The Scarlet Letter
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Movie Reviews of The Scarlet Letter
Movie Review: The Scarlet Letter
Summary: 2 Stars
Gave as christmas Present. IT SKIPS IN AREAS OF THE MOVIE. WILL NOT BUY FROM AGAINMovie Review: What were they thinking?!
Summary: 1 Stars
We are watching this movie in English class, and I believe our teacher remarked, "Hawthorne is turning in his grave." Too true. Unfortunately, Puritan society has been remade into a place that is only scandalized when it suits them to be. The rest of the time we simply have lots of random nudity, violence, and sex.
Demi Moore, playing Hester Prynne, is a rebel from the beginning. She angrily stands up to her elders and betters, and does many things that "are just not done!" She follows an unrealistically colored red bird into the forest, where she sees Dimmesdale skinny-dipping. She is enamored by this, and suddenly she looks like a wild woods-queen (her hair is down, she wears a garland of flowers in her hair, etc.) She returns only to find out it is the Sabbath, removes the wreath, and sets off to Church.
Apparently, Puritans have no problem with their minister being late to his own sermon, for Dimmesdale has time to stop in the woods and help this unescorted maiden with her cart (deeply stuck in mud). Then he boyishly suggests they change horses, he'll ride hers and she'll ride his (oh, how romantic!) and they show up at Church. There, and later over some Bible books, they bond.
When Chillingworth is apparently killed in an Indian attack, Dimmesdale decides to come to Hester's house in the middle of the night to break the tragic news (even though he finds out early in the day.) She is instantly horrified, and grabs Dimmesdale and pulls a curtain, where she talks in hushed whispers as her chest throbs. Then she pulls him and they end up in the shed, where they make love in the slowest sex scene imaginable. In the meantime, Mituba, some random servant Hester has, decides that what her mistress is doing is sexually stimulating, and we have flashes of her undressing in front of the unrealistically colored red bird. Hmmm....
Chillingworth, in the meantime, is not dead, but made to run the gauntlet as all the Indians beat him with sticks. Then we have images of him dancing around with a slaughtered wild animal (or animal skin) on his head. Hmmm, again...apparently, for Chillingworth to feel revengeful he needs to be insane and have no dignity at all...otherwise how COULD he feel such a basic human emotion as jealousy...
Some scenes of Dimmesdale mortifying his flesh...blood running down poles...Hester giving birth...etc...
Apparently, this continues into a stirring political speech for women's freedom in the end, and Dimmesdale and Hester are together to lead the rest of their highly implausible, improbable love lives together, in their staunch and pathetic happiness. By the end, I doubt many of us care about them at all--but never fear, for it's the unrealistically colored red bird that matters, you know...for it embodies Satan, or so it seems! After all, it's Scarlet,too...they kept to the book, well, kind of...*drips some more sarcasm*
Altogether appalling.
Movie Review: A Disgrace
Summary: 1 Stars
In its defense, this film version of "The Scarlet Letter" states upfront that it is "freely adapted" from the Hawthorne novel. I felt warned. I did not, however, feel prepared for the eventual massacre of some of Hawthorne's richest themes in this tale.
The opening scene makes it clear the story will veer far from its source material when we are introduced to Native Americans and the building animosity between them and the local colonists. We then meet attractive and self-assured Hester Prynne (Demi Moore) as she arrives from England, part of the latest batch of villagers to come under the thumb of Puritanical leaders. As Hester looks for a seaside house for her and her husband, who has sent her on ahead, she is waylaid by a licentious young man. He's not the first to cast an eye upon the fair maiden, and soon the town's minister, played by Gary Oldman, becomes equally enchanted by this headstrong woman. Their obvious attraction for each other is held in check by propriety, morality, and the ever-watching eyes of the religious authorities. Later, though, evidence indicates that Hester's husband has been murdered by Indians, and she is free at last from those domestic restraints to pursue her shared attraction with the lonely minister.
We are over 2/3 of the way through the story before it shows any signs of following the book. Yes, the first hour and fifteen minutes could have happened, as part of the story's setup; and yes, Moore and Oldham are competent actors for this script. Sadly, however, the ham-handed attempts to build racial and religious tension fail to catch the subtleties in Hawthorne's writing. In fact, there are probably less than five lines of dialogue taken from the actual book. Robert Duvall overacts his part. The lighting is romanticized. The violence is upgraded. The sensuality is on full display. A strange element of voodoo is thrown in for greater drama. As the movie steams toward its climax, the director seems hellbent on throwing aside all of that which made Hawthorne's message work. In fact, the lead characters ride off into the sunset (saved in the final moments by a scene stolen from "Robin Hood"), whereas the book shows Hester being freed by her daily confession of sin while the minister's very health is threatened by the concealment of his own own.
