nothing that happens in the book happens in the film. of course, this is a trailer, and i know the filmmakers could be focusing on one particular element of the movie here. but, this is of no importance to me. here is the real issue, and the real source of my rage today. . .
why in the FUCK does every single movie directed at families and children have to involve war, implements of killing and generally fantastically depressingly unrealistic discussions of life and death. jesse aarons is a literary character who really inspired me to be a creative person. he is a character who helped me tremendously to survive the real life trials and tribulations of growing up in the country with a blue collar family who don't really understand you. he is a character that informed my earliest understandings of love and loss.
THERE IS NO NEED FOR JESSE AARONS, THIS GREAT LITERARY CHARACTER TO WEAR WICKED IRON GLOVES AND BATTLE THE DARK FORCES OF THE FOREST!!!
jesus christ! this is a tremendously real story, quite possibly the best story ever written about the real lives of rural midwestern adolescents. this is NOT a chronicle of narnia. and it is most certainly NOT a book about warfare. it is a book about dealing with your problems in a real way. and now they have made a movie in which children deal with their problems by donning battle attire and going off to fight with swords and arrows and general vitriol.
i am disgusted by this trailer.
this represents everything that is wrong with our u.s.-american society today. and i don't think a movie has as yet been made that so wickedly displays the effect of bush-era world and domestic policy on the national psyche as this one. a poignant, informed, stark tale is transformed into an epic of bloodshed. jesse aarons' complicated world in which he strives diligently to make the best decisions is, on screen, a land in which there is a simplistic, omnipotently ordained right and wrong, good and evil. this is what it is like to live in the u.s.a. in the new millenium.
fucking depressing.
i don't know whether to be angry with katherine paterson, the books author or with disney. but i certainly will not be watching this movie. and i urge everyone else to avoid it as well. if you haven't read the book (doubtful, i know) then read that instead of seeing the movie. don't give into our society's insatiable thirst for war.
there is no simple right and wrong. there is no good or evil. the world is more complicated than this. the book, the bridge to terabithia taught me that. and it enrages me that some capricious filmmaker chose to ignore this central message.
it would have been such an important thing for a movie to say, especially in 2007. ¶ 2/02/2007 12:10:00 PM
picking your favorite book is kinda like picking your favorite film. i mean there are so many different genres to choose from, it is an exercise in comparing apples and oranges. but the bridge to terabithia is definitely near the top of my list. this book probably influenced my life more than just anything else i have ever read. the amazing thing is that i know i am not alone. this book had a tremendous impact on many people my age. in a lot of ways it is sort of the catcher in the rye or tropic of cancer of my generation. everyone has read it, and it has had a tremendous impact on so many of us.
so when i first heard that they were *finally* making a movie based on this text, i was really excited. coming right on the heels of another great book to movie adaptation (the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe) i had high expectations. that is, until i saw this trailer:
what in the hell is this?!? here is a list of things that happen in this trailer that actually happened in the book:
1. jesse and leslie raced.
2. they swung across a creek on a rope.
that's it. i don't know how they managed to make an entire film about a book in which nothing that happens in the book happens in the film. of course, this is a trailer, and i know the filmmakers could be focusing on one particular element of the movie here. but, this is of no importance to me. here is the real issue, and the real source of my rage today. . .
why in the FUCK does every single movie directed at families and children have to involve war, implements of killing and generally fantastically depressingly unrealistic discussions of life and death. jesse aarons is a literary character who really inspired me to be a creative person. he is a character who helped me tremendously to survive the real life trials and tribulations of growing up in the country with a blue collar family who don't really understand you. he is a character that informed my earliest understandings of love and loss.
