The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo versus The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo versus The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (plus the Artist, to make things interesting)

Greg’s response to my first blog posting was something along the lines of “interesting read—but I didn’t like all that stuff you said about the flaws of movies.” Granted, I knew as I was writing those comments that I was intentionally trying to get under his skin to cause a bit of controversy between us and keep things interesting. Since Christmas day, Greg and I have seen two movies in the theatres—The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Artist, which also turned out to be a perfect combination of movies that will help to prove my point, which I have flushed out a bit more—movies are not replacements for books. I suppose the origins of my mocking of the limitations of film are this statement: “Oh the book was good? Cool, I’ll wait for the movie to come out!” (Sidenote: Mr. Dickson would like me to clarify that this is has not been quoted from him, and he freely admits that books are almost always better than their film counterparts.)

Stylistically, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is not the type of book I normally read. Why? I don’t typically read crime/courtroom dramas or mysteries. I think these stories are better told through the film medium. And it is not because I inherently dislike these types of stories; I just don’t think the writing is very good in this genre. But, everyone was reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, so I didn’t want to be left out. I was surprised at how mainstream the book is considering the multiple explicit scenes depicting sexual assault. I get it though—the story is about the abuse of women and it is not like he can pretend that there are not truly awful things that men do to women. You really have to have those scenes to tell this story.

Now months after finishing the book, Greg and I see the more than two and a half hour film version by director David Fincher. Aside from a couple of minor changes to the storyline (which have been obviously made to streamline the pacing of the film and not to change Larrson’s purpose) the film stuck to the book. Except, I felt like I was watching the story with the fast forward button jammed in. Especially towards the beginning, I felt my brain screaming “WAIT! Slow down!” The mood, theme and story were accurately captured and the acting performances were spot on (great casting overall)—and yet, it felt like it was rushed. The fault of the director? No, he did a great job condensing that story into a reasonable run time. The fault is placed, in my opinion, on the limitation of film itself. The richness of the story told in Larrson’s own words could never be matched by the film. In this case, I left feeling like anyone who hadn’t read the book prior to seeing the movie really took the easy way out. Books made into movies: is it the lazy way? The visual cliffnotes version of the book?

I’ve informed Greg that I won’t see Hunger Games with him unless he reads the book. He’s going to have to earn that one. You hear that, Greg?

A few days later, Greg and I see The Artist. This is a delightful, black and white silent film telling the story of a silent film star and his downfall as talkies are introduced into his industry. The lack of dialogue and folly-staged sound effects enhanced this story and did not detract. As I watched, I kept thinking, this is what good movies should be about. Emotions told through facial expressions and body language. Beautiful sets with symbolic elements. Gorgeous black and white photography. Complete commitment to the era and themes explored.

During some movies, I find myself staring at the ceiling of the theatre to examine how it was constructed and put together, which is a sad state of affairs for a film that the theatre’s ceiling is more engaging than your awful script, direction, acting and set design. During The Artist, I kept leaning forward in my seat as if it would put me even closer to the wonderful story that was being told to me. Just a few silent movie cards here and there help to clarify plot. Words are not necessary here to tell an impactful and moving story because the director is actually using the benefits of film to his advantage. Perhaps authors should stick to words, and directors should stick to visuals.