Where's the Truth?
I've finally come to the point where I think anyone who reads a book shouldn't
watch a film based on that book, and that anyone who sees the film shouldn't
follow it up by reading the book. So often, it only spoils the enjoyment one has
derived from the book or the film.
There are countless examples to choose from to illustrate this point, but I
choose the most recent one for me the CBC production entitled "Hemingway
vs. Callaghan", based on the Morley Callaghan book "That Summer in Paris",
the memoir of a magical few months that Callaghan and his wife Loretto spent
in the romantic capital in 1929. Callaghan was a respected new writer from
Canada and he and his wife were welcomed warmly by the new literary
giants of the day, Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce and
their wives. Callaghan's book was a warm accounting of this period and I
enjoyed it immensely. I looked forward to watching the "Hemingway vs.
Callaghan" production.
I've never made a film. I know there are a lot of factors involved, not the
least of which is the meshing of several different agendas of several
different personalities; the director, the producer, the casting company,
the screenwriters, the actors, and others. But it's always bothered me to see
so many glaring changes to the original story.
I offer just a few observations after seeing this CBC production:
1. The casting. For the purposes of the film, these differences aren't that
important perhaps, but, nevertheless, Hemingway was just over six-feet
tall, Callaghan was five-foot-eight. In the film they're about the same
height, both under six feet. Callaghan was born in 1903, making him
nearly four years younger than Hemingway. Hemingway died in 1961
at age 61. At this time, Callaghan would have been 58. Gordon Pinsent
looked at least ten years older (because he is).
2. Setting. In the film, Hemingway and Callaghan fight in an official-looking
boxing ring. There was no such ring in the American Club in Paris in 1929.
Apparently, there weren't even mats on the floor. (I have to say, that
boxing in the corner of an open floor could have been just as effective
and more realistic.)
In the film, on the trip back from Chartres, Hemingway, Callaghan and
Loretto stop to share a bottle of wine and Hemingway discovers these
two young boys who have a Luger. Hemingway and Callaghan have a
competition shooting wine bottles off of a fence. Callaghan remembers
the competition taking place in a shooting gallery at a small carnival and
the match went on so long that Loretto had to claim that Morley missed
his little doll that he was shooting at. It was the twelfth round of shooting
and Loretto wanted to go, and she knew it was important that
Ernest win.
3. Situation and dialogue. Joan Miro, the great Spanish surrealist painter,
did time a boxing match between Hemingway and Callaghan, but it
wasn't the one where Hemingway spit blood all over his opponent.
When Scott Fitzgerald was acting as timer for the match that went
awry, after Hemingway was knocked down by Callaghan, Scott did
say that he had let the round go four minutes (instead of three).
However, in the film, Hemingway says "Christ! That's what you
wanted! That's what you wanted!", and left the ring. In the book,
Hemingway's words were "All right, Scott, if you want to see me
get the shit knocked out of me, just say so. Only don't say you made
a mistake."
I won't belabour the point. These are just a few glaring differences
that come to mind. It may seem irrational for me to let this type of
phenomena actually upset me, but upset me it does because I do find
it difficult to understand the underlying reasons. Not withstanding that
a film can show in one panning of the camera details that may take a
page to describe in a book, there is so much more enjoyable detail in
a book that can be slowly savoured, especially if it's written well. So,
I guess I'm trying to say that I'm really on the side of the reader,
because I am a reader, and, in future, I really must limit myself to
films based on original screenplays.
Terry A. Stillman
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