Give my regards to Hollywood

You might regard it odd to read a bibliophile's appreciation for literary works turned into motion pictures---Hollywood---but sometimes odd ain't so bad. A couple of nights past I watched Doubt, the Pulitzer-Prize winning play turned into a major motion picture by its author John Patrick Shanley. Mr Shanley also directed the movie which stars Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman and was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Adapted Screenplay.

I had never heard of Doubt before the Oscar buzz and was still replaying scenes in my head long after I finished watching the film, attesting to the efficacy of its title (and players!) And whilst watching I could not help but wonder how engaging must be the drama and dialogue in more restrictive theatre settings as it was certainly engrossing on screen. Click here for movie trailer.

The 'good' isn't just the successful adaptation from one medium to another but the bigger reception garnered by one medium over the other

But I have not seen the play and that returns us to my point.

The movie introduced me to this work. Hollywood can do some good especially when it is working with good material---supplemented by fine acting and editing---which tends to be the case when plays are the wellspring from whence is produced a screenplay. The 'good' isn't just the successful adaptation from one medium to another but, rather, the bigger reception garnered by one medium over the other. Movies cast a larger net, hauling in bigger and newer audiences. Consequently the (probably) obscure playwright, writer, thespian, publishing house gains more attention, job offers, money and, if nothing else, graduates, for the time being, from starving artist existence.

One mustn't be snobbish towards transforming plays and books into movies. Not everyone lives in namby-pamby NYC or can afford the sophisticated ticket prices. Broadway isn't the center of fine art; and even if it were who is to say the center is such a hot place to be? Answer: real estate worms and theatre owners.

Adapting plays into movies introduces literary works to disparate demographics who either would never or could not see a theatre production, including musicals and opera. Ditto for the lot who, strange to my thinking, never read books---and, stranger still, are proud of it.

I think plays lend themselves better to the camera because they already involve acting and directions but, overall, adapting any writings into major motion pictures has the effect of encouraging movie goers to reinvest in the originals. Sometimes---probably more often than not---the book remains superior and more substantial than its mindless movie version but sentiments lost in translation seems to be the rule, not the exception. Still, the movie does not fail to present one to the magical word of its progenitor, literature.

As for the exceptions they are mightily exceptional. Among my favorites are Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Talented Mr Ripley, A Few Good Men, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Interview with the Vampire, whose author Anne Rice famously took out a full page apology to Tom Cruise; Sin City, The Collector, The Shining, Valley of the Dolls, Jurassic Park, Silence of the Lambs and its sequel (the prequel was a rushed job in reverse...the movie outshone the weak book!), and the James Bond franchise.

Plays lend themselves better...but, overall, adapting any writings into major motion pictures has the effect of encouraging movie goers to reinvest in the originals

Plays are harder for me to attend due to the scarcity of playhouses but books are another matter. Thankfully they are readily available through libraries, book exchanges, book shops and anonymously 'gifted' from travellers passing through stations, airports, hostels. A few of the ones on my To Do list include Mr Shanley's Doubt, Robert Ludlum's Jason Borne trilogy, Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs and Rum Diaries by Dr Hunter S Thompson. Hope to get through these this summer. And, being a long time fan of C.S. Lewis, I plan to eventually complete J.R.R. Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings. Eventually.

Make no doubt about it.