novel vs. movie

i find it hilarious that Pearl, who was one of the most complex characters in the book, and one of the most important symbols in the book, doesnt have one line of dialogue in this movie.

For the interest of those reading the postings about "The Scarlet Letter", most of it was filmed in Nova Scotia, Canada, in the little town of Shelburne, on the Atlantic Ocean about one hour drive north-east of Yarmouth, NS, the closest point to New England (you can sail there from Portland or Bar Harbor, Maine on ferries between April and November).

Those of you who DID read this in high school are right - many characters and sub-plots were written out entirely, or roles were reduced almost to nothing. The Indian lady is a prime example. They did all kinds of night shooting to show her being drownded (she had witnessed Hester and the pastor man going at it), but in the release I saw, suddenly her water-logged body was just lying there. What happened to her ? How did she die ? How did she get out of the water and back onto the land if she was already dead ? None of these somewhat relevant questions was ever answered in the version I saw.

When it was filmed in the summer and fall of 1994, it was the biggest budget movie in Nova Scotia's history - perhaps in all of Canada. The producers did the shoot in Canada because of generous tax credits and the fact that - at that time - every US dollar in their budget was equal to about $1.50 Canadian, so they saved a bundle on hiring extras, carpenters to build the set, and all the secondary tech and supporting people that go into a major movie production. It certainly gave lots of work to local actors and techies, and the spinoffs in the last 10 years have been great (a lot of movies of the week continue to be shot here as a result of this big shoot).

Demi Moore had her own seaside property (estate) about 1/2 hour drive from Shelburne where she had an entire retinue to care for her and the children (a cook, nanny, driver, fitness coach, etc.etc.). The word around the set and among the locals was that she was stand-offiah and did not mix with the common people. It was interesting that when then-hubby Bruce Willis showed up to say hi, he went shopping at the K-Mart in Yarmouth which left all the female clerks with their mouths open for days ! K-Mart was good enough for Bruce, but not for Demi.

My real point in posting here is to say that this movie is a prime example of what can go wrong when the star and the director - who were good buddies - decide to write the script as they go along. Demi and Roland Joffe must have decided to turn it into a theme movie - "I'm Demi Moore, and you're not".

The script was rewritten daily, and new actors and tech people were constantly being replaced, with new ones flown in from all over the world for work often lasting only a few days (the cheap Canadian dollar gave them 50% more money to waste, so they did).

The fact is - a number of versions of this movie were filmed, and much of the footage is either in a vault somewhere, or it was destroyed or thrown in the garbage. Somewhere there is at last one version of the "director's cut" that could be up to 4 hours long - or more. If anyone can ever find it, you might see something closer to Hawthorne's original story - although I doubt that. Once Demi decided she was the only important person in this movie, that was the end of any attempt to remain faithful to the original story. I seriously doubt Demi ever read Hawthorne's book - or any book, for that matter.

I was part of the process of OKing the people entering Canada to work on this movie, so I saw and heard much of the stories about what was really going on.
Many friends of mine were extras in this movie, and spent weeks shooting all kinds of scenes (the drowning of the Indian maiden, a big banquet, a grisly Indian massacre, lots of crowd scenes, and sub-plots, etc.) that all ended up on the proverbial cutting room floor. When we all went to the premiere (at that famous K-Mart Mall in Yarmouth, NS) we were shocked - all the scenes with extras were either totally absent, or the characters were just a blur in the background as Demi aka Hester rushed up and down and back and forth - for no particular reason at all.

In the end, it was the wonderful scenery in Nova Scotia that often took centre stage in this film. BTW, the opening scenes in the primeval forest with the giant Douglas fir trees were shot on Vancouver Island, British Com;umbia, on Canada's Pacific coast.

I found this movie to be very tedious to watch the first time around, because the screenplay was so poor (somebody reading the phone book would have been more interesting). It was a 1666 version of a 1930's Mickey Rooney - Judy Garland "let's put on a show in the barn, and take it to Broadway" movie. To me, they wasted over US$50 million on a lot of shots of Demi being a very bad actor. I felt really sorry for all the fine supporting players - and all those extras who never saw themselves on the screen at all. The only scenes that "worked" were those with Joan Plowright in them - they were little gems. There were just not enough of them.

One final point - one night I stumbled upon this movie on one of the French-language TV networks here in Canada, and - guess what - it was a longer and more interesting version, with scenes I did not see in the original English-language version (including the Indian lady being drownded). So, like I was saying, it seems there are a number of versions of "The Scarlet Letter" out there - maybe you can find a better one at your local video store.

wow. that's really cool.

we just finished The Scarlet Letter in my AP English class. i loved it. not as much as The Great Gatsby, which we read first. my teacher and i talked a bit about this movie and she said the idea of this movie made her physically ill. i mean, Gary Oldman was the best and only good part of this movie. uber sexy but not Hawthorne's Dimmesdale.

*Bonejangler*
A Robin Redbreast in cage puts all of heaven in a rage.