-------Original Message------- From: Graham Powell <
bleekerbooks@hotmail.com> Sent: 08/26/03 05:46 AM To:
rara-avis@icomm.ca Subject: RARA-AVIS: Books different
than movies
>
> [...] And I'm surprised no one has mentioned KISS ME
DEADLY, which takes Mike-Hammer-as-crusading-knight and turns
him into
Mike-Hammer-violent-thug, but is also a terrific movie.
Comments?
________________________________________________________________
I haven't read the book. I love the movie. As I've made clear
elsewhere, I'm perfectly comfortable with the notion of a
movie adaptation which makes changes for the sake of its
effectiveness *qua* movie -- WHEN THE CHANGES WORK.
I will say, though, that the "Kiss Me Deadly" movie begins
with credits which (unexpectly) scroll up from the *bottom*
of the screen, thus reversing the standard viewer's
expectations. With this in mind, couldn't you say that
Aldrich & Bezzerides & Co designed the film as
topsy-turvy experience? Metaphorical black has become
metaphorical white, what once was a "crusading knight" is now
-- as embodied by Ralph Meeker -- a thug and a bully.
(A side-note on Ralph Meeker and violence: Meeker was, along
with Anthony Quinn, one of the first post-Brando actors to
take on the role of Stanley Kowalski. He also played the male
lead in the first production of Inge's "Picnic." Perhaps that
small-town girl, played by Janice Rule, was taking on a
*little* more than she might've expected?)
You could also, for that matter, link "Kiss Me Deadly" to
another Bezzerides-written film, my beloved "On Dangerous
Ground," since both are studies in male psychosis ...
Chris
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