Okay - I agree, the musical was awesome. (I own two of the three recordings). And "Dangerous Game" works better in the later recording, I agree. However, the older recording has a more feasible, in-depth story that I can really get into.
Now, to step back for a moment- this movie's not going to closely follow the book. I've noticed /very few/ people in this thread have read the book. Neither the musical, nor this movie will. The book was -very- simple. In fact, it was more of what you modern folks would call a novela. Quite short. To the point. The people of the time didn't know Jekyll & Hyde (obviously)- so, the punchline was unexpected. The punchline of the book was that Jekyll IS Hyde. It was about how Jekyll's friends found out about Hyde. The musical's relation to the book is very little. Neither Jekyll nor Hyde had a girlfriend or significant other. There were only a handful of characters in the book. In fact, I'll name them: Jekyll & Hyde, Lanyon, Poole, Enfield, Utterson, and BRIEFLY Sir Danvers Carew. I believe that's all. The book was scarcely 70 pages long, and the last chapter (one third of it) was re-hashing the story that was already told. Therefore, I don't enjoy hearing about how things are faithful to the book- when the book was very droll, short, uninteresting to the modern reader who already knows the story, and, ultimately, archaic.
In the book, Sir Danvers Carew is murdered. That's the only crime Hyde ever commits. In fact, no adaptation is going to be true to the book due to the book's simplicity. F.F.F. said something about the musical being related to the book. I say, "Yes. But only barely."
This is okay, though. I mean, this new movie "Jekyll + Hyde" (They got themselves a plus sign! YAY!!!) probably won't be any more faithful. Don't really care about that when the book gives you so little to work with. The musical did a horrible butchering of the book, cut out lots and added in very inventive material. But it was entertaining, well-written and very well thought out. I am going to hope that this is going to do the same thing and maybe surprise us.
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Diaboliqa666
18 years ago
"In the book, Sir Danvers Carew is murdered. That's the only crime Hyde ever commits."
Not true - he also tramples (sp?) that little girl as well, I can't remember if she died or not but I do remember he had to pay shush money to the parents. I don't like this movie because it strayed so far from the book. And I disagree about the simplicity of this book, it is actually rather involved and is more psychological than horror - it is look at the inner workings of what makes us human and how easy it is to become monstrous, unless by "work with" you mean a body count.
"In a world gone mad, we will not spank the monkey, but the monkey will spank us." - Jay
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nightowl4
17 years ago
I would agree with you that the movie is very little like the book. The film never really made it clear why Jekyll would choose some mystery drug to change his personality to some sadistic uncaring one. The pace of the film was too slow for me. The music was ok and the filming was ok compared to some of the low budget films that use cheap handheld digital cameras. I found the movie boring.
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