I'm a big Hawthorne fan, and "The Scarlet Letter" is my favorite of his novels. I'm also a fan of some of Demi Moore's movies, and Gary Oldman has some fine moments (such as in the recent "Book of Eli"). What could have been a fantastic pairing with a strong script falls prey to Hollywood's insistence on more action, more sex, more violence, and less depth. This shows little resemblance to its source, and even less respect. It is a disgrace of a film.
Movie Review: Who knew Puritans could be so...cool
Summary: 1 Stars
Fans of Joffe's "The Scarlet Letter" plead with people to disregard the book and take the movie on its own merits. This is absurd reasoning, as a remake of any sort invites comparisons by its very nature. It is particularly pointless in this case, because even if there had been no novel to compare it with, "The Scarlet Letter" would still have been an embarassing flop.
Although obstensibly set in a 17th century Puritan community, the movie makes no attempt whatsoever to establish time and place through characterization or action. Demi Moore's character is a free thinking, independant woman who befriends her pagan neighbors (who act like stereotypical hippies) and politely ignores the scorn of the town elders. In other words, she's a cool 90's chick. Gary Oldman is a strong yet sensitive type with a goatee, respectful to women and the local native tribes. He's a cool 90's dude. Granted there have been independant thinkers in every age, but this degree of anachronism makes about as much sense as a caveman invenitng a computer out of rocks and hides.
Since Demi and Gary are both free-thinkers in a repressive (i.e. uncool) society, you just know they're going to get together as soon as Demi's husband dies. When she ends up pregnant though, and her husband turns out to be alive, she just accepts the situation and moves on with self-assured smugness. Of course, her uncool neighbors can't accept this situation, but no matter how much they condemn her, it only makes Demi's resolve stronger. For his part, Gary longs to reveal himself as the father (sensitive guy that he is) but Demi insists that he remain quiet so she can nobly go endure the community's ire alone. Of course, you just know they'll end up together in the end.
Perhaps the worst thing about "The Scarlet Letter" is the numerous missed opportunities to inject emotionally mature drama. Demi's character is a born and raised Puritan, shouldn't she feel some guilt and shame over her situation? Why is Gary, a man from a patriarchal society, submissively letting Demi tell him what to do? Does the Puritan community have any sense of structure and purpose besides condeming people? Unfortunately, none of these angles are explored. Instead we are supposed to focus solely on the juvenile, "this couple is too cool for their environment" plotline.
Yes there is a steamy sex-scene, but so what? Perhaps if they had steered the movie more in this direction, they could have made it a stimulating (but still silly) bit of erotica. Unfortunately "The Scarlet Letter" was intended to be drama, and with its sophmoric story and absurd characters, that is a pretense it simply can't live up to.
Movie Review: "I don't think anyone's read the book"
Summary: 1 Stars
When responding to the harsh critics who panned this movie, Demi Moore's comments were "I don't think anyone's read the book". Ouch. Underestimating the intelligence of movie audiences and overestimating Demi Moore's odd, narcisstic comment, this movie fails to entertain, with literary and historical accuracy, and turns into a shrill preformance by Demi.
Based on the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter is the tale of Hester Pryne, a young woman who has come to the new world to join her Puritain bretheran in their establishment in the New World. Here, Hester settles in, sent ahead by her husband to set up a home. Hester meets the Dimsdale, the town minister. Fighting the obvious attraction they feel for one another, they bond over their love of books and the written word. They will inevitably have an affair, Hester becomes pregnant, and is forced to live in shame and humiliation with a red letter A pinned to her chest. She refuses to reveil her child's father's identity, and the good reverand lives in secret shame over their affair.
I gave this movie a shot thinking that as the book (yes, I read the book, Ms. Moore!) begins with Hester being in prison having just had her child. I was looking forward to seeing how the relationship began, but it was trite. Their love for one another is obvious, I'm surprised no one suspected things. The story falls apart from there, as we get into an odd subplot with the tensions between the native Algonquin Indians (which was not in the book). Hester's husband comes to America, as promised, and is captured by the natives. Thinking him dead allows Hester to indulge in the affair with the minister which she didn't seem to have much concern for in the book. There is no concern on the part of the good reverand for relations between his community and that of the natives, and, certainly none on the part of Hester's husband in condeming his unfaithful wife and her child. I won't go from there about how the rest of the story deviates from the book and goes into a poor movie, because that's what it was, poor.
If they had devised this plot as an independent movie rather than saying it was based on the book, maybe it would have done a bit better. But because they attached Hawthorne's name to it, it was a huge disappointment.