MovieChat Forums > Charly (1968) Discussion > Maybe because I thought it was an adapta...

Maybe because I thought it was an adaptation but


I did not like this movie at all. The only good part in this movie for me was Cliff Robertson, he did a really good job with his mannerisms. He really did seem like a different person before and after the operation. I watched the movie because of Flowers for Algernon but it only shares names and the basic premise with the book. The movie doesn't really show any understanding of the book. The movie is almost 2 hours long, and yet everything seems so rushed. Ideas are thrown at you but we don't really experience them. In the book changes are gradual at first and the process speeds up. In the movie everything just happens, he gets an operation and becomes a genius. Then just as quickly he loses it, like literally in the middle of a sentence.

The movie also really missed out on showing the intellectual and emotional implications shown in the novel. In the novel Charly has an intellectual awakening. He becomes so smart that he passes everyone up. This leads him to see that people all have a limit to what they know. Because of this he feels people are like frauds, pretending to be something they are not. It angers him scientists only know about certain things. On the emotional side his intelligence quickly and vastly surpasses his emotional understanding. He can not relate to people or understand them. As he becomes a genius, he is not even at the level of an adolescent, emotionally speaking. The idea of love is not one that he can truly understand until almost the very end.

In the movie, ugh they just throw a love story at us without reason. I mean what in the movie can explain why his teacher would fall in love with him. She just does. It shows Charly become sexually awakened, then he is forceful on her, leaves and seems to develop relationships with many women, and comes back and they are in love. It really makes no sense, even ignoring the novel.

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I read the book several years ago and just watched the film yesterday...I was also disappointed. I agree that Cliff Robertson was great but the film felt like Coles Notes version of the novel. I found the book devastating and heartbreaking, and the film just skips along with no real depth. Plus the 60s psychedelia moments were a strange choice. There's another version from 2000 that I want to seek out but I sense it's not much better.

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Yeah the 60s moments are so random and seem like a substitute for a cheap substitute for Charly's voyage of self discovery. I don't understand how anyone can fail to make a great movie based on Flowers for Algernon.

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Agree completely. Just finished the book and was really hoping the movie could bring the ideas to life. Instead I found the film to be rushed, skipping over almost every interesting theme, and lacking any serious development. Maybe someday they'll remake it and get it right

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There are rumours of a remake with Will Smith attached but haven't heard anything in a while.

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I have found a thread here where I agree with 100% of the posts, Amazing!

I read the Novel when I was in high school back in the 1960's. It was not required reading, I just liked to read. I was hoping it would be a great movie but I saw it at the now closed Corral Drive in Theater at Farmington,MO when it was first released.

I know that it is not possible to have a movie script go exactly like the book it's based on. They can get fairly close but that's it. I was not expecting a perfect movie but i was disappointed with this one,

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Hi Thundercloud. I too agree completely with everyone's comments. I'm watching it on TMC right now and I was sort of hoping my views would be different than they were ~20 years ago, but alas, it's still a little disappointing.



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I read the novel back in the late 70's, when I was in junior high or high school, so I have only a vague recollection of specific details. Having said that, I'm not surprised, if you find the film isn't as good as the novel. That happens frequently; I've spent a lot of time arguing lately with fans of Peter Jackson's "Hobbit", for example, which I found to be deeply disappointing, compared to my expectations as a lifelong fan of Tolkien.

Having said that, I found the movie OK, Robertson is great in his portrayal, but the movie definitely has a Sixities look, and seems dated and stilted. I'm not a fan of remakes, but I agree that this one could be remade today and improved in the tellin.

I saw it yesterday on TCM, and I want to re-read the book.



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Well, Cliff Robertson was incredibly good looking. That might be why she fell in love with him.

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I, too, read the book when I was young and then saw the movie. I remember shedding tears for both Charly and Algernon after reading the book (same thing happened again when I re-read it as an adult. dammitalltohell, men aren't supposed to cry) while the movie was disappointing in the lack of development, I think this is mostly due to the time restrictions in the film element. our "instant gratification" society wouldn't put up with sitting through a movie long enough to give this story the treatment that it really needs. a book can be as long as it needs to be to tell the story the way the author wants to tell it. I think that perhaps to give the story the time that it needs, it should be done as a mini-series.

needless to say, however, Cliff Robertson's acting was phenomenal and richly deserved the Oscar that he won for it.

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Since I first saw the movie in 1969, I have been haunted by one line of dialogue: "True love means letting go." I first read the book in 2001, hoping to find that sentiment in the text or in the dialogue, but alas, it was not to be found. I found both the movie and the book satisfying, yet melancholy. Both Robertson and Bloom were in fine form...and both broke my heart as I watched the ending of the movie.

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