THERE IS NO NEED FOR JESSE AARONS, THIS GREAT LITERARY CHARACTER TO WEAR WICKED IRON GLOVES AND BATTLE THE DARK FORCES OF THE FOREST!!!
jesus christ! this is a tremendously real story, quite possibly the best story ever written about the real lives of rural midwestern adolescents. this is NOT a chronicle of narnia. and it is most certainly NOT a book about warfare. it is a book about dealing with your problems in a real way. and now they have made a movie in which children deal with their problems by donning battle attire and going off to fight with swords and arrows and general vitriol.
i am disgusted by this trailer.
this represents everything that is wrong with our u.s.-american society today. and i don't think a movie has as yet been made that so wickedly displays the effect of bush-era world and domestic policy on the national psyche as this one. a poignant, informed, stark tale is transformed into an epic of bloodshed. jesse aarons' complicated world in which he strives diligently to make the best decisions is, on screen, a land in which there is a simplistic, omnipotently ordained right and wrong, good and evil. this is what it is like to live in the u.s.a. in the new millenium.
fucking depressing.
i don't know whether to be angry with katherine paterson, the books author or with disney. but i certainly will not be watching this movie. and i urge everyone else to avoid it as well. if you haven't read the book (doubtful, i know) then read that instead of seeing the movie. don't give into our society's insatiable thirst for war.
there is no simple right and wrong. there is no good or evil. the world is more complicated than this. the book, the bridge to terabithia taught me that. and it enrages me that some capricious filmmaker chose to ignore this central message.
it would have been such an important thing for a movie to say, especially in 2007. ¶ 2/02/2007 12:10:00 PM
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yes as far as I know that will be the worst adaptation ever and it made me really pissed off...espicially since this is comming from Walden Media, who also did L, W&W...so I'm doubly shocked after seeing how true to the book that movie was.
I'm not saying they have to include everything from the book in the movie...but if it were somewhat similar that would help.
that book took place in my hometown area of Maryland [not the midwest] and every kid and there brother thought it was "so neat" that it was supposed to take place in our town and so we had to read it umpteen times in school, 5th grade, 6th grade, 8th grade...and mind you this was at the same school with the same kids...nevertheless I still like that book and I'm pretty pissed off...unless that is THE most misleading trailer ever they have butchered this beyond belief!!!
I'm not saying they have to include everything from the book in the movie...but if it were somewhat similar that would help.
that book took place in my hometown area of Maryland [not the midwest] and every kid and there brother thought it was "so neat" that it was supposed to take place in our town and so we had to read it umpteen times in school, 5th grade, 6th grade, 8th grade...and mind you this was at the same school with the same kids...nevertheless I still like that book and I'm pretty pissed off...unless that is THE most misleading trailer ever they have butchered this beyond belief!!!
# posted by 
: 03 February, 2007 22:43
: 03 February, 2007 22:43
oh you know what i was just looking through my copy and you are right it does take place in maryland. (for some reason, in the back of my head i was thinking it took place in indiana, but it doesn't really matter anyway. it is a rural farming community).
i know that the production company is claiming that the movie stays very true to the actual story PLUS all of the cgi stuff, but i just think that even if the story is exactly the same the cgi fighting takes away from the real story and sends the wrong message.
when the characters make believe and pretend fight in the book it is merely a diversion from the problems of their real lives. the book never makes it look like that kind of make believe actually solved the characters' problems. this trailer just looks to me like the director doesn't care at all about the story. he doesnt care about the real parts of it.
as a disclaimer, i admit that it would have been VERY difficult for them to make a movie out of this book that would have pleased me. HOWEVER, they did make a movie out of lion the witch and the wardrobe last year that i thought was really amazing. so it can be done.
february movies usually suck in general, so i don't really think people should expect too much.
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i know that the production company is claiming that the movie stays very true to the actual story PLUS all of the cgi stuff, but i just think that even if the story is exactly the same the cgi fighting takes away from the real story and sends the wrong message.
when the characters make believe and pretend fight in the book it is merely a diversion from the problems of their real lives. the book never makes it look like that kind of make believe actually solved the characters' problems. this trailer just looks to me like the director doesn't care at all about the story. he doesnt care about the real parts of it.
as a disclaimer, i admit that it would have been VERY difficult for them to make a movie out of this book that would have pleased me. HOWEVER, they did make a movie out of lion the witch and the wardrobe last year that i thought was really amazing. so it can be done.
february movies usually suck in general, so i don't really think people should expect too much.
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