G-R Goldwater: Comparing/Contrasting Exercise

COMPARING THE TWO FILM VERSIONS

The first adaptation starts off with the convict strangling pip and throwing him on the ground, and stays mostly true to the script. The second adaptation skips that part entirely, and shows Pip at home, then after that it goes to the point where Pip meets the convict for the first time. The scene where the other convict attacks Pip in the first adaptation is downplayed a lot, Pip walks up to him and the convict takes a swing, then runs away. In the second adaptation, that scene is left out entirely. In the first adaptation, the scene where the guests come over is omitted (or just not shown in the parts we watched), whereas the second adaptation shows this scene in detail, emphasizing Pumblechook’s gluttony, and staying mostly true to the book’s script. Neither adaptation mutilates the story overly, and the first keeps the script and storyline almost exactly the same, whereas the second mixed up the scenes from the book’s order. The second one is more dramatic, and makes it feel like a real story more than the other.

HOW THEY WILL/WILL NOT INFLUENCE MY READING

The film versions will not influence my reading of the text, because they [mostly the second one] were not much different than my own imaginings of the story. The first one, I would disregard completely because it was an amateur film that didn’t incorporate any drama, just a re-enacting of the book’s plotline. The second one, although dramatic and making the story seem real, was not that much different than I would have imagined the book as a movie [in my head, that is], and so it will not change the way I see the book’s story as I read it.