MovieChat Forums > Water for Elephants (2011) Discussion > Where was Uncle Al??

Where was Uncle Al??

posted 12 years ago by lacdipi
5 replies | jump to latest

As I was watching the movie, having read the book, I kept think something was wrong. They took out a main character!! For all the non-reader, Uncle Al was the owner of the circus, not August. He was cruel and ordered the red-lighting. August was only the head animal trainer. I guess if they were going to make a 'hollywood' movie, they need Marlena to be married to the boss, to make it scandelous.

Another big let down was Jacob and Marlena started their affair while they were still at the circus. She got pregnant and the baby had red hair, like Jacob, so we knew that August wasn't the father. In the movie, they implied they got together after August died.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] Cuddly_Alpaca 12 years ago

Yeah, I watched the film first and wondered why the circus was called "Something Brothers" and there was only one bloke, then read the book and it made sense. I can totally understand why they did it, but seeing as they left the circus name the same, there really should have been more than one brother in the film.

I liked that the film Jacob and Marlena weren't having an affair, I struggled to like book Jacob and Marlena for doing that knowing that realistically, if they got caught, Jabob's friends would suffer the consequences of their inability to not shag each other.

[–] shonoffilm 10 years ago

If you had read the book thoroughly, you would have known that the Benzini Brothers Circus wasn't founded by Uncle Al or August. Uncle Al took over the company after it had failed. It was a stated fact that Uncle Al was a circus scavenger. After a circus would fail he would be quick to pick up the left overs to add it to his own company. Uncle Al only kept the Benzini Brother name because it had already built a reputation for itself.

[–] tani_banani 9 years ago

I heard that to condense the plot for the movie, they worked some of Uncle Al's traits into August's character :-)

[–] Black_Lies_Matter 8 years ago

They start the affair while still at the circus in the book, as well. Marlena is pregnant when the stampede happens.