War and Peace – a BBC masterpiece

As far as Sunday dramas go, the latest adaptation of War and Peace surely must be up there. It had costumes, fantastic acting, battle scenes and sex scenes. Something for everyone.

I won’t go into the plot. There’s some jolly, peacetime stuff with the nobility of Moscow and St Petersburg. Then Napoleon enters and the young men we’ve got to know enter into war. War and peace.

What made this adaptation so good were three things: the acting, the grandeur and the plotting.

1984 at the Playhouse Theatre

1984 is a classic novel like few others. Published in 1949, it eerily predicts and foreshadows so much of today’s society. CCTV cameras, its namesake reality show and, arguably, certain aspects of the government all tie in closely with what Winston experiences in the book.

When I heard it was being turned into a play I was sceptical but intrigued. How could they possibly do it justice? If they managed it, they did have some excellent and dramatic scenes to work with, most notably that of room 101 as well as love scenes between Winston and Julia and the Two Minutes Hate.

Silver Linings Playbook’s Aggravating Change from Book to Film

After reading Silver Linings Playbook over the course of three lazy days this week, I thought I may as well make the most of the film adaptation on Sky Store. However, I’ve been left wishing I hadn’t, and you can read below what annoyed me about it.

• Pat’s Dad should barely talk to him for ages, but Robert DeNiro is chatting to him and getting involved as soon as he returns home and then throughout the movie. This alters the effect of the fragmented family and theme of communication.
• Pat is supposed to have repressed the incident that put him in the hospital in the first place, but in the film he talks about it in his very first therapy session with Cliff and can even remember an episode from the week before the incident that never happens in the book. This inevitably changes the progression of his recovery and return to normal life.
• In the book, Pat begins working out in his basement gym as soon as he gets home from the hospital, and this becomes the most important thing to him other than Nikki; in the film he still runs and reads, but there is no mention of the hours each day he should spend in his gym.
• There is an added event of Pat going back and talking to a teacher at the school where he worked as well as a mental health interviewer visiting his house- why? The mental health theme was strong and poignant enough without this.
• Pat and Tiffany are much too animated and talkative at the first dinner at Ronnie and Veronica’s house; it changes the whole beginning of their relationship. Tiffany is also much too talkative when Pat is running. I understand that more talking is necessary because otherwise Pat may have to narrate his thoughts, but it changes the tone of their relationship completely.
• I am unsure if the introduction of the police officer assigned to Pat’s case who keeps turning up was necessary- he doesn’t particularly add anything and just breaks up the some pivotal arguments.
• Even the time of year is altered- why? The realignment of Christmas is irrelevant in the film.
• So much of the plot is changed that it barely feels the same, including Danny’s whole narrative.
• Jake is only just getting engaged, which reduces the brotherly bond that needs to be overcome and renewed when Pat finds out about Jake’s wife and meets her for the first time.
• After all the mentions of Kenny G in the book, Pat’s trigger song in the film is not Kenny G but Stevie Wonder’s ‘My Cherie Amour’! Could it just be because more people will recognise it? It just seems like they tried too hard to make the film more commercial with a better known song and also like their own version of the story.
• Who is this Randy guy who’s around all the time?
• This is where I give up pointing out everything that’s different, it’s getting too aggravating.
• Why is Nikki at the dance?!? I wash my hands of this. It gets even worse but I will avoid spoilers by leaving it